Jail Crowding in O.C. Far Exceeds Limits

For the second straight year, the Orange County Grand Jury has concluded that crowding in jails operated by the Sheriff’s Department far exceeds state limits. Planned expansions will not be enough to solve the problem, jurors found.

The panel, which issued a six-page report Friday, also raised concerns about the lack of any temporary holding cells in 12 cities that pay the sheriff for police services, and criticized the Probation Department for not having a registered nurse on duty at night and on weekends at the Los Pinos Conservation Camp for juveniles in Lake Elsinore.

In one of its few positive notes, the panel applauded the Probation Department, which oversees juvenile facilities, for encouraging and providing educational opportunities. But it also found that the juvenile system, which can accommodate 804 youths, will have to add 1,500 beds by 2010 to meet state standards.

The panel spent eight months inspecting 29 of the 37 jails, detention centers, holding cells and juvenile facilities operated by county and city agencies.

Unannounced inspections at all 16 city jails run by local police departments found that each was well-staffed, well-maintained and met state Department of Corrections standards.

In contrast, visits to the sheriff’s facilities, most of which had to be scheduled because of security issues, showed inmate populations hovering an average of 17% above limits set by the state; 384 new beds have increased the inventory to 4,517 since a review last year found the system operating at 21% above capacity.

Critics have cited crowding as a contributing factor to jailhouse violence. And in Los Angeles County, sheriff’s officials currently under fire for five slayings that have occurred in their jail system since October are partly blaming crowding, arguing that there are not enough deputies to handle the volume of prisoners.

Orange County Grand Jury foreman Tom W. Staple acknowledged, however, that the “limited number of personnel and limited number of cells” in Orange County has put “stress on the sheriffs as well as on the inmates.” But he rejected the idea that the space crunch has compromised the safety of inmates, jailers or the public, saying “that’s not a problem.”

In fact, during an inspection at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana, where inmates arriving for court hearings have to be classified and separated according to gang membership, ethnicity and other factors to “prevent violent confrontations,” the deputies on duty “were doing an outstanding job of managing the situation,” the panel wrote. “Finding space to separate potentially dangerous inmates can be very difficult, but it is necessary to prevent injury to inmates as well as deputies.”

The panel is required by state law to review conditions at jails but has no power to enforce state standards. It hopes the latest report will serve as a reminder to the Sheriff’s Department and other county agencies responsible for finding the time, money, resources and room to meet what everyone agrees will be a difficult goal: nearly doubling the number of beds to 8,050 by 2010 to meet state standards.