Musick jail expansion plan finally moving forward
July 2, 2015 Updated 9:12 p.m.
BY SARAH de CRESCENZO / STAFF WRITER
3,100: Total inmates permitted under 2012 agreement with Lake Forest
1,322: Current beds
756: Current inmates
512: Beds to be added to the James A. Musick Facility jail under Phase 1 expansion plan
384: Beds to be added under Phase 2 expansion plan
Nearly 20 years after proposing to add more inmates to the James A. Musick Facility, the county?s plan to expand the minimum-security jail between Irvine and Lake Forest is moving closer to reality.
Planners are wrapping up the final design phase for the first phase of the project, adding 512 beds. Robert Beaver, who oversees the project for the Orange County Sheriff?s Department, said the search for bids will begin in early 2016. Construction would start later that year.
Design is underway on the subsequent 384-bed phase, which would be joined to the other new part of the jail.
Legal opposition is weakening.
In June, an appeals court handed Irvine another defeat in its longtime fight against the jail?s expansion, ruling unanimously to affirm a trial court?s denial of Irvine?s lawsuit challenging the environmental review done for the planned 512-bed expansion.
Another Irvine lawsuit related to jail expansion is pending. That petition challenges a second phase, which would add 384 beds. A trial court denied the case in August. Irvine has appealed, and the court is expected to address the case by fall.
The expansion plan approved in the 1990s allowed about 7,500 inmates at the jail, which today houses 750.
Lake Forest joined with Irvine in 2000 to sue over the plans, and although the lawsuit was upheld by a trial court, it later was shot down by an appeals court. However, a lack of funds meant that the project never went forward.
In 2012, Lake Forest and the county signed an agreement governing the terms of the expansion.
The sheriff promised to limit the jail?s expansion to 3,100, rather than the previously approved total of more than 7,500.
For the first time, medium-security prisoners may be housed there, although that hasn?t yet happened, said Carlo Tomaino, assistant to Lake Forest?s city manager. The city gets daily reports from the Sheriff?s Department on the number of inmates and their classification, he added.
Even longtime expansion opponent Jim Gardner, a Lake Forest councilman who was elected in 2014, is applauding the latest design. The department recently eliminated four two-person cells from the layout in favor of another eight-person, dormitory-style housing pod, the form of housing in which inmates will live.
That will make residents safer, Gardner said, because the two-person cells would have housed high-risk inmates. However, Beaver, director of research and development for the Sheriff?s Department, said the jail won?t and was never planned to house maximum-security inmates.
Gardner has said the city?s 2012 agreement with the Sheriff?s Department could allow maximum-security prisoners ? but only in ?unusual circumstances.? Under the memorandum, high-risk inmates could be housed there in extreme cases, such as during a jail riot, terrorist attack or natural disaster. They would have to be relocated within a week.
Beaver, however, said the language was necessary in case of extraordinary circumstances.
?Let?s say another jail collapses in an earthquake,? he said. ?(The sheriff) has to do what she has to do to detain inmates.?
Irvine?s remaining legal challenge, filed in 2014, is the latest in a string of such objections. The city in 2012 challenged the county?s application for state funds for expansion, stating that another full environmental report was needed instead of the supplemental report the county had submitted. An appeals court eventually rejected that argument.
A 2013 lawsuit challenged the supplemental report itself. In June, an appeals court shot down the city?s reasoning.
Contact the writer: 714-796-2221 or sdecrescenzo@ocregister.com
July 2, 2015 Updated 9:12 p.m.
BY SARAH de CRESCENZO / STAFF WRITER
3,100: Total inmates permitted under 2012 agreement with Lake Forest
1,322: Current beds
756: Current inmates
512: Beds to be added to the James A. Musick Facility jail under Phase 1 expansion plan
384: Beds to be added under Phase 2 expansion plan
Nearly 20 years after proposing to add more inmates to the James A. Musick Facility, the county?s plan to expand the minimum-security jail between Irvine and Lake Forest is moving closer to reality.
Planners are wrapping up the final design phase for the first phase of the project, adding 512 beds. Robert Beaver, who oversees the project for the Orange County Sheriff?s Department, said the search for bids will begin in early 2016. Construction would start later that year.
Design is underway on the subsequent 384-bed phase, which would be joined to the other new part of the jail.
Legal opposition is weakening.
In June, an appeals court handed Irvine another defeat in its longtime fight against the jail?s expansion, ruling unanimously to affirm a trial court?s denial of Irvine?s lawsuit challenging the environmental review done for the planned 512-bed expansion.
Another Irvine lawsuit related to jail expansion is pending. That petition challenges a second phase, which would add 384 beds. A trial court denied the case in August. Irvine has appealed, and the court is expected to address the case by fall.
The expansion plan approved in the 1990s allowed about 7,500 inmates at the jail, which today houses 750.
Lake Forest joined with Irvine in 2000 to sue over the plans, and although the lawsuit was upheld by a trial court, it later was shot down by an appeals court. However, a lack of funds meant that the project never went forward.
In 2012, Lake Forest and the county signed an agreement governing the terms of the expansion.
The sheriff promised to limit the jail?s expansion to 3,100, rather than the previously approved total of more than 7,500.
For the first time, medium-security prisoners may be housed there, although that hasn?t yet happened, said Carlo Tomaino, assistant to Lake Forest?s city manager. The city gets daily reports from the Sheriff?s Department on the number of inmates and their classification, he added.
Even longtime expansion opponent Jim Gardner, a Lake Forest councilman who was elected in 2014, is applauding the latest design. The department recently eliminated four two-person cells from the layout in favor of another eight-person, dormitory-style housing pod, the form of housing in which inmates will live.
That will make residents safer, Gardner said, because the two-person cells would have housed high-risk inmates. However, Beaver, director of research and development for the Sheriff?s Department, said the jail won?t and was never planned to house maximum-security inmates.
Gardner has said the city?s 2012 agreement with the Sheriff?s Department could allow maximum-security prisoners ? but only in ?unusual circumstances.? Under the memorandum, high-risk inmates could be housed there in extreme cases, such as during a jail riot, terrorist attack or natural disaster. They would have to be relocated within a week.
Beaver, however, said the language was necessary in case of extraordinary circumstances.
?Let?s say another jail collapses in an earthquake,? he said. ?(The sheriff) has to do what she has to do to detain inmates.?
Irvine?s remaining legal challenge, filed in 2014, is the latest in a string of such objections. The city in 2012 challenged the county?s application for state funds for expansion, stating that another full environmental report was needed instead of the supplemental report the county had submitted. An appeals court eventually rejected that argument.
A 2013 lawsuit challenged the supplemental report itself. In June, an appeals court shot down the city?s reasoning.
Contact the writer: 714-796-2221 or sdecrescenzo@ocregister.com
