Hodge and Budge knew how to pack those prisoners in

ROBERT GARDNER

* EDITOR’S NOTE: The Daily Pilot has agreed to republish The Verdict,

the ever-popular column written for many years by retired Corona Del

Mar jurist and historian Robert Gardner, in exchange for donations to

the Surfrider Foundation. This particular column was originally

published March 27, 1993.

It was a good thing for Hodge and Budge that a certain federal

judge wasn’t around when they were running the Newport Beach and

Orange County jails. He’d have sentenced them to terms in their

respective jails for so long you’d have had to pump daylight to them.

We are all aware that some time ago a certain federal judge

threatened to put Sheriff Brad Gates in his own jail for operating an

over-crowded jail. I wasn’t here at the time, but I understand that

federal judge fined poor Brad $50,000 for running his overcrowded

jail and that the county paid the fine.

That was a good thing for Brad. If someone hadn’t paid the fine,

Brad would have had to spend the time in his own jail in lieu of the

fine. And at one day in jail for every two dollars of the fine, Brad

would have faced 25,000 days in jail. While Brad is a comparatively

young man, he might have had a little trouble serving the full term.

So after that, Brad began to release prisoners to keep out of his

own jail only to be threatened with jail by some local judges who

thought he ought to keep the people in whom they had sentenced. Talk

about being caught between a rock and a hard place!

The federal judge thought the Orange County jail was overcrowded.

Over- crowded? He should have seen the overcrowded conditions at the

old Newport Beach and Orange County jails. Compared to them, the

present county jail is the Ritz Carlton.

The old Newport Beach jail was located near 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. After

Prohibition, the average number on a busy Saturday night dropped to

about 50, all of which goes to show that one could get drunk quicker

on the straight alcohol of Prohibition than the legal whiskey after

the repeal of Prohibition. I’m sure some future historian is going to

find that tidbit fascinating.

No one died in that cell, but it did get a bit messy. With that

many drunks crowded in 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 or even 50 men all barfing at the same time was quite

a spectacle.

Hodge, Chief of Police Rowland Hodgkinson, ran that jail. As I

say, that federal judge would have had a field day with Hodge.

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 jailer. I guess it ran in the

family.

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

By the time we built the new jail, Brad’s, that old jail held up to

750 prisoners regularly. Ol’ Budge just jammed them in every which

way. They slept on the floors and probably hung from the rafters.

Again, it was lucky for Budge that the federal judge wasn’t around.

Well, enough of yesterday’s horrors. I have a solution to the

problem of overcrowding in our jails and prisons. That solution is to

follow the Samoan practice.

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

first blush, startled me. A Samoan prisoner got weekend release to be

with his family. That took care of Saturday and Sunday. Then, during

the week, he got work release to work on the family taro patch. That

took care of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. As you

can see, we didn’t have much over-crowding at our lock-up called the

Tafuna Correctional Institution. A nice spinoff of this practice was

that we didn’t have many escapes. Escape from what? And escape to

where? The closest island was 70 miles away.

I must admit I was a little taken aback when I first arrived to

run into a man on the sidewalk I had sentenced the day before to 45

years in prison for murder. But I said, “Hi,” and he said, “Hi,” and

we got along famously.

* ROBERT GARDNER is a retired judge and a longtime Newport Beach

resident.