Jails: Not Just Dead Ends?

California’s counties have their eyes on the problem of complying with a law that took effect last week to divert most nonviolent drug offenders from jail and steer them instead into drug treatment. The new tack is a product of Proposition 36, passed last year by the voters.

That initiative was far too rigid, but because it passed, counties have no choice but to do what they can to bolster drug courts. To its credit, Orange County began preparations for an expected onslaught of offenders months ago. That early start followed four months of planning by county health, probation, court, district attorney, public defender and law enforcement officials, a good effort to try to avoid problems.

Not all criminals will qualify for the diversion programs. That’s why it’s important for the county and cities that operate their own jails to continue their own classes behind bars, be it remedial education, drug counseling or anger management.

One new initiative is the Inmate Distance Education Program at Santa Ana Jail. The program got its moment in the limelight last month when Sambo Lorn, a 29-year-old former gang member, returned to the jail to receive his graduation certificate.

Lorn was one of the first students to complete two college courses, Introduction to Sociology, and Marriage and Family. Teachers at the jail say most colleges will accept the credits when inmates continue their education.

The city and Santa Ana College are sponsors of the program, which requires discipline by the inmate-students because there are no on-site instructors, just videotaped lessons. There is someone to pass out tests on exam days and forward them to Santa Ana College for grading.

Also deserving credit are the instructors, at least one of whom has driven inmates to job interviews after they were freed. The Inmate Distance Education Program is offered to inmates who have high school diplomas.

Jail officials say they have a host of programs for those who find themselves behind bars. Most inmates will be freed after a weekend, but some are held longer while awaiting trial. Others are incarcerated while the Immigration and Naturalization Service handles their cases. Lorn was one of those, being kept in custody for three years for not having a green card; he also was imprisoned for manslaughter in 1992, eight years after arriving in the United States from Cambodia.

Orange County also has programs for those it locks up. Most inmates at the county jails are headed to or from state prison; the rest, at the Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana or the branch jails in Orange and near Irvine, are held for a year at most.

One valuable county program is known as Working for Inmate Literacy Now, which began as a project of READ/Orange County, a literacy program of the Orange County Public Library.

The reading lessons began after inmates were given a label from a medicine bottle, asked to read it and explain how they would administer the medicine to a child. More than 80% failed the test. Among those who knew English, 52% of inmates tested were classified as functionally illiterate.

The county Sheriff’s Department ordered the literacy tests after becoming concerned that many inmates could not read well enough to take the educational and vocational classes that were offered.

A number of inmates were unable to complete the program while jailed, but some have said they wanted to return to the jail to finish what they started-not as inmates this time but as students. That’s the sort of motivation that can be an example to other inmates.

The detention supervisor at Santa Ana Jail, Fernando Espinoza, says the facility offers a host of programs. Many are aimed at helping inmates address the problems that got them into trouble, classes such as anger management, health or parenting. For some, the initial impetus is to escape the boredom in ways other than watching television or playing checkers.

But Espinoza, like jailers at county and state facilities, says classes can help inmates prepare for their return to the outside world. That’s also their argument for continuing to fund classes: All but the lifers and the condemned eventually reenter society and walk among us.