Report Calls on Cities to Solve O.C. Jail Crisis

Orange County’s cities must begin a major expansion of local jails, a new report warned Wednesday, or face the worsening consequences of minimal jail terms and early release of prisoners over the next decade.

“The jail overcrowding problem is undermining respect for the criminal justice system in Orange County,” notes a study to be released today. “The entire law enforcement (and) justice system is weakened when criminals realize they face minimal sentences due to overcrowded conditions.”

The report, authored by an Orange County “super-committee” of the League of California Cities, says present jail conditions have reached “crisis” proportions requiring immediate attention. But it credits the county for actions that have added 2,166 beds to the system since 1985.

In 13 years, the report indicates, prisoners will outnumber available jail beds by 5,295. The report calls for expansion of alternative sentencing programs, privatized jails, new taxing districts and establishment of detoxification centers throughout the county.

“If somebody had asked me 10 years ago if cities would be (releasing prisoners), I would have said ‘no way,’ ” Anaheim Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy said. “I think you would be shocked to see the kinds of people that are cited and released.”

As of Tuesday night, the county was housing 4,605 prisoners in its five jails, 1,325 over their capacity. By the 1995-96 fiscal year, the super-committee predicts, jails will be 1,820 prisoners over capacity.

Among its other findings, the eight-month study recommends that:

* Cities expand alternative sentencing programs to relieve pressure from the the county’s five jail facilities.

* Detoxification centers be established throughout the county to handle prisoners charged with public drunkenness and possibly with non-felony drunk driving.

* Construction and operation of new city and county jails be paid for through creation of new taxing districts.

* Partnerships with the private sector be supported for construction of city and county jails.

Jail overcrowding has dogged the county and its cities, which now total 31, for the last decade, forcing governments to adopt increasingly liberal cite-and-release programs that routinely allow suspects in misdemeanor drunk-driving, prostitution, weapons possession and drug violations to go free while awaiting trial and after sentencing.

Cities have also complained that the cost of booking fees charged to house city prisoners in the county jail system--about $150 per day--have also encouraged cash-strapped cities to use release programs.

Perhaps no city is more emblematic of current jail troubles outlined in the study than Santa Ana. Only blocks away from the county’s Central Jail, the city is constructing a makeshift jail out of concrete modular units at a cost of $3.5 million.

Not only is there too little room at the county, but housing prisoners there has become too expensive, said Santa Ana City Manager David N. Ream, adding that the convenient days of simply shuttling prisoners to County Jail across the street are over.

Ream, a member of the super-committee, said the 48-cell modular facility, scheduled to open this spring, is only a precursor to a planned 240-bed permanent facility for the city.

“We’ve done all we can in Santa Ana,” Ream said. “I really think it’s up to the county now. . . . It doesn’t look like the county will have a new facility any time soon. I think the commitment is there, but it never seems to be enough.”

In Anaheim, Molloy called his city’s newly expanded 145-bed jail a “godsend” that in times of county overcrowding is actually expected to be a revenue generator for the city. It was planned and financed before jail overcrowding reached crisis proportions.

An Anaheim contract to lease jail space to the U.S. marshal is expected to reap $80,000 to $100,000 this year for the city, Molloy said, adding that a lease agreement has also been struck to accept prisoners of state parole authorities.

“I don’t know what we’d do if we didn’t have this,” he said.

But a lack of foresight elsewhere is being compounded by the current cost of building and operating jails, described by committee members as “hanging like a pall” over efforts to provide more capacity.

The most recent effort to raise funds for jail development failed in 1991, when voters rejected a proposal to increase the sales tax by a half-cent. In the report, super-committee members also blame the deep recession for reducing property tax and sales tax revenues once available for government use.

As a result, the group has recommended that the county explore creation of special criminal justice taxing districts that would direct all fees to the development and subsequent construction of new county jail facilities. If a formal protest were lodged against such a tax, it would require ballot approval by a two-thirds margin.

Also proposed was the issuance of general obligation bonds for construction and support of jail partnerships with private companies.

Tuesday, in her first address to the county as chairman of the Board of Supervisors, Harriett M. Wieder specifically urged that the county seek private partners for construction of more jail space for women.

“Indeed, we have long adhered to a policy of privatizing or contracting out county services wherever feasible,” Wieder said. “One vital area is the need for increased jail space.”

Sheriff Brad Gates could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but in an interview following Wieder’s speech Tuesday, Gates said he would support any proposal for privately financed construction as long as it left daily operations to government.

“When they take your liberty away, it should be the government’s responsibility to see that it is enforced,” the sheriff said. “But I have no problems with privately financed jails. That’s the way it should be.”

Crowded Jails

All five Orange County Jail facilities are overcrowded, and projections indicate this condition will worsen during the next two years and into the early part of the next century.

Current* Designed population population * Central Men’s Detention 1,392 1,296 * James A. Musick 1,153 713 * Theo Lacy 967 622 * County Intake and Release 818 384 * Central Women’s Detention 275 265

*

Current/Projected Bed Shortfalls, Countywide 1993*: 1,325 1995-96: 1,820 2006: 5,295 * As of Jan. 26, 1993

Sources: Orange County Sheriff’s Department, California Board of Corrections, League of California Cities-Orange County Division