County Scrounges for Ways to Fund Jail Construction

A state bill that would have allowed Orange County residents to vote on a sales tax increase for a new jail this year was crafted through months of political maneuvering and horse-trading.

It only took a few hours in a Sacramento courthouse last week for it all to unravel.

A Sacramento County judge heard arguments before ruling that the bill was unconstitutional because it violated Proposition 13’s requirement that a two-thirds majority approve new taxes.

The decision by presiding Superior Court Judge James T. Ford has left the Orange County Board of Supervisors flat-footed and its jail plans in disarray. The tax increase was the supervisors’ only hope of raising hundreds of millions of dollars needed to build a new jail.

“It just means we’re going to have to go back to the drawing board,” Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said. “We have to go back and identify some source of financing.”

John Sibley, the county’s chief budget analyst, said there is “nothing” in the county’s coffers for a new jail. “There’s no pot of gold somewhere,” he said.

There may not be any money, but there are plenty of prisoners. The Sheriff’s Department currently operates three jail complexes--in Santa Ana, El Toro and Orange--with a total rated capacity of 3,199 beds. But the system is so overburdened that it holds about 4,400 inmates on any given day. The total went as high as 4,675 in 1989.

The Sheriff’s Department, which is under a federal court order to control jail overcrowding, continues to release sentenced prisoners early and refuses to book many offenders. The total of such releases has mounted steadily: 32,904 in 1987, 42,675 in 1988, 51,476 in 1989, according to sheriff’s officials.

“It’s just gotten worse,” said Assistant Sheriff Jerry Krans, who oversees jail operations. “We have to re-evaluate the entire system every four hours--the number of empty beds, the prospective empty beds, what’s coming over from the courts and other agencies.”

The early release system, which is Sheriff Brad Gates’ only way to avoid violating the federal court order, contributes to an increase in crime, Krans said. In one study that tracked prisoners who were released early, 3,000 of them committed crimes during the time they should still have been in jail, he said.

Supervisors’ Chairman Don R. Roth said Orange County residents won’t tolerate such a predicament forever. “We are a law-and-order people, and the feeling is strong that these people should be in jail,” he said.

But in which jail?

An interim jail that the county wanted to build on a site it owns in Anaheim has been stopped, at least temporarily, by a lawsuit, and most observers doubt that a jail will ever be built on that valuable land.

The expansion of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange was halted by another lawsuit--this one by the City of Orange--after construction had begun, but resolution of that case is expected soon, Roth said.

Completion of that project, which would increase the jail’s capacity from 622 inmates to 1,326, would ease the overcrowding crisis but hardly solve it.

And then there is the proposed Gypsum Canyon jail project, which could have been funded, in large part, by the $126 million in additional sales tax revenue foreseen in the now unconstitutional ballot measure, according to budget analyst Sibley.

But that so-called “remote” jail, which was expected to meet the county’s needs for prisoner space well into the next century, is becoming just a remote possibility.

Construction costs, estimated at $700 million a few years ago, would more likely be $1 billion, said Roth, an ardent opponent of the Gypsum Canyon site. The land, owned by the Irvine Co., was estimated to be worth $30 million to $40 million. But the company, with no prospect of the county making a serious effort to purchase the land any time soon, is going ahead with development plans, which could send the land price skyrocketing.

And the environmental impact report on the Gypsum Canyon site, approved by the Board of Supervisors in 1987, is the subject of a lawsuit brought by the cities of Anaheim, Yorba Linda and Corona.

Complicating matters even more is an initiative on the June ballot, sponsored by residents from areas next to Gypsum Canyon, that would require all future county jails to be built in Santa Ana.

County Counsel Adrian Kuyper has already issued an opinion, saying the initiative is probably illegal because it inhibits the county from performing a necessary task of governance--providing jail space for criminals. However, if the initiative carries by a substantial margin of voters, supervisors could find it politically unpalatable to act otherwise.

But the county has no current plans for another jail in densely populated Santa Ana, and a move to build one there would certainly face enormous political as well as legal challenges.

