Alternative to Jail Expansion Remains Elusive

It is by anyone’s definition a monumental task: finding an acceptable place in Orange County to build a new jail.

Sheriff Michael S. Carona knew the pitfalls last year when he pledged to South County residents during his election campaign to do what he could to reverse the county’s plans for expanding the 1,100-bed James A. Musick Branch Jail near Lake Forest.

Now, even as Carona met again Monday with a group of elected South County officials searching for new jail sites, roadblocks are apparent.

Carona is operating under a self-imposed March deadline to find a site acceptable to city and county officials and to come up with a plan that won’t cost more than the estimated $50-million expansion of the Musick facility.

In the last two weeks, the mere possibility of three sites being considered adjacent to the city of Orange drew howls of protest from Orange Mayor Joanne Coontz and former county Supervisor William G. Steiner. Both said the city already had done enough by agreeing to the county’s expansion of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail.

The sites are near the Foothill toll road on land owned by the Irvine Co., whose officials have been meeting with committee members.

In light of the swift opposition from Orange, officials from Irvine and Lake Forest, as well as Carona and two anti-Musick county supervisors, were quick to issue assurances to Coontz that nothing had been decided.

But the sites near Orange remained among the leading alternatives when staffers from Irvine and Lake Forest delivered evaluations on 14 sites across the county in their meeting Monday. Drawing flak from a city near any of the sites would be “a serious sticking point,” Supervisor Todd Spitzer said.

“We could never shove a jail down the city of Orange’s throat or any other city,” he said.

As for building a new jail somewhere else in Spitzer’s sprawling east county district, he said: “I have no problem putting a jail in my district [if it is] away from homes.”

Supervisor Tom Wilson, who also opposes the Musick expansion, said it will be “a serious challenge” to convince city officials that putting a jail near them “is the right thing to do for the county.”

Any site ultimately chosen by the group also must be acceptable to a majority of the Board of Supervisors.

Supervisor Cynthia Coad, who succeeded Steiner in January, said she is open to alternatives to Musick because it is so close to homes. But Orange or Anaheim, the major cities in her district, would have to approve construction of any sites near them, she said.

“I would hope that there would be another site that would be suitable,” Coad said.

Board Chairman Charles V. Smith said he too would be open to “something better” than Musick if proposed by Carona. But the new site couldn’t cost any more than developing Musick. And Smith said that anything in his district would be off the table because there already are enough jails in central Orange County.

“I don’t have any strong feeling that they’re going to have any success,” he said.

Supervisor Jim Silva is the staunchest supporter on the board for continuing with the county’s plans to expand Musick by as many as 7,584 beds and include maximum-security inmates.

Silva said the county has spent an estimated $30 million over the last 20 years in failed attempts to find a place to build another jail.

“We’ve had hearings, we’ve had battles; now we’re ready to go,” Silva said. “I can’t see discarding all of the work that’s been done.”

Complicating the committee’s goal is a deadline imposed by Carona for sealing a deal on a new jail site before March. That’s when voters are expected to decide on an initiative that would forbid the building of 1,000 or more jail beds within half a mile of homes.

All of the proposed alternative sites are farther than a half-mile from homes. But the mere threat of the initiative led Carona to say months ago that, without an ironclad alternative, he must proceed with an expansion at Musick, which is 700 feet from the nearest homes.

The county also faces a federal court review in the coming year of its jail system, which has been under a federal judge’s 1985 order to alleviate overcrowding.

Spitzer has proposed selling the 100 acres at Musick to pay for the costs of providing roads and utility service to a new remote site. He estimates the land would bring $100 million.

Normally, designating county property for sale requires a four-fifths vote of the board. If the deal could be struck before Dec. 31, however, the county could do so with only three votes because of special state legislation passed after the county’s 1994 bankruptcy. That exemption expires on Jan. 1.