Jails Issue Prompts Sanchez to Oppose Measure F

As last-minute campaigns for and against Measure F sharpen their focus on how it would affect the construction of additional jail cells, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana) announced her opposition to the March 7 ballot initiative that she said would endanger public safety.

The measure would require the approval of two-thirds of Orange County voters before jails with more than 1,000 beds could be built near residential neighborhoods. That provision would make it virtually impossible for the Board of Supervisors to provide needed jail space, Sanchez said, and her constituents would suffer the most.

“No one likes jails, but they are a necessary part of keeping our communities safe,” Sanchez said Tuesday in a statement distributed by Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, the lead group fighting Measure F. “The regional politicization of Measure F is not fair--nor is it wise public policy.”

Passage of Measure F would put more pressure on jails in Santa Ana and Orange, which already house the bulk of the county’s inmate population and all of its maximum-security prisoners, she said.

Sanchez could not be reached in Washington, D.C., late Tuesday for further comment. She is the fourth member of Orange County’s congressional delegation to weigh in on Measure F, and joins Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) in opposing it. Reps. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) and Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) support Measure F as a way of stopping the county’s plans for a commercial airport at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, which closed in July.

Measure F was initially written by South County cities as a way to stop airport planning. Jails and hazardous-waste landfills were added to the list of unwanted projects that a majority of county supervisors could force onto unwilling neighbors.

But voters opening Measure F campaign mail this past week may well have missed the fact that it has anything to do with an airport: Both sides are focusing on jails and what the measure’s passage would do to the Orange County jail system.

Measure F opponents launched the jail salvo weeks ago by defining the measure in public safety terms, recruiting Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas as the lead opponent.

Jail-related campaign appeals intensified this week as mail filtered to North County residents with messages from city council members claiming that Measure F’s restrictions would lead to a rash of smaller jails built throughout Orange County.

“Jails are dangerous places,” a new No on F campaign flier reads. “They should be located in remote locations. Away from schools and neighborhoods. But if Measure F passes . . . every school, church and home here will be at risk. Property values will plummet. Our families will be less safe than they are today. . . .”

The Yes on F side has cried foul, accusing opponents of contorting the issue merely to scare North County voters. Rather than forcing smaller jails near homes and schools, as opponents claim, Measure F would assure that supervisors would have to find jail sites away from neighborhoods, supporters said.

“Measure F places no restrictions on new jails--unless they are near residential neighborhoods,” a new Yes on F campaign flier reads. “[Measure F] protects residents of Santa Ana, Orange, Anaheim, Yorba Linda and other communities. . . .”

Despite the jail focus, voters have said twice in a poll commissioned by The Times’ Orange County edition that jails and the involvement of law-enforcement groups have had little sway on their opinions about Measure F.

Sheriff Mike Carona, who months ago called the measure too restrictive on jail planning, has also tried to neutralize the jail issue by brokering a deal that he said would have solved the county’s jail needs until 2025.

Under the proposal, officials with Irvine and Lake Forest would accept a limited expansion of minimum- and medium-security prisoners at the James A. Musick branch jail in Lake Forest and agree to drop their lawsuit against the project.

They wanted the county to approve the deal before the March 7 election. The likelihood of the board accepting the South County offer by that deadline vanished Tuesday when supervisors did not take action on it.

The board’s 3-2 majority, which has supported the full expansion of Musick and construction of an El Toro airport, had said that more time was needed to study whether a reduced Musick expansion would fulfill the county’s future jail needs.

In a related development, the supervisors voted 3 to 1 Tuesday to sue Irvine to block the city’s proposed annexation of the former El Toro Marine base as a way to halt an airport. Supervisor Todd Spitzer, an airport opponent and supporter of Measure F, was at a funeral and didn’t attend the meeting. Supervisor Tom Wilson, the other airport opponent on the board, dissented.

Contributing to this report was Times staff writer David Reyes.

* For more information on the airport debate, click onto The Times’ newly expanded Web site at https://www.latimes.com/eltoro. The site includes a comprehensive Measure F voter guide, special research sections, interactive bulletin boards, an insider column and the latest news.