Vote Was Clear, but Jail Space Remains a Problem in O.C.

Two years ago the Orange County Grand Jury predicted that increasing fear of crime made it more likely that voters would approve higher taxes or bond measures for new jails. But as this month’s election showed, that is an idea whose time has not yet come.

A statewide bond issue that would have provided $700 million to build new jails and renovate old ones was trounced in Orange County and across California.

Most of the estimated $70 million or more that would have come to Orange County had the bond issue passed would have gone to the expansion of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange. Millions more would have gone to planning the expansion of the James A. Musick Branch Jail in unincorporated territory next to Lake Forest, a far more controversial proposal.

On the same day the Musick expansion was dealt the setback at the polls, county supervisors approved planning to convert Musick from room for about 1,200 inmates now to over 7,000.

The supervisors’ action does provide a legal basis for expanding Musick. But as a practical matter, the expansion is doubtful. For starters, there is little or no money even to continue planning. There is no money for construction. There would be no money to operate the bigger jail if it were built.

But Orange County needs more jail beds. The questions are where to locate them and how to pay for them.

South Orange County residents feel squeezed, on one side by the Musick expansion and the other by the proposal to build a commercial airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station after the Marines leave, scheduled for 1999.

That South County anger helped lead two supervisors to vote against the Musick expansion. Because three supervisors, all from North County, voted to plan for expansion, the measure passed.

But Supervisor William G. Steiner injected some common sense into the debate, as he often does. Steiner said a built-up Musick jail should contain not 7,500 beds, but 4,500.

Even a scaled-down expansion would draw vicious opposition in most of South County. Residents there need to be assured that county planners understand their concerns and are not trying to dump two enormously unpopular facilities in their midst. The county needs to show it is planning the post-Marine use of El Toro in concert with Musick.

Another need is greater alternatives to jails in the county. Opponents of the bond measure on the ballot argued that just building more jails and prisons will not solve the crime problem. They are right.

The county could investigate treating drug addicts in secure facilities other than jails, supervised by deputy sheriffs. After treatment, supervision by the Probation Department could help guard against the former inmates sliding back to drugs. That would require more money for probation officers, but would be cheaper than building and operating jails.

Foes of the jail bond measure also said defeating the bonds would not mean dangerous three-strikes criminals would go free because they are housed in state prisons, not in county jails.

But those hardened criminals do pass through jails on their way to prison. They can spend a year or more in county facilities awaiting trials. When they do, they force Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates to release other inmates early because Gates is operating under a federal court order to end overcrowding in Orange County’s jails.

Foes of a Musick expansion argue that any new jail should be built farther away from where people live. But where? This is a small county, heavily populated, with the vast majority of its undeveloped area national forest or geologically unsuitable for construction. It will be impossible to please everybody, but any expansion that eventually takes place must attend to legitimate neighborhood concerns.