Solution to packed jails a taro patch away

ROBERT GARDNER

Every so often a local sheriff gets called on the carpet for

operating an over-crowded jail. For the sheriff, it’s a tough

situation. After all, it’s not simply a matter of finding some rooms,

or he could reserve a couple of suites at the nearest Hilton.

While the prisoners might enjoy a stay at the Hilton, it doesn’t

exactly meet security needs. The sheriff needs new jail cells, and

for that he needs a new jail, but it takes a certain amount of time

to build a jail, and that’s only if you can find a community that

will let you build one in the first place. In the interim, his only

alternative to relieve the overcrowding is to release some of those

doing time. Of course, then he’s called on the carpet for not having

people serve their proper sentences. Talk about being caught between

a rock and a hard place.

In that situation, some historical perspective might help. The old

Newport Beach jail was located near the Newport pier. It had one cell

that measured about 20 by 30 feet. On a busy Saturday night during

Prohibition, the police jammed up to 75 men into that cell. It bore a

startling resemblance to the Black Hole of Calcutta. No one died in

that cell, but it did get a bit messy. With that many drunks crowded

into one small place, someone was sure to get sick and throw up.

That seemed to have a domino effect. The sight, smell and sound of

75 men all barfing at the same time was quite a spectacle. As a side

note, after Prohibition, the average number of prisoners on a busy

Saturday night dropped to about 50, which proves that one could get

drunk quicker on the straight alcohol of Prohibition than the legal

whiskey after the repeal.

Up in Santa Ana, Deputy Sheriff Theo “Budge” Lacey ran the old

Orange County jail. No matter who was sheriff, Budge stayed on as

jailer. His father before him had been a jailer -- I guess it ran in

the family.

That jail had been built in the early ‘20s to hold 250 prisoners.

By the time the new jail was built, that old jail held up to 750

prisoners regularly. Budge just jammed them in every which way. They

slept on the floors and probably hung from the rafters. Nobody

thought to complain about it. I guess they figured if you’d done

something that put you in jail, you had to put up with the

consequences, including crowding.

That won’t do today, so what’s a sheriff to do while he waits

years to get the money and votes to build a new jail? The sheriff

could take a lesson from American Samoa.

When I went to Samoa, I inherited a sentencing practice that was

startling, to say the least. I hadn’t been there long when I

sentenced a man to 45 years in prison for murder. Imagine my

surprise, not to say horror, several days later when I met him

strolling down the sidewalk in Pago Pago. I was all set to call the

police and announce a jailbreak when my friend Olo explained the

Samoan system to me. I pass it on now as a primer in relieving the

overcrowding of our jails.

In Samoa, prisoners serve their full terms. However, during his

term, a prisoner gets weekend release to be with his family. This

relieves any crowding of the jails on Saturday and Sunday. Then,

during the week, he gets work release to work on the family taro

patch, which takes care of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and

Friday. As a result, there is little problem with over-crowding at

the Tafuna Correctional Institution.

There is a side benefit to this practice as well. Samoan prisoners

don’t try to escape. Escape from what? Even if they don’t like their

families, it’s better than jail, and besides, where would they escape

to? The closest island is 70 miles away.

So I submit this as a way to relieve overcrowding. The only

drawback I see to implementing the plan here is the lack of taro

patches, but surely some bright mind can come up with a solution to

that.

* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and a former judge.

His column runs Tuesdays.