Countywide : Courtroom Will Be Built in Main Jail

The Board of Supervisors, hoping to ease the County Jail crunch and save some money at the same time, agreed Tuesday to spend $160,000 to build a courtroom inside the Central Men’s Jail for arraigning prisoners.

Officials aren’t sure how much money the first-time program may save, but they predict that it will mean quicker arraignments, less shuttling of inmates between the jail and outlying courts, and better security.

“This innovation will pay very big dividends,” declared Board of Supervisors Chairman Roger R. Stanton.

The arraignment plan was aired Tuesday as county officials opened two days of public hearings on their $3.5-billion budget for fiscal 1992-93. The hearings, scheduled months ago, were supposed to include final state funding figures, but the budget stalemate in Sacramento eliminated that prospect.

The board’s public hearings will resume today at 9:30 a.m., and supervisors are expected to hear a proposal to close down county offices--except courts and public protection--for one day every two weeks to save money.

Supervisors approved the jailhouse-arraignment plan unanimously. It had originally met resistance from some local judges, who questioned whether courtroom operations could be duplicated inside a jail, officials said. But the bench was won over in recent months.

“This is something that should have been done a long time ago, and we’re happy to see it’s finally here,” said Undersheriff Raul Ramos.

By the end of the year, officials plan to turn a storage area in the Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana into a courtroom and bring Municipal Judge Anthony J. Rackauckas Jr. and his staff from Fullerton to conduct afternoon arraignments.

The jail courtroom may also be used later to conduct video arraignments--with the prisoners being taped from the jail’s courtroom, while the judges remain in their usual courthouses, which may be miles away. Such an arrangement should further help protect the public, Ramos said.

“Every time you take a violent inmate into the courthouse, where the public is, you’re running certain risks,” he said. Officials also expect that by arraigning inmates more quickly and releasing those who do not need to be detained, they can free needed jail beds.

In going ahead with their budget hearings, county officials conceded that they may have to hold additional hearings in coming months once the state budget is complete and final state appropriation figures are available from Sacramento.

By straw vote, the supervisors reaffirmed key budget decisions they had made on June 30, giving top priority to public protection and making some deep cuts in health and social services--particularly in the area of mental health.

But the supervisors’ actions did not go unnoticed. Several health care advocates urged the supervisors to make health care a higher priority and to avoid deeper reductions once the state budget is complete. Orange County may have to make up a shortfall of as much as $100 million in state funding.

“Please, no more cuts,” urged Nancy Gothier of the Manic-Depressive Assn. “We need every dollar we can get.”

One speaker, Wendy Kelley of the Southcoast Alliance for the Mentally Ill, even asked the supervisors to “set an example” by taking a pay cut. The supervisors, who incurred political heat last year when they gave themselves pay raises and then revoked them, did not respond to her suggestion.