SEAL BEACH : Reopening Jail Could Boost City Revenue

Reopening the city’s long-dormant jail could generate as much as $150,000 a year in new revenue for Seal Beach, city officials said this week.

The City Council is set to vote next month on a plan to let a private contractor run the jail as a regional booking facility that would be used by Seal Beach and neighboring cities.

The 32-bed facility is in the basement of the Seal Beach police station, on Seal Beach Boulevard.

Under the plan, the jail would hold arrestees from the time they are booked through their pretrial hearings. Currently, suspects arrested in Seal Beach are sent to the county’s main jail in Santa Ana.

The Seal Beach Jail would only accept people arrested for “low-level crimes” such as burglary and drunk driving. People suspected of more serious crimes would continue to be booked at the Santa Ana jail, said City Manager Jerry L. Bankston.

Reopening the Seal Beach Jail would ease overcrowding at the county’s main jail, which was the subject of a recent Orange County Grand Jury report, Bankston said. The grand jury urged that new jails be opened to ease the overcrowding problem.

If the council approves the plan, the private contractor would spend about $300,000 to renovate the jail. It could be opened later this year and might be operating at a profit within two years, Bankston said.

Several candidates in this month’s City Council election have praised the jail plan as a smart way to increase city revenue without raising taxes.