JAILS: NOT JUST DEAD ENDS?

California's counties have their eyes on the problem of complying
with a law that took effect last week to divert most nonviolent drug
offenders from jail and steer them instead into drug treatment. The
new tack is a product of Proposition 36, passed last year by the
voters.

That initiative was far too rigid, but because it passed, counties
have no choice but to do what they can to bolster drug courts. To its
credit, Orange County began preparations for an expected onslaught of
offenders months ago. That early start followed four months of
planning by county health, probation, court, district attorney,
public defender and law enforcement officials, a good effort to try
to avoid problems.

Not all criminals will qualify for the diversion programs. That's why
it's important for the county and cities that operate their own jails
to continue their own classes behind bars, be it remedial education,
drug counseling or anger management.

One new initiative is the Inmate Distance Education Program at Santa
Ana Jail. The program got its moment in the limelight last month when
Sambo Lorn, a 29-year-old former gang member, returned to the jail to
receive his graduation certificate.

Lorn was one of the first students to complete two college courses,
Introduction to Sociology, and Marriage and Family. Teachers at the
jail say most colleges will accept the credits when inmates continue
their education.

The city and Santa Ana College are sponsors of the program, which
requires discipline by the inmate-students because there are no
on-site instructors, just videotaped lessons. There is someone to
pass out tests on exam days and forward them to Santa Ana College for
grading.

Also deserving credit are the instructors, at least one of whom has
driven inmates to job interviews after they were freed. The Inmate
Distance Education Program is offered to inmates who have high school
diplomas.

Jail officials say they have a host of programs for those who find
themselves behind bars. Most inmates will be freed after a weekend,
but some are held longer while awaiting trial. Others are
incarcerated while the Immigration and Naturalization Service handles
their cases. Lorn was one of those, being kept in custody for three
years for not having a green card; he also was imprisoned for
manslaughter in 1992, eight years after arriving in the United States
from Cambodia.

Orange County also has programs for those it locks up. Most inmates
at the county jails are headed to or from state prison; the rest, at
the Central Men's Jail in Santa Ana or the branch jails in Orange and
near Irvine, are held for a year at most.

One valuable county program is known as Working for Inmate Literacy
Now, which began as a project of READ/Orange County, a literacy
program of the Orange County Public Library.

The reading lessons began after inmates were given a label from a
medicine bottle, asked to read it and explain how they would
administer the medicine to a child. More than 80% failed the test.
Among those who knew English, 52% of inmates tested were classified
as functionally illiterate.

The county Sheriff's Department ordered the literacy tests after
becoming concerned that many inmates could not read well enough to
take the educational and vocational classes that were offered.

A number of inmates were unable to complete the program while jailed,
but some have said they wanted to return to the jail to finish what
they started-not as inmates this time but as students. That's the
sort of motivation that can be an example to other inmates.

The detention supervisor at Santa Ana Jail, Fernando Espinoza, says
the facility offers a host of programs. Many are aimed at helping
inmates address the problems that got them into trouble, classes such
as anger management, health or parenting. For some, the initial
impetus is to escape the boredom in ways other than watching
television or playing checkers.

But Espinoza, like jailers at county and state facilities, says
classes can help inmates prepare for their return to the outside
world. That's also their argument for continuing to fund classes: All
but the lifers and the condemned eventually reenter society and walk
among us.