Orange in a Bind Over Jail’s Likely Expansion : Crime: ‘Three strikes’ laws and overcrowded county facilities may force Theo Lacy’s growth.

The way the politicians here see it, this city has become a virtual prisoner of the times.

Caught in a political season of “three strikes and you’re out,” locked in a county whose jails are now bursting at the seams, Orange officials see little hope of freeing the city from the burden of housing hundreds of new and more dangerous prisoners at the county’s Theo Lacy Branch Jail on The City Drive in Orange.

The unprecedented introduction of 48 maximum security inmates last week to the jail--a dramatic escalation from its 1959 beginnings as a minimum security facility--may be just the first trickle, the city fears.

In the coming months, the county is expected to release an environmental impact report that may clear the way for the near doubling of the current inmate population limit of 1,326, as proposed. City officials in Orange suspect that the report may allow the county to build 600 new cells at Theo Lacy, accommodating up to 1,200 more inmates.

Signals about Theo Lacy’s future role as a home for dangerous criminals have been plentiful for years now, but they became reality last week when Orange city officials were informed that the Sheriff’s Department--for the first time--was transferring the maximum security inmates to Theo Lacy because of continuing overcrowding problems in the main jail in Santa Ana.

“I went through the roof when I heard about it,” said Orange resident Bill Leming, part of a citizens committee that has opposed previous expansions at Theo Lacy. “That place is a cancer growing on the community. We’ve got to cut it out.”

Orange officials worry that yet another expansion would kill off much-needed investment in The City Shopping Center, across the street from the jail, and possibly endanger its other neighbors--including residential areas, the Orangewood Children’s Home and UCI Medical Center.

“People are rather reluctant to shop and work in an area where there is a jail,” said Orange Councilwoman Joanne Coontz. “The city is losing retail possibilities out there. All we are getting is the shaft.”

The city has fought unsuccessfully to stop the Theo Lacy expansion in the courts, but even as local leaders regroup to plot future strategy, a sense of grim resignation seems to have set in.

Orange officials blame the county for their predicament, criticizing it for failing to provide a long-term solution to its prison overcrowding--an acute problem since 1987. They are particularly bitter about a 1990 promise that they say Sheriff Brad Gates broke, which was supposed to cap Theo Lacy’s population and bar maximum security prisoners there.

At a recent Orange council meeting, council members fired barb after barb at Gates.

“What we are upset about is that the sheriff has no regard for the citizens of Orange,” Mayor Gene Beyer said last week. “But this is par for the course for the sheriff. He does what he wants to do.”

Gates could not be reached for comment, but Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Dan Martini said that the sheriff never broke any promises to Orange.

County officials say they understand Orange’s fuming response to plans for enlarging the nine-acre facility, but contend they have few, if any options. Because of crushing demand for county jail space, if more prisoners were not placed in Theo Lacy, they would have to be released early, they say.

The county has been constrained by a cap at its main jail in Santa Ana as a result of a 1978 federal lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union in response to overcrowding. The situation has become so severe that Gates in 1991 was ordered to spend 30 days in jail for contempt of court because of his early release of prisoners.

The sentence was later overturned, but the county has still not made any major inroads in its decade-long struggle to find a site for a new jail. And in the meantime, the Sheriff’s Department continues to issue early releases to more prisoners each week.

Because of overcrowded conditions in 1993, the county was forced to release 10,141 prisoners before their sentences were finished, Martini said. More than a third of those were freed with one-fifth of their sentence left to serve, he said.

The 1993 batch of early releases included 183 males convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, 181 burglars and 74 men jailed for lewd acts with children, Martini said.

The Sheriff’s Department found that 840 of the 1993 early-release prisoners committed crimes during a time in which they originally were sentenced to be in jail, Martini said.

“The sheriff’s back is against the wall on the overcrowding issue,” Martini said. “The fear is someone is going to be released early and commit a heinous crime. That would be hard to live with.”

County Supervisor William G. Steiner, a former Orange City Council member, also concedes the county has few alternatives in coping with its bulging prisoner population.

“There are just tremendous pressures on the Orange County jail system,” Steiner said. “People are sending a clear message with ‘three strikes, you’re out,’ which is they want more jails, but not in their neighborhood.”

While he argues that other cities should share in housing prisoners, Steiner offers little encouragement to Orange residents hoping to see Theo Lacy’s expansion curtailed.

“I’m being pulled in a lot of different directions,” he said. “I’m only one of five board members.”

Orange would seem to possess neither the funds nor the fortitude to block the proposed expansion in the courts. The city is still stinging from a costly two-year legal tangle with the county to prevent a previous hike in jail population. The court battle ended in defeat for the city in 1993 and cost an estimated $300,000 in legal expenses in a time of service cutbacks and staff layoffs.

“Maybe there’s nothing we can do about it, but it doesn’t mean we are happy,” Coontz said. “We need to play hardball to the best of our ability.”

Orange’s best chance for a satisfactory resolution may rest with City Manager David F. Dixon, who has only been on the job for two months. The council recently appointed Dixon the city’s chief representative in brokering a favorable deal for the city.

While remaining tight-lipped about his upcoming negotiations, Dixon did say he plans to meet with county officials and tour Theo Lacy this week.

Quietly, Orange officials are hoping that Dixon can use Theo Lacy as leverage to unchain the city from its current obligation to pay for the relocation of the county’s animal control facility, which is adjacent to the Theo Lacy property.

Under current agreements, Orange is supposed to shoulder the moving costs, estimated at several million dollars. The city wants to extend Metropolitan Way and it has agreed to relocate the county’s animal control facility, located nearby, in order to do so.

“The animal shelter is a nice, interesting issue to have out there on the table,” said Dixon, who would not elaborate further.

The outcome of negotiations may also ride on the strength of the assumption that a jail facility jeopardizes the neighboring community. While few contest the thought that living near a prison is undesirable, there is debate over whether jails actually pose a threat.

The area around Theo Lacy has the second highest crime rate in Orange, according to police. But police say it’s not the jail fueling crime, but rather the high volume of people passing through the local shopping centers, medical facilities and office complexes.

“The real problem is public perception,” said Orange Police Chief John Robertson, who believes the county should solve its prison overcrowding problem elsewhere. “People believe because there is a jail there, it creates crime. And that’s just not accurate.”

And county officials point out that Theo Lacy has been re-equipped to imprison more dangerous criminals. In recent months, the facility has been fortified with double fencing, additional razor wire and a state-of-the art security fencing system on its perimeter.

“That jail is secure,” Martini said. He added that there has only been one escape since 1993, and that came before the new security measures were installed.

Even so, Pat Goldsmith, who lives less than a mile from the prison, doesn’t believe the place is safe. Three years ago, a Theo Lacy escapee jumped the fence to her back yard. Goldsmith immediately dialed 911, and the escapee was quickly apprehended by police.

But the incident has left her adamantly opposed to bringing additional--and more dangerous--criminals to the facility, and she is planning to launch a petition drive to show Gates the strength of the community’s opposition to the expansion.

“There is no way in heaven you can tell me that prison is totally secure,” Goldsmith said. “We are sitting here in a residential area, so close. I think the sheriff is nuts.”