Articles & News

March 28, 2008

Acting sheriff: Housing state inmates in Orange jail not a threat
 

ORANGE – Acting Sheriff Jack Anderson disputed the city of Orange's claim that housing 292 state inmates at the Theo Lacy Facility would see hardened criminals paroled directly to the streets of the city.

The bid to house state prisoners at Theo Lacy is part of a $100 million plan to expand the James Musick jail near Irvine that was approved by the county Board of Supervisors on March 11 over objections from city officials in Orange. Orange contends that the proposed arrangement would violate an agreement the city has with the county that any changes at the jail would require city approval.

In a letter to Orange Mayor Carolyn Cavecche and on his blog at www.blog.ocsd.org, Anderson said that the state inmates would be the same classification as inmates already being released from Lacy. In a phone interview, Anderson said housing state inmates at Lacy as part of the state's Re-Entry Program would not violate the city-county agreement.

"It's not like bringing in state prisoners is something different in our jail system. They're already there," Anderson said. "Some of these inmates have already been housed at Lacy. They're simply coming back out of state prison and returning to Lacy to participate in the Re-Entry Program."

Cavecche said state inmates do not belong in a county facility such as Lacy: "An inmate who's been arrested and tried and is sitting in a county facility waiting to be transferred to the state is a completely different type of inmate than one who has been sitting in a state prison upward to a dozen years."

Cavecche and other members of the City Council have maintained that state prisoners are a more dangerous type of offender. Anderson said the only difference is in sentencing.

"The county jails will house inmates with a sentence of up to one year. Anything above a year, they are remanded to the State Correctional System," he said. "Typically, to get to prison, you probably have committed a crime that either is serious and/or you've repeated crimes that are of a nature that the judicial system is continuing to increase the punishment."

Anderson said violent offenders – such as murderers, serial rapists and inmates who constantly get into fights – would not be part of the program.

"We wouldn't take anyone who had an assaultive history with staff or inmates or through their past behavior, demonstrated a potential for extreme violence," he said. "We can't accept people who are violent in those type of arrangements because I can't bed them separately.

"We're still talking to the state. I think we're looking at what they would call minimum-to-medium inmates who have a high risk of reoffending. Murderers will not be coming down to Lacy."

Because minimum- to medium-level inmates are currently released from Lacy, Cavecche took no comfort in the prospect of state inmates being released in Orange, rather than being bused to the release center in Santa Ana.

"In a way it raises a red flag for me," she said. "Great, it's a lower level, but they can be released in my city."

Anderson said the county is competing with six other "large" counties for the bid, which will be awarded in May. Cavecche hopes something will happen to make the program unnecessary.

"The (placement) of this Re-Entry Program only gave them additional points toward a grant that they haven't even received," Cavecche said. "If the state doesn't give them the grant funds or they don't need those extra points for their grant fund, then we don't have a problem."

Anderson said the long-term benefit to the county would outweigh short-term concerns.

"I understand Orange's concerns. They (think) we're changing the character of what they do inside," Anderson said. "These folks are not high-risk criminals or maximum security inmates. At the end of the day, Orange County as a whole, including the city of Orange and the city of Irvine, are going to have less crime."

Contact the writer: 714-704-3704 or efields@ocregister.com