For the Jails, Only a Stopgap
Orange County is scheduled to open a new wing of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange next month, a welcome addition of 384 beds. Still, it’s just a minor easing in a decades-long problem of jail overcrowding.
Not long ago the Board of Supervisors released a survey showing that on an average day, about 5,500 inmates were in jails built to house fewer than 4,000.
Within a year or two, Lacy is scheduled for another expansion. That wing too will house 384 inmates, as well as a 125-bed medical facility.
Despite the new beds, the county will continue to release inmates before their sentences are up and will let some who are accused of minor crimes be released on their promise to show up in court rather than be put behind bars.
It has been more than two decades since a federal judge ordered the county to end overcrowding in its jails. Attempts to find a site for a new facility all have failed. Lacy, the main jail at Santa Ana and the branch James A. Musick jail at Lake Forest all have been expanded.
County officials believe that the need for jail beds will increase in the years ahead. Even if that projection is wrong, the problem is acute. The county has to find a site and find the money to build a new facility. Stopgap solutions like the Lacy expansion help, but they are not a permanent fix.
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