ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Illegal Outside, Very Illegal Inside

When it comes to the war on drugs, nothing is simple.

In Orange County this past spring, at least eight and perhaps 20 defendants caught with drugs in jail, a felony, had the charges dismissed or were allowed to plead guilty to lesser charges because of what is now described as an “erroneous reading” of state law.

The first part of the law says having drugs in a county jail is a felony punishable by up to four years in jail. For whatever reason, the next paragraph says punishments must be clearly posted outside the jails.

An Orange County deputy district attorney realized the punishments had not been posted. With his superiors’ approval, he reduced or dismissed charges against several defendants for two months.

The prosecutor admitted not investigating how the law had been applied elsewhere. He should have. A colleague pressed charges in another case despite the lack of signs and won a conviction. It turns out that an appeals court last year said the sign requirement was not needed to prove the crime. Orange County prosecutors are now following that ruling and are not reducing charges.

Although prosecutors followed the law as they saw it, common sense dictates that if drug possession is illegal, drug possession behind bars is very illegal. As one prosecutor aptly noted, jails do not have signs saying inmates should not murder one another.