Santa Ana Unveils New High-Tech Jail : Justice system: Facility will hold up to 72 inmates who would otherwise be freed because of crowding. Structure will be ready Dec. 14.

There’s a new jail awaiting anyone who gets arrested in Santa Ana--a $2.5-million slammer equipped with high-tech security and modular living quarters.

But there’s an old-fashioned purpose behind the state-of-the-art design, and that is to keep suspects behind bars until they get their day in court.

“People in Santa Ana have seen problems with the ‘revolving door’--75% of the people cited (for crimes) and released don’t even show up to court,” said City Councilman Ted R. Moreno at the jail’s grand opening on Friday.

Currently, many suspects are released after their arrest because there is insufficient room at the Orange County Jail. The city decided to build its own jail, he said, because “we have to take control of our own destiny.”

City officials showed off the jail Friday, but police said they will not bring the first inmates into the facility until Dec. 14, when construction details are completed. The new jail, named the Santa Ana Detention Facility, is at West Santa Ana Boulevard and Ross Street.

Police said the 21,787-square-foot jail will combat crime by holding adults who would otherwise go back to the street and commit more crimes. There isn’t enough room in the Orange County Jail to hold them, police said.

Instead of clanging bars, city jail inmates will hear the soft clicks of door locks. And rather than having old-fashioned mug shots taken, the inmates--incarcerated on suspicion of felonies or misdemeanors--will quickly pose for photos that officers stick on snap-on plastic wristbands for their identification. Everyone arrested will go through the City Jail, except for those who need medical attention or those held on out-of-state warrants.

A computer system will tie in to the state’s fingerprint network, allowing officers to identify male or female inmates wanted on warrants in other cases.

As many as 72 inmates may be held at the jail for 48 hours, or longer on weekends, police said. After a video system is set up, most inmates will be arraigned at the jail without ever going to court.

The jail is made up of six modules, each consisting of eight double-bunk cells and a common area where inmates can use collect-call telephones and play checkers, dominoes and backgammon. Closed-circuit video cameras will monitor inmates in each module, police said.

Their food? It’ll be catered by the nearby Boardwalk Cafe to state specifications.

“This jail is the only one of its kind in the state,” Santa Ana police Lt. Robert Helton said, citing its modular construction and state-of-the-art features.

Plans are also in the works for another city jail in Santa Ana, costing about $90 million and more than four times the size of the smaller jail, Police Chief Paul M. Walters said. That facility, which would house police administration offices as well as up to 420 offenders arrested in Santa Ana, would be built on Shelton Street, also near the Santa Ana Municipal Stadium, he said.

With both jails, the city would save nearly $1.5 million a year in booking fees, money paid to the county for housing offenders, he said. City officials have proposed a utility-tax hike of about 1% to pay for the larger jail.