Council Approves Plan to Rent Out Excess City Jail Space

Some of Orange County’s most dangerous juveniles, along with adults convicted in other California courts, will be among those in the new city jail under agreements approved Monday by the City Council.

One agreement calls for the Orange County Probation Department to rent 64 cells in the new city jail for juveniles being tried as adults. Police Chief Paul M. Walters said the juveniles have been accused of “very serious” crimes such as murder, assault and kidnapping.

The Probation Department, whose Juvenile Hall facility in Orange is at capacity, also will lease the 48-cell temporary jail being vacated by the city. The temporary jail will house juveniles awaiting transportation to serve their sentences in state facilities, according to a city report.

The county will pay the city about $1.74 million a year for those jail spaces. Juveniles will still be formally released from the juvenile detention center in Orange.

Another agreement allows those who live or work in Santa Ana but are convicted of misdemeanors in other California courts to pay $67 a day to stay in the new city jail.

Those people are expected to number up to three on any given day, said jail administrator Russell M. Davis, and bring in about $100,000 a year to the city.

The new, 473-capacity city jail, which opened last month, was designed to far exceed the daily needs of Santa Ana, which top out at about 150 beds a day.

But some council members, including Brett Franklin, who was elected to his first term in November, expressed concerns two weeks ago about renting out excess jail space, and a decision was delayed until Monday. Franklin and the majority of council members said they felt comfortable with the agreements.