Roth said he thinks the solution to all these problems may lie in the Riverside County desert, about 50 miles east of Palm Springs. It is there, according to Roth, that Orange County can buy land cheaply, overcome opposition from residents and persuade voters to approve a bond measure to pay for construction of a large jail.

The two counties have created a task force to determine if the desert jail is a possibility or just another mirage. Roth said the Board of Supervisors should have something “we could put our teeth into” in four to six weeks.

“Sure, there are transportation problems that have to be worked out,” Roth said. “But the cost-saving is gigantic for Orange County. . . . Whether a jail will ever be built there, I don’t know. But the board wouldn’t be doing its job if it didn’t explore all the possibilities.”

Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, who, unlike Roth and Vasquez, has voted for the Gypsum Canyon site, nevertheless agrees that it is time to look at alternatives, including the desert jail and possible privatization of at least parts of the jail operation.

HISTORY OF JAIL-OVERCROWDING CONTROVERSY

Here is a chronology of important events in the legal controversy concerning overcrowding at Orange County Jail.

Nov. 10, 1968--Construction completed at main men’s jail in downtown Santa Ana.

Sept. 11, 1975--American Civil Liberties Union files class-action lawsuit over jail conditions in Orange County.

May 4, 1978--U.S. District Judge William P. Gray orders Orange County to improve conditions in the jail.

March 18, 1985--Gray finds Sheriff Brad Gates and the five county supervisors in contempt for not heeding his 1978 order and fines them.

September, 1985--Gates begins releasing low-risk defendants with citations, rather than booking them into jail, because of crowded conditions.

Nov. 13, 1985--Construction begins on the Intake/Release Center next to the main jail to house 382 to 700 inmates.

March 18, 1986--Supervisors choose county-owned property at Katella Avenue and Douglass Road in Anaheim, near Anaheim Stadium, as the site for a 1,500-inmate jail.

October, 1986--Gates expands the cite-and-release program from newly arrested defendants to include those arrested on bench warrants.

Nov. 26, 1986--Supervisors approve a feasibility study for a jail in a remote area of the county to hold up to 5,000 inmates; selected as potential sites are Gypsum Canyon/Coal Canyon, Fremont Canyon, Irvine Lake and Chiquita Canyon.

July 15, 1987--Supervisors choose Gypsum Canyon/Coal Canyon site for a jail that will house about 6,000 inmates.

Dec. 7, 1987--In an effort to derail a lawsuit against the county by Orange City Council members, supervisors agree to reduce the planned inmate capacity of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail and to disallow maximum-security inmates.

Dec. 15, 1987--Judge Gray praises ongoing efforts by the county to reduce jail overcrowding.

June 6, 1988--Citing substandard medical care, poorly trained staff, limited inmate rights and unprovoked beatings, the ACLU seeks to broaden its suit over Orange County Jail, claiming that such conditions continue to exist at jail facilities countywide. Judge Gray indicates his reluctance to see the suit widened but takes the ACLU’s request under submission.

June 28, 1988--Judge Gray denies ACLU motion seeking to broaden its jail lawsuit, saying, “This case is adjudged to be closed, subject to the right of the court to make further orders upon good cause.”

Aug. 15, 1988--Taxpayers for a Centralized Jail submit more than 112,000 signatures on petitions qualifying for the ballot an initiative that would locate all new jails in Santa Ana.

May 9, 1989--A judge orders a halt to expansion work on Theo Lacy Branch Jail, pending resolution of a lawsuit.

Sept. 29, 1989--Anaheim and Yorba Linda file suit against the county over an environmental impact report on the proposed Gypsum Canyon jail.

Oct. 2, 1989--AB 1067 becomes law, enabling the Orange County Board of Supervisors to place a half-cent sales tax increase for jail and other criminal justice facilities on the June or November, 1990, ballot.

Oct. 30, 1989--Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., and others, file suit over AB 1067, claiming it violates Proposition 13.

Feb. 5, 1990--Sacramento County Superior Court Judge James T. Ford holds for plaintiffs, ruling that the “Orange County Act” is unconstitutional.

Source: Times staff