Jails Violate Court Edict, Claim Says

Orange County sheriff’s jailers routinely violate a federal court order by forcing inmates to sit and sleep on the floor when booked into custody, according to legal claims filed Tuesday.

Inmates are packed into holding cells, where they must sometimes sleep in front of communal toilets, according to the class-action claim filed by civil rights attorney Richard P. Herman.

If true, the allegations would amount to a violation of a landmark court order that limits overcrowding at the county’s jails.

But Assistant Sheriff Rocky Hewitt, who runs the jails, disputed the claim. Jail policies on the number of inmates allowed in each cell strictly conform to the court order, he said, adding that supervisors will nonetheless look into the claims.

Herman added the allegations to a pending lawsuit he filed in October accusing sheriff’s officials of holding inmates beyond their release dates.

Herman was one of the lawyers involved in the landmark 1970s settlement of a federal lawsuit centering on crowding in Orange County’s jails.

Jail crowding has been a major problem in Orange County for decades. Under a 1978 federal order, the county must strictly limit how many inmates are housed at its facilities--even if that means releasing some inmates before their terms are complete.