SANTA ANA : City to Consider Plans for Own Jail

When the city’s police facilities were built in 1960, officials assumed that they would not need more than three jail cells for their prisoners.

After all, City Manager David N. Ream said recently, city prisoners could be taken to the Orange County Jail located just a few paces from police headquarters.

But the county facility is overcrowded, and since 1985, drunk drivers, vagrants, prostitutes and others accused of minor crimes in Santa Ana have received citations and then been set free without spending time in jail.

“A lot of people that would probably, within 72 hours, be going to court for their arraignments are not going to court,” Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton said.

“In some cases, they are going out and committing other crimes, and they are not showing up in court.”

To correct the problem, the city is now preparing to move ahead with plans to build its own jail.

The City Council will be asked Monday to spend $5.5 million in next year’s budget for design studies and land acquisition for a new police headquarters and an adjoining 240-bed jail.

The city staff has proposed that the new facility be built on an 8-acre site on Civic Center Drive between Flower and Bristol streets, next to a recently completed parking garage.

According to a staff report sent to the council, 29 housing units will be displaced by the project.

The council also is expected to authorize staff to seek proposals from prospective architectural and engineering firms that would begin designing the facility in the fall, with actual construction expected to get under way in two years.

But there is no irony, city officials said, in the fact that they favor building their own jail after opposing last year a countywide measure that would have placed all future county jail space in Santa Ana.

“This city is now at a stage where, for its own community’s safety, we need to have a facility that we administer . . . rather than putting (Santa Ana prisoners) in line with other residents to get into the county’s facility,” Councilman Robert L. Richardson said.

Ream said the new city jail probably will not significantly reduce the costs of the new jail booking fee to be charged by the county starting July 1--a fee expected to cost Santa Ana $3 million a year.

“These (misdemeanor prisoners) are people that are not currently being booked in the Orange County Jail,” the city manager said, adding that the city jail would hold prisoners for up to 48 hours.

Incarcerating prisoners, even for a short period of time, may prevent further trouble, Helton said.

“We know from experience that if we take into custody people involved in a domestic situation or assault and battery and they are issued a citation and then they are released to go back into that situation, there’s a potential for renewed confrontation before any cooling off period,” he said.

In addition to jail cells, plans call for a new four-story police headquarters to house the 600-member department.

Helton said some departmental offices have moved into the second and third floors of City Hall, forcing other city departments to rent space several blocks away from the Civic Center area.