Never-Ending Hard Time on Jail Issue

Fifteen years ago I spent the night at the Orange County Jail, with then-Sheriff Brad Gates’ permission, to see up close overcrowded living conditions. The place was teeming with bodies, some 800 inmates sleeping wherever they could find floor space because all the beds were taken.

Now here we are, almost at the year 2000, and what’s one of the county’s biggest issues? Jail overcrowding. Still.

About the only thing that’s changed has been the sheriff.

Sheriff Mike Carona made a campaign pledge last fall that he would solve the jail overcrowding problem. What he had no way of knowing was how serious a problem it remains.

According to a newly released county jail study, our whole jail system was built for a capacity of 3,821 inmates, but our average daily jail population is 5,328. Carona says he’s managed to find beds for everybody, but that’s still a system bulging at the seams.

The county is on track to build two 348-bed units at the Theo Lacy jail facility in Orange, plus another 1,000 beds there in future years. But the new jail study, conducted by the Omni-Group Inc., says the county needs another 2,532 beds on top of what is already on line for Theo Lacy.

And that’s for now. Carona estimates we’ll need a total of 5,000 more beds by 2006. The sheriff’s next step is to get a staff assessment of just where within the system new beds are needed most.

“We’re determined to solve this problem,” Carona said.

The response to a federal court order in the 1980s to reduce overcrowding was to build the men’s Intake and Release Center next to the main jail, double space at the James A. Musick honor farm, and greatly expand the Theo Lacy minimum-security facility.

But lacking the money and political will to build additional new jails, the county set up a revolving door. To keep beds available for the most violent offenders, the Sheriff’s Department granted early releases to inmates facing lesser charges.

Here’s just how many: In the past 10 years, Carona said, we have given early release to 435,000 inmates at the jail.

Carona’s goal is to eventually have no early releases: You get your sentence, you do your time. But in the three months that he’s been in office, the “revolving door” has continued to operate because there are simply not enough beds.

So where do we put these new beds we need? Right now Carona is authorized by the Board of Supervisors to expand the Musick honor farm from 1,200 beds to 7,500. But that’s only a last resort plan.

That would turn Musick into a maximum-security facility. Folks in South County, already unhappy about an international airport about to be shoved down their throats, won’t have much stomach left for that many thieves and robbers for neighbors.

Carona is working with a subcommittee of elected officials to find a remote site suitable for another jail. If an anti-airport initiative is passed by voters next year, it’s doubtful that any new jail--even one in a remote area--will be built.

So he hopes to work fast.

I remember the same discussions in the 1980s. Things fell apart because citizens didn’t want a jail in their backyard--nobody could find a spot remote enough.

It’s too bad that the county supervisors of the 1980s--all gone now--didn’t have the foresight to see this coming. I can recall countless meetings in which they were told their solutions were all Band-Aid thin.

Current supervisors have vowed to help Carona with his jail headache. But we’re looking at about $750 million in new jail costs, Carona predicted. That’s going to take a courageous commitment from elected officials who have lots of other pressures for how to spend the county’s money.

If this isn’t all bad enough, the Omni people add these statistics: Ten years ago, just 49% of the sentenced inmates at the jails were felons. That’s jumped to 57%. All the more reason to want to keep them for their full sentences--and have enough places for doing it.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 564-1049 or e-mail tojerry.hicks@latimes.com.