Measure to save $1.2 million, officials say.
By TONY SAAVEDRA
The Orange County Register
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. — Sheriff Sandra Hutchens on Friday began shutting a 360-bed unit at the James A. Musick Facility because of budget constraints, drastically reducing the jail that this year was planned for expansion.
A proposal to enlarge the Musick jail has been placed on hold because of funding problems. Meanwhile, Hutchens is closing the tents at the facility, which were built in the ‘80s to temporarily ease crowding. Sheriff’s officials estimate the move will save $1.2 million a year.
The 190 minimum-security inmates housed in the tents will be moved to other areas of Musick as well as to other jails in the county system.
“What we’re doing is tightening the system a little bit. Every place we have is going to be more full because of it,” said Assistant Sheriff Mike James. “It’s a temporary cost-savings measure that will have the least impact on the system.”
James said none of the Musick inmates will be housed with more-dangerous populations. And none will be released early. Eight deputies and four special service officers who now supervise the tents will be reassigned, said James, explaining that the savings will come from using those employees to cover overtime shifts.
Sheriff’s officials said that shuttering the tents is only possible because the average daily population in the county jail system has fallen to the lowest in four years, at 5,900.
The news Friday brought a mixed response from community activists and civil rights attorneys.
Residents in Lake Forest, Foothill Ranch and Irvine have long opposed plans to expand a jail that has frequently left escaped inmates at their doorsteps and brightly lighted helicopters overhead.
Foothill Ranch resident Sharon Hankins said of the tent closure: “I think it is great for our community. I’m glad it’s not being expanded at this time.”
On the other hand, civil rights attorney Richard Herman complained that the tents were actually the nicest facilities in the jail system.
“The tents are wonderful, and then you have awful, obsolete facilities that are dangerous, cruel and miserable,” Herman said.
“The inmates will wind up at (Theo) Lacy or central jail, which are places run by criminal gangs,” he added. “They’re taking people from an area free of problems and putting them in the snake pit.”
Besides closing the Musick tents, Hutchens also plans to cut helicopter patrol time from 60 hours per week to 30 hours, at a savings of $700,000.
The department also will save $750,000 by going back to a part-time SWAT team instead of having a full-time unit, one of the changes brought last summer by Assistant Sheriff Mike Hillmann.
The tents at the Musick jail in Irvine, which were set up in the 1980s to ease overcrowding, will be closed.
Copyright 2009 The Orange County Register