Theo Lacy Jail Expansion Plan Raises Safety Issues : Facility: Proposal to add beds and house maximum-security inmates causes concern for several nearby property owners.

The proposed Theo Lacy Branch Jail expansion has sparked serious safety concerns among several nearby property owners, including the county’s Social Services Agency.

Larry Leaman, director of the Social Services Agency, told county planners that the Orangewood Children’s Home--located next to the jail--would need two sheriff’s deputies 24 hours a day and additional surveillance cameras to offset the effects of the jail expansion and increased activity in the area.

Leaman said Wednesday that he wants to alert county planners to possible trouble spots, but he added that his agency is not opposed to the project.

“We’re just acting in our role as advocate for our kids and our department,” he said.

County planners, who are reviewing the environmental impacts of the jail expansion, also received letters this week from others concerned about the plans: UCI Medical Center in Orange, the city of Orange and a developer interested in buying a shopping center across the street from Theo Lacy.

In addition to safety issues, some of the letters address concerns such as traffic, construction and parking.

County officials have proposed the Theo Lacy expansion as a short-term solution to chronic overcrowding at local jails. The problem has been compounded in recent months by violent jail disturbances and an increased demand for jail beds caused by the state’s new “three strikes and you’re out” law.

Under the expansion proposal, the county is prepared to increase the number of jail beds from 1,326 to as many as 4,480. The plan also calls for the placement of maximum-security inmates at Theo Lacy.

In May, Orange officials sued the county over the housing of such inmates at Theo Lacy, which was originally intended for minimum- to medium-security prisoners.

Orange officials, however, are not alone in their concerns over the future of Theo Lacy.

“With an increase in prisoners at the expanded location . . . we are extremely concerned that the public will feel or perceive a lack in security in the area,” Jerry Engen, development director for the Mills Corp., wrote in an Aug. 25 letter to the county Environmental Management Agency. His company is planning to revitalize The City Shopping Center, which is down the street on The City Drive from the jail.

“We are also worried that maximum-security measures, if used, would provide a visual expression of a penitentiary and cause customers to avoid the center,” Engen added. “Frankly, your possible location of an expanded jail facility across the street from an area which we are considering for a major investment causes us a great deal of concern.”

Richard Demerjian, director of UC Irvine’s office of campus and environmental planning, said the university is worried about any negative fallout the expansion might have on its medical center.

He said the community’s heightened awareness of the expansion and the housing of maximum-security inmates “will invariably have a detrimental impact on the medical center’s efforts to improve its image as an outstanding medical research center and regional, comprehensive patient-care facility that operates within a safe 24-hour environment.”

Sheriff Brad Gates, who vigorously supports the expansion, also wrote to the county, urging planners to bypass the environmental review process and begin work immediately. He also encouraged county officials to consider expanding other jails, such as the James A. Musick Branch Jail in Irvine.

But the idea of expanding the Irvine facility did not go over well among community leaders there.

“All of a sudden Irvine is everyone’s whipping boy,” Councilman Barry J. Hammond complained. “They must think that we have it too good or something.”

He said Irvine already takes on its share of “regional burdens” by accommodating military bases, two major freeways, an airport, two dump sites and the Musick facility.

“I think they should look to other communities to share the impacts and take on their fair share of the burdens,” Hammond said. “I would be opposed to expanding at Musick.”

Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas F. Riley, whose district includes Musick, said he also would resist expanding the Irvine facility.

“I feel sorry for the sheriff, but I made a promise to the community” that Musick would not be expanded, Riley said.