Official Upbeat on Finding Jail Site

Councilman Chris Mears said Wednesday that he is encouraged by recent efforts to find a remote jail site where all of the county’s maximum-security prisoners could be held.

Mears has been meeting with representatives of the county and the Irvine Co. about possibly building a jail on land owned by the development firm north of Irvine and east of Orange.

If an agreement can be reached, there would be no need to house dangerous prisoners in Irvine, or at existing jails in Santa Ana and Orange, he said.

Mears has taken the lead in spending the next few months trying to find a remote jail site. The City Council, presented with a proposal in December to limit the expansion of the James A. Musick facility to 4,400 minimum and medium-security inmates, has not voted on the issue. Since then, some county officials have said they would no longer accept a compromise and would proceed with original plans to increase the size of the Irvine jail so it could accommodate as many as 8,000 inmates--some of them maximum-security prisoners.

Councilman Mike Ward said he was concerned the county would proceed with its original plans for the Musick facility.

“I don’t want a maximum-security prison in the city of Irvine,” he said, adding that he wished the city had accepted the compromise. “I believe the county will go ahead with the jail expansion. They may limit its size to 4,400 beds; however, I think that they will build it to its maximum usage, to house maximum-security prisoners.”

Mears said he and others involved in searching for a remote site will begin talking with Santa Ana, Orange and Lake Forest to seek consensus.

The Musick facility is near the border of Lake Forest, which had pushed for adoption of the compromise last year.