Split Board OKs Jail Expansion

A controversial plan to convert a minimum security facility into one of California’s largest maximum-security jails won preliminary approval Tuesday from a divided Board of Supervisors, despite opposition from scores of nearby residents and the two supervisors representing the area.

The 3-2 vote followed an emotional, three-hour public hearing at which Sheriff Brad Gates and two Superior Court judges stressed the urgent need for more jail beds, while residents expressed fear that an expansion of the James A. Musick Branch Jail near Irvine will depress property values and increase crime.

Gates, who has struggled for about two decades against local opposition and tight finances to get more jail space, said after the vote that he felt “sadness and joy.”

“Sadness in a sense that we have to locate a jail anywhere at all, but there’s no way to avoid it,” Gates said. “And joy because after 20 years of struggle, we’ve absolutely found a long-range jail solution.”

But Susan Miller, president of the Serrano Park neighborhood association in Lake Forest, said, “I will tell you South County is tired of being a dumping ground for everything,” referring to plans to build a commercial airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Miller said she and other residents plan to meet next week to decide whether to fight the jail project “by litigation or by a ballot measure.”

Lake Forest Mayor Richard T. Dixon, who stormed out of the meeting saying he didn’t want to face his constituents “with that kind of disappointment,” also said he and other city officials hope to fight the decision in court.

Tuesday’s board action authorizes planning to begin for the expansion of Musick from a 1,200-bed minimum-security jail into a 7,500-bed jail capable of housing maximum-security inmates, who will serve their time in “concrete boxes,” Gates said. In a separate vote, the supervisors also certified an environmental impact report on the project.

The report concluded that the expansion does not pose extensive safety risks to nearby residents and that the site, next to the El Toro base, is the best available location for the project.

“It’s impossible to find a jail location that pleases 100% of the people in Orange County,” said Supervisor Jim Silva.

Supervisors Marian Bergeson and Don Saltarelli voted against the project, saying it is too ambitious and that the county should consider jail locations farther from homes and businesses.

“This proposal has brought about such great uncertainty and fear . . . [that] I feel the county should search out all possible solutions and options,” said Saltarelli, who supported certification of the EIR but opposed the project in its current form.

Bergeson questioned how the county would pay for the 100-acre facility, which she said “is really more like a small town rather than an urban jail.”

If voters approved Proposition 205, a statewide prison bond measure on Tuesday’s ballot, the county could receive $50 million to $75 million, most of which would pay for a previously approved expansion of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail. Gates said nearly $10 million in booking fees, federal grants and other monies also is available.

Supervisor William G. Steiner, who along with Silva and board Chairman Roger R. Stanton voted in favor of the expansion, said he expects the final project will be more modest than the scenario outlined in the EIR.

Steiner on Tuesday proposed scaling back the jail from 7,500 to 4,500 beds, but his motion failed for a lack of support.

“I think the 7,500-bed project is too big,” he said. “These issues will have to be resolved through litigation and negotiations.”

The county is under court order to avoid jail overcrowding. But officials have been unable to find financing and a suitable location for the new jail beds. County authorities said they examined almost 30 sites before Tuesday’s vote.

A recent Sheriff’s Department report found that 40,000 people were either cited and released or had their jail terms shortened in 1995 because of overcrowding. Of that group, 882 committed new crimes during the time they should have been in jail.

On Tuesday, about 170 people packed the meeting room, with about 50 speakers for and against the project addressing the board.

Residents who live or work near Musick, including several police officers, said a maximum-security jail puts them and their children at risk. On the other side of the issue were Santa Ana residents who fear that a failed effort to expand Musick might mean that their city would end up with the burden of housing thousands of additional inmates.

“We believe we’ve shared our fair share of the burden,” Santa Ana Mayor Miguel A. Pulido Jr. said.

Councilman Thomas E. Lutz said Santa Ana “has carried the piano . . . while other cities have carried the stool.”

Tuesday’s votes begin a planning process for the jail. Those plans and proposed financing also must have the supervisors’ approval.