Judge Lifts Court Control Over O.C.’s Jail System

After 27 years, the Orange County jail system no longer must operate under court-ordered guidelines governing the treatment of prisoners, a federal judge has ruled.

Since the original court order was issued in 1978, most of the changes it required have been adopted by the state anyway, U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor wrote in a decision issued Wednesday.

He also said that since then, the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress had “redefined how jail conditions are supervised and challenged.”

Responding to jail conditions, the court order set standards on such matters as telephone use, child visitation, sleep time and access to religious services and law books. It ordered that inmates get at least 15 minutes for meals, a mattress and a blanket, and a seat in the holding cell when going to court. It also set jail population limits and ordered that inmates be allowed eight hours of uninterrupted sleep before and after court appearances.

Sheriff Michael S. Carona called Taylor’s decision “a great victory. In the past six years we’ve made major changes, and we’re one of the best-run jails in America.”

Sheriff’s Capt. Tim Board said that because of the state regulations, the decision would have little impact on day-to-day jail operations.

Taylor ruled on two cases. One was the original 1978 court order -- a result of the lawsuit Stewart vs. Gates, referring to then-Sheriff Brad Gates -- and a suit brought in 2001 that would have expanded and clarified the ruling.

Board said that when the 1978 lawsuit was filed, by the American Civil Liberties Union, crowding was causing most of the problems. A jail built for 1,300 inmates was housing more than 2,000. He said construction of more jails had ended the crowding.

In his order ending the federal oversight, Taylor said “much room for improvement” remained in record keeping, grievance procedures, inmates’ access to exercise and religious services, and access for disabled inmates.

“However, improvement is always a necessary goal, and the County and its Sheriff show every indication they will perform that high duty,” he wrote.

The decision angered attorneys for the plaintiffs, who vowed to appeal the decision and said they would prevail. A federal ruling in 2003 allowed more than 60,000 current and former inmates to join the suit.

Attorney Dan Stormer said he agreed that state law set standards for jail conditions, but “that law is not being followed.”

Attorney Richard Herman said the decision could mean a return to the “Wild West. We expect both the continuation of physical and psychological abuse that has been rampant in jail for the past several years. We think the existence of federal oversight has saved the lives of hundreds of prisoners who would have died of abuse and neglect.”

The jails have had a number of problems in recent years. A report the department commissioned in 2001 found that there was a culture in which deputies quickly resorted to violence to control inmates.

In addition, the FBI investigated several alleged beatings of inmates by guards.

Herman, who has filed numerous lawsuits to enforce inmate rights, said the judge made his ruling because he retired from a full caseload in December and didn’t want anything more to do with the case.

The ruling makes it much harder for inmates to file federal lawsuits against the jail system.

The 1978 lawsuit pushed the county to build several new jails. In 1985, a federal judge held Gates and county supervisors in contempt for not acting on his orders that jail conditions be improved. The same year, the judge appointed a special master to report on jail crowding.

Times staff writer Jean O. Pasco contributed to this report.