Editorial : Work-Furlough Pilot Program Only a First Step : Ultimately, comprehensive guidelines must be produced to ensure safety for the public and inmates alike.

After years of virtually ignoring the problem, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors is finally moving to bring private work-furlough programs under the intense public scrutiny other California counties have long imposed. But the recently approved pilot program is only one step in a process that ultimately must produce comprehensive guidelines that ensure safety for the public and inmates alike.

Certainly, the 90-day pilot program is an improvement over the almost total lack of law enforcement scrutiny the county has provided in the past. Without that oversight, judges have been understandably nervous about sentencing inmates to the facilities, despite the desperate need to lessen crowding in county jails. Offenders serving time in the private facilities have been arrested for other crimes, including possession of firearms and drugs. One failed to check into the facility he was assigned to and later shot a sheriff’s deputy.

And public safety isn’t the only thing in jeopardy. So is the welfare of the inmates. Mid-City Work Furlough has operated for nearly four years in violation of fire and building codes, partly because the city can’t decide on what regulations to impose.

Given that track record, any increase in oversight is welcome. Fortunately, the city is in the process of assigning a full-time inspector from the Planning Department to monitor Mid-City and the Pacific Work Furlough Facility, the only two private programs in the city. And under the county’s pilot program, a full-time probation officer will be assigned to monitor Pacific Furlough. Fees paid by the inmates themselves will cover the associated costs.

The county effort will be reviewed by a committee of judges and law enforcement officials. If it succeeds--and we hope it does--it could become the model for a contract that all such facilities must operate under in the future. Currently, San Diego is virtually the only county in the state that doesn’t require strict oversight contracts with those who choose to make a profit off the criminal justice system.

There are some problems with this initial effort. Assigning a single officer to monitor the 70 inmates at the Logan Heights facility isn’t enough. Probation officials had recommended that at least three officers be placed in the facility. And somewhere along the line, San Diego County, like other California counties, will have to consider providing some funding to the private programs so they can begin accepting indigent offenders. Work furlough, a humane option to serving jail time, shouldn’t be reserved for the rich.

Those concerns should be addressed by the oversight committee. We look forward to its report--and to a new era of cooperation between the city and county on this important public-safety issue.