Some Alternatives to Jail Cells : * House Arrest, Work Furlough, Work Releases Should Be Tried

In issuing its recommendation on Monday urging more alternatives to merely locking people up in overcrowded jails, the Orange County Grand Jury expressed concern that it might be misunderstood. The jury made a point of saying it didn’t want to send any kind of signal that might indicate that it didn’t think a new Orange County Jail wasn’t desperately needed.

That kind of misinterpretation may not be as big a problem as a more daunting challenge: getting people to understand the great need for more alternatives to simply putting people behind bars. The grand jury has shown important leadership in urging the county to pursue alternative sentencing.

The alternative approaches such as house arrest, work furlough and work releases obviously can’t be used in every case, or even in most cases. If they could, the county would probably be closing jails rather than anguishing about how to build a new one. But the approaches can be used often enough to make a difference--not only because having them will require fewer jail cells, but because they also can keep people who don’t really need to be locked away out of jail.

Doing jail time at home under electronic surveillance, being locked up only on weekends, or being in a work-furlough program that allows inmates to work their regular jobs and spend the rest of the time in a halfway house, are alternatives well worth pursuing.

They offer many advantages that merely locking people up does not provide. When inmates can keep their jobs and support their families, new welfare cases aren’t created. And by remaining productive members of the community while doing time, they have a job to go to when their jail sentence is over.

Yes, the county needs to expand its jail system. But merely building more cells isn’t enough. In dealing with already-sentenced prisoners, more use of jail alternatives can mean building fewer jail cells, while rebuilding more lives.