SANTA ANA : Work Begins on Temporary Jail

Construction on the new temporary jail has begun, and city and police officials say it will immediately make the streets safer once it opens next year.

Last week, workers began arranging the modular concrete cells that will become the heart of the new, 48-unit, two-story facility, which is designed to house misdemeanor and nonviolent felony suspects who would otherwise have to be released because of jail overcrowding. The new facility is expected to open in April, 1993.

“What it’s going to affect is small drug dealers on the corner, prostitution, those types of things that you see on a daily basis, things that people feel they don’t have any control over,” Francisco Gutierrez, executive assistant to the city manager who is overseeing the jail project, said Monday.

“Any misdemeanor violation that would originally have a revolving door at the county (jail), the Police Department will be able to get a handle on,” Gutierrez said. “They’ll incarcerate instead of cite.”

Instead of being back on the street within an hour of being arrested, drug dealers and prostitutes “will have to deal with the criminal justice system. We’re ecstatic,” he said.

Now, many offenders take it for granted that they will be released almost immediately because there is no place to house them, said Police Lt. Robert Helton. Suspects sign a citation promising to appear in court but frequently fail to appear, causing officers to initiate a costly and time-consuming process of getting warrants and bringing suspects to court.

Being able to hold suspects under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or those in potentially violent disputes with others, will provide a “cooling-down period,” Helton said.

“Time may take away some of the hostility,” he said. “The community at large will also have it known to them that the person is going to be watched over,” at least until the judicial system evaluates the case, he said.

With room for 72 prisoners, the jail could even save the city money despite its estimated $1.2-million annual operating cost, City Manager David N. Ream has said. The reason is that the city would otherwise have to pay the county $2 million a year in booking fees to process offenders.

When the city constructed its police facilities in 1960, it included only three holding cells because officials assumed that their prisoners could be taken to the County Jail, just a few feet from police headquarters.

However, the county’s jail system has become overcrowded, and since 1985, misdemeanor offenders have received citations and been released without spending time in jail.