County scrambles on jail crisis

Worried: Officials discuss ways to ease crowding as system nears capacity.

BY BRYAN MONROE

Mercury News Staff Writer

Worries over a dangerously crowded jail system in Santa Clara County sent
officials into a huddle Tuesday to come up with proposals to quickly bring
its population back to manageable levels.

The meeting of correction officials, judges, criminal justice officers and
government leaders was called in the wake of a Mercury News article
published Tuesday detailing a situation that some officials warned could
lead to a ``meltdown'' of the jail system.

``The problem and resulting publicity have helped us to focus real
quickly,'' said Santa Clara County Supervisor Pete McHugh. ``We've got to
look for ways to think outside the box.''

The county jail system is fast approaching the 5,000inmate mark, at which
officials predict they will not be able to manage the population. The jails
are jammed with 4,861 inmates 130 percent of capacity.

Inmates are stacked threehigh in bunk beds, and prison guards are nearing
the limit of inmates they can watch. Officials say 3,223 of those prisoners
are unsentenced, twothirds of whom are awaiting trial.

While the Jail Overcrowding Working Group did not reach any decisions at
the meeting, it did agree to focus on four key options:

* Use more jail alternatives such as electronic monitoring and
dayreporting programs.

* Look at ways to reduce the number of unsentenced inmates and those
awaiting trial by encouraging faster pleabargaining and reducing the time
spent on pretrial negotiation from six weeks to as little as 10 days.

* Help judges become more comfortable putting drug and alcohol offenders
into treatment programs as an alternative to jail.

* Reduce the number of people jailed for failure to pay outstanding fines
by increasing the threshold for warrants and arrests from $50 to $250.

The county officials steered away from more controversial proposals, such
as early release, that would potentially put inmates back on the streets.
While they hope to bring the jail population down, officials are also
worried about public safety.

``I would be thrilled to have it around 4,000 (inmates), but we want the
public to feel secure and know these people won't be a threat,'' McHugh
said. ``I'd rather err on the side of caution.''

McHugh, who chairs the task force, sees the bulk of the reductions coming
from trimming the number of unsentenced prisoners. But he said he hopes the
other areas could result in an additional 200 to 300 fewer prisoners.

County jail officials are also concerned about an approaching trickledown
effect from the state correctional system, which could spill even more
inmates into the county's overwhelmed prison system.

``The state already has too many prisoners. They're gonna melt down,'' said
Department of Corrections Director Daniel B. Vasquez. ``And when that
happens, there's going to be even more firewood on the fire, and we'll melt
down, too.''

But task force members were happy with the progress at Tuesday's meeting.

``Today was good,'' said Vasquez about the highlevel meeting. ``At least
we have the right people in the room talking about the right things. Now
the right hand knows what the left hand is doing.''

Published Wednesday, October 22, 1997, in the San Jose Mercury News