A Clearer Focus on Jail Dilemma

It’s no surprise that an interesting proposal floated last week by county Supervisor Cynthia P. Coad to resolve the dispute over the planned expansion of the James A. Musick Branch Jail in Lake Forest wasn’t that warmly received by Irvine city officials.

Coad’s compromise, at least, was as advertised. It would set a limit of 3,600 beds at the jail, much fewer than the 7,698 in the current plan, under which maximum-security prisoners could be housed at the discretion of the county. But the Coad proposal is not nearly as good as a previous county offer, since rescinded, that had a higher cap of 4,400 beds but placed no conditions on the cities. That earlier plan won Lake Forest’s approval but was rejected by Irvine last December. Irvine officials said they wanted to seek a more remote site for the jail.

The part of Coad’s proposal that Irvine doesn’t like puts the onus of finding and paying for that remote site on Irvine and Lake Forest. If they couldn’t meet that requirement, the county would be free to go back to its original expansion plan.

It’s no surprise that the two cities closest to the jail--Lake Forest has homes within 700 feet of Musick--don’t relish the idea of having to assume the responsibility of finding and financing the remote site, rather than having the county do it. It also would fall to the cities to be sure that the location had the agreement of any city or community organization within one mile. That’s a very high bar for winning acceptance of a jail proposal. There’s nothing like walking that mile in someone else’s moccasins to feel the pinch.

The remote jail site has been the sticking point in negotiations. Last year’s compromise, which at one point seemed to be acceptable to all, fell apart when the new Irvine City Council majority rejected it because it wanted a more binding agreement on some other jail locations in a more remote area of the county.

Irvine and other cities concerned about the jail location have formed a committee to help resolve the jail issue. Legal action by Irvine and Lake Forest to halt the Musick expansion was rejected by both the lower and appellate courts, so the cities don’t have much bargaining power. Meanwhile, the county remains under a long-standing federal court order to resolve a shortage of jail beds.

Good faith and realistic compromise still hold out the best hope for finding additional beds while assuaging Irvine’s concerns over the expansion of the Musick facility. If Coad’s proposal does nothing else, it at least puts into clear focus a problem that is essentially unchanged. It will not be easy to meet the burden of finding an acceptable remote jail site as an alternative to expansion in heavily urbanized Orange County.