County Presses on 2 Fronts to Ease Jail Overcrowding : Proposals: Supervisors OK work-furlough center, ask to use Tustin Marine base after 1997.

Pressing forward on two fronts to relieve jail overcrowding, county supervisors approved plans Tuesday to open a work-furlough center for convicts in Costa Mesa while asking permission of the federal government to use the Tustin Marine base as a county jail.

The proposal to use the Tustin Marine Corps Air Station, approved Tuesday by a unanimous vote, is merely a decision to approach federal officials about the possibility of using the site as a jail once it closes in 1997. No formal plans have been drafted.

More concrete is the board’s unanimous vote to have the county negotiate with a company to open a 50-bed facility for low-risk offenders in Costa Mesa. City officials still have the final say as to whether to give the center the proper permit to operate.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Harriett M. Wieder stressed that the center is needed as an alternative to a worsening jail overcrowding situation in Orange County, and that two more centers, each with 50 beds, will be needed in the South County sometime next year.

“The goal is to work within our limited county resources to alleviate county jail overcrowding,” she said. “It is one of the most important issues we face this year, have faced in previous years and which I hope we don’t have to face in years to come.”

County supervisors agreed to begin negotiating a contract with the Orange County Youth and Family Services Inc. to turn two Costa Mesa apartment buildings into a corrections center, mostly for offenders such as drunk drivers, fathers who have failed to pay child support and motorists who won’t pay traffic tickets.

Two facilities already exist in Orange County, one in Anaheim and one in Buena Park. Those who stay at the centers must maintain jobs and submit to regular drug and alcohol tests. But anyone who fails a test or violates a rule can be sent to jail.

Costa Mesa Mayor Sandra L. Genis said that before a contract is signed, she wants county probation staff to develop a corrections “master plan” that would show how work-furlough centers and halfway houses would affect schools and youth recreation facilities, and whether it would contribute to crime in the area.

Genis said she was particularly concerned that one-fourth of those in the centers were drug offenders.

Costa Mesa residents complained that the west side of the city is becoming a dumping ground for mental health centers, soup kitchens, halfway houses, drug rehabilitation centers and other social-service agencies. A work-furlough facility, they said, would reduce property values and make it hard to sell or rent homes.

One woman who owns two apartment buildings near the center called it a “jail satellite” and wondered who will live near the work-furlough center.

“I wonder how many would like to have their grandchildren live adjacent to or opposite from this facility,” said Suzanne McBride. “We have to look at the impact on the total community.”

Julie Sage, who since 1964 has lived in the area where the center is planned, said she collected 116 signatures in a few hours Sunday opposing the facility.

“After turning in petitions, we had people coming to our homes wanting to sign,” she said.