Crowding Cited After Inmates Trash O.C. Jail

SANTA ANA — A seven-hour standoff at the crowded Orange County Jail began when more than 30 inmates, complaining about rules and conditions, commandeered a recreation room, tore bolted tables from the floor, ripped telephones from the walls and broke windows, deputies said Thursday.

Capt. Bill Miller, the jail commander, called it the “worst trouble” to occur in the 4-year-old Intake/Release Center in downtown Santa Ana and he blamed it in part on overcrowding and under-staffing.

The incident began at about 3 p.m. Wednesday when deputies ordered inmates to wear their fully fastened jail jumpsuits and shoes while visiting the day room, which serves as a television and reading lounge and a dining area.

More than 30 inmates, complaining that the orders were unfair, the food was cold and the water was impure, responded by refusing to return to their cells, Miller said. The men tied the doors shut with sheets and put newspaper pages over the glass, he said.

At the height of the disturbance, the prisoners ripped three metal tables from the floor and used them to crack the glass in security doors. They brought bedding and sheets from their nearby cells and threw them around the day room, Miller said.

Rather than risk a physical confrontation with the inmates, Miller said, he talked with them about their complaints. About 10 p.m., the inmates agreed to untie the doors and return to their cells.

Both jail officials and inmates’ advocates warned Thursday that the disturbance could portend further trouble because the jail is now taxed far beyond its intended capacity.

Richard P. Herman, an attorney who has fought to improve jail conditions, called the jail “grossly overcrowded” and said “there are deep underlying problems in the jail which are a lot worse than cold food and that have to be addressed. . . . It just shows you can’t run an overcrowded jail at half staff.”

The Intake/Release Center, one of five county jails, was built in 1988 to house 384 inmates. Last week, the population peaked at 916 prisoners. About 700 prisoners were there Thursday either awaiting trial, release or transfers to other county or state facilities. Many of those involved in the standoff Wednesday were headed for state prison, officials said.

“This could be a preview,” Miller said. “It could happen more often because of the overcrowding and the lack of staffing. We are trying to do too many things with too few people.”

Staffing levels often are down as much as 30% because there is insufficient money to pay deputies overtime to cover for sick colleagues or to hire replacements for deputies who leave, Miller said.

Last week, the peak inmate population in the county’s five jail facilities was 4,792, nearly 1,600 more than the jails were designed to hold.

Herman and fellow civil liberties attorneys have worked in recent years to enforce a longstanding federal court order which limited the number of prisoners in the Central Men’s Jail in Santa Ana to 1,296.

To abide by that cap, Sheriff Brad Gates said he has been forced to cite and release a growing number of prisoners--nearly 8,600 this year alone--who might ordinarily be held pending court proceedings. Gates, in turn, has been sued by Municipal Court judges who objected to this cite-and-release policy. In 1991, the sheriff was even ordered imprisoned, fined and held in contempt of court. That order was later overturned.

The county has completed the expansion of the Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange, but other options for more long-term jail solutions have been stymied by both financial and legal obstacles. Political support for a jail in Gypsum Canyon in North County collapsed last year after more than $7 million had been spent studying that option.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Roger R. Stanton said the need for more maximum-security jail beds “is something that I’ve been concerned about for some time,” and Wednesday’s incident only underscores the problem.

The supervisor recalled that in 1990 he had been the lone supervisor to back the idea of using the Theo Lacy Branch Jail for maximum-security prisoners. Stanton would not say whether that proposal may now be revived, but he said he expected the board to discuss the jail disturbance in closed session at its next meeting.

Stanton also said he spoke with Gates about 11 p.m. Wednesday and “the assurance was given right away that things were under control. . . . Everybody was safe.”

Attorney Herman said that based on information he received Thursday from inside the jail, he is suspicious of the Sheriff’s Department’s account of how the disturbance started. He declined to discuss specifics, but said people should take the official account “with a grain of salt.” Herman said he and other inmates’ advocates will investigate “and we’ll find out what happened.”

Miller called most of those involved in the disturbance “hardened criminals” who “just don’t like to obey the rules.”

He said many of them were on their way to state prison. Local jails are experiencing a backup of such prisoners, he said, because the state has reduced the number of trips to pick up its prisoners.

Deputies were unable Thursday to estimate the amount of damage done. No injuries were reported.

The men involved remained locked in their cells Thursday night and were denied regular privileges such as visitors and use of the recreation room. Officials are investigating whether any of the inmates violated any laws. Other discipline is being considered, Miller said.

Miller said he told the men he would investigate their complaints, and they agreed to submit to searches and clean up the day room. Lt. Dick Olson said officials decided late Wednesday to wait until Thursday morning to notify the news media of the disturbance, only after photographing the area and compiling reports of the incident.