Jail Crowding Solutions

Jail overcrowding is a perennial problem in Orange County. In this month’s reply to a grand jury report, the Sheriff’s Department said the county’s jails operate at 140% of capacity. There are ways to brighten that picture. For example, the Board of Supervisors this month approved the expenditure of $200,000 for drug courts. These courts give addicts a chance to remain free, so long as they are enrolled in programs to shed their addiction and are tested frequently.

Another way to reduce overcrowding would be to bring back the work furlough program. Work furloughs allow minimum-security convicts to work during the day and spend nights and weekends in facilities run by private companies but also supervised by Probation Department workers.

Those sentenced pay the county for their upkeep. Being able to hold on to their jobs allows them to support families--and help repay the county and their victims. It also leaves jail beds to be filled by more dangerous inmates.

The Sheriff’s Department runs its own Community Work Program. It reported that in 1997, it screened nearly 11,000 inmates for possible inclusion but accepted only 3,000. That caution meant that more than 90% of those taking part caused no problems. Community Work currently has about 400 inmates enrolled.

Although the Sheriff’s Department reply to the grand jury contended that all the inmates qualifying for community-based punishment programs “are already participating in them,” some judges and probation officers are skeptical. Michael Carona, the county marshal who will succeed Brad Gates as sheriff in January, should see about including more participants in the department’s work furlough program.

Such programs are, of course, off-limits to those accused of serious crimes. The only ones eligible would be those convicted of relatively minor crimes. For example, people convicted of drunk driving but able to benefit from nightly Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and counseling while working could be good candidates.

Two years ago the Board of Supervisors formed a task force to explore ways to cut down on jail overcrowding. A draft report was available a year ago but was not given to the board because the Sheriff’s Department was concerned it could have an impact on lawsuits over the expansion of the James A. Musick Branch Jail.

A judge already has rejected the environmental impact report on the Musick jail, so the task force document should be finished and released.

Irvine and Lake Forest, which border Musick, oppose the county’s plan to change the jail from minimum security to maximum security and increase the number of inmates from about 1,000 now to 7,500. Even supervisors who favor expansion have said that 7,500 inmates is far too great a number. Irvine hopes to annex the jail and block expansion, though that is unlikely because the county has veto power over the annexation.

Still, the county needs to convince the judge who in March found the environmental impact report inadequate that the flaws have been corrected. Even if the report eventually is approved, the county has not identified a source of money to build a larger facility, much less pay operating costs when it is built.

Some opponents of the Musick expansion contend the county can build a new jail instead in some remote location. But the county has searched in vain in the past for the elusive “remote” site. Anyone who finds such a site should step forward.

Absent a satisfactory resolution of the jail capacity dilemma, county residents must accept the Sheriff’s Department’s early release of inmates. That frees beds for inmates considered greater threats to society.

Federal courts have limited the number of inmates the county can hold in existing facilities; the planned expansion of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange will ease the problem somewhat but will not solve it. The same is true for work furlough programs and drug courts.

But while they are not cure-alls, they are needed sources of assistance.