Santa Ana Jail Offers A Model For Jail Operations - Part 1
Posted by: Jubal | 04/15/2008 4:32 PM
If the Board of Supervisors are looking for ideas on how to improve jail operations, they should walk a couple of blocks and take a tour of the Santa Ana Jail.I took the tour on April 3, which turned out to be timely since the subsequent release of Grand Jury report on the John Chamberlain murder a few days later has thrust jail operations to center stage of picking the next OC Sheriff and reforming the OC Sheriff's Department.
I had toured the OC Central Jail last fall, and the contrast between the two could not be more stark. The bulk of the Central Jail was built in the 1960s, and is an example of what is known in the trade as a linear, "intermittent supervision" jail (the newer portion is modular,"remote supervision" design). Prisoners are occupy a variety of cell sizes, from solitary to barracks holding 64 prisoners. It is a creepy, ugly place. and my primary impression upon completing the tour was that I never, ever, ever want to end up there.
Direct Supervision.
The 480-bed Santa Ana Jail, on the other hand, is just 11 years old. It's podular design is informed by the direct supervision philosophy of jail management.
According to Sana Ana Police Chief Paul Walters, he researched jails from around the country when preparing to build the Santa Ana Jail, and ultimately settled on direct supervision. One of the most striking things about the jail is how quiet it is. Jail Administrator Russ Davis stated that is deliberate. Davis said noise raises tension levels, which in turn makes prisoners harder to control.
As the tour unfolds, it becomes apparent that everything about the Santa Ana Jail's design and operations is oriented around keeping tensions low, minimizing inmate movement and adopting a proactive approach to managing inmate behavior.
It's Quiet. Too Quiet.
The intake area looks more like a hospital waiting room than a jail. It's open and quiet. The chairs in the lobby area are 11 years old, and hardly have a scratch. The only barrier between the uniformed clerks and incoming prisoners is the counter. During my tour, three prisoners in jump suits sat quietly watching television. Telephone privileges aren't rationed: prisoners can make as many calls as they like.
To accommodate less-than-sociable prisoners, the back of the intake area is lined with isolation rooms -- one of which was occupied by a young guy with a waaaaay crazy look on his face.
Walters and Davis took us -- by us I mean myself, John Lewis, Matt Holder and Phil Greer -- to the jail kitchen, which is operated by Aramark. The Santa Ana Jail doesn't have a mess hall. Th meals are package on special trays and carted to the housing modules, where the inmates take their meals.
Walters explained that approach makes it unnecessary to moves prisoners from their housing to a mess hall -- thereby eliminating opportunities for inmates to cause trouble.
Amongst The Criminals
The inmates live in housing modules, which can accommodate 64 inmates, who live tow to a cell. The module is basically a big day room ring in one-side by two tiers of cells. Each housing module has an adjacent exercise yard that is technically "outside."
The housing modules are where you see direct supervision in action. As the U.S. Department of Justice's "Direct Supervision Jail Sourcebook" describes direct supervision:
There is no secure control booth for the supervising officer, and there are no physical barriers between the officer and the inmates. The officer may have a desk or table for paperwork, but it is in the open dayroom area. An officer is stationed in the pod with the inmates throughout the officer's duty shift. The officer moves about the pod and interacts with the inmates to manage their behavior.And that's exactly what we saw in the housing module. There was a single, unarmed corrections officer in the day room. Inmates were all about. one was using the law library computer. Some were reading. A few were in the exercise yard. About 15 or 20 were sitting around a TV watching some kind of Spanish-language "People's Court" type program.
My first thought was how, despite being surrounded by criminals, I didn't feel unsafe. I also noticed the quiet and lack of tension in the room. Except for the orange jumpsuits, the atmosphere was reminiscent of a community center recreation room.
The corrections officer was an 11-year veteran. He was of medium height and build -- and completely at ease and in control of the module.
The module itself was very clean, and the cells were also very clean. Jail Administrator Russ Davis explained that inmates did all the cleaning. it was expected of them, plus it killed time and obeying the rules was how inmates earned privileges.
The chronicle of my Santa Ana Jail tour continues tomorrow, when we visit the module where they keep the really nasty inmates...
CATEGORY:
OC Sheriff's Department, OC's Next Sheriff
Mr. Ayer registered as a Republican to be electable in an interim election with no incumbents. He did...
Jubal,
A nice report and I agree that the Santa Ana City Jail is a nice facility with a great staff.
What I am about to say is not in any way a criticism of them or of the job they do. I think they would rate very highly when compared to their peer universe of city jail facilities in Orange County and around the State of California. I have always had a very positive and cooperative working relationship with SAPD and the jail staff – which means I have no axe to grind with them.
But, context is important. In the State of California, any city jail detention facility (like Santa Ana Jail) is not the same thing as a county jail (like OCJ).
This difference is an important one and something that must continuously be kept in the front of any discussion or comparison. I suggest you ask them about this distinction when you visit them next and then re-visit the County Jail and get to see these differences in action. They are important and relevant and you would probably have missed them on your initial county jail tour.
The number one difference between Santa Ana Jail AND any other city jail facility is that they get to pick and choose who they keep as inmates. County jails, like OC Jail, don’t have the same option and must keep ANY INMATE legally presented to them.
The city jails get to transfer their inmates or book off-the-street inmates directly into the county jail if they want to. This means the hard core inmates go to OCJ; disciplinary or problem inmates go to OCJ; inmates with medical or psychological issues go to OCJ; usually ALL females inmates by-pass city jails because of the limitations on staff and space and go to OCJ; ALL inmates serving time go to OCJ, with few exceptions like those they handpick and are willing to pay a fee to stay there.
A city jail will always be the right size facility and will never be overcrowded because inmates are sent to the county jail when there are too many of them for the city to house.
Ask the nice staff at the Santa Ana Jail how many inmates are transferred daily to the County Jail and why. There are advantages to direct supervision of inmates, but ask the staff's opinion if it would work for every inmate? My guess is the Santa Ana Jail staff will be happy to tell you about all of this.
They can still be proud of the great job they do with running their facility and it is important to highlight the job they do. But, keep the context and understand the differences between a city jail and a county jail before making any direct comparisons.
Cheers.
Sergeant~
You are exactly right and I am glad tht you took the time to educate the politicos. Much has been mentioned lately about the next Sheriff having the experience of a jail, but the board needs to know the difference #1 and that good leadership will take the place of jail experience any day, #2.
Last I heard, SAPD doesn't even book their own prisoners at their jail because all the beds are used up with contracts with the US marshall, parole, j-hall etc. Its a big money maker for Santa Ana. Chief Walters has a nice operation, but its an oversell.
I'd have to agree with Sarge on the type of inmate currently housed at SAPD, however the OCSD has looked at and is currently contemplating a "direct supervision" housing unit when they build the new jail at the James Musick Facility. As Sarge pointed out, it doesn't work for every situation but a hybrid system where direct supervision is part of the plan would certainly work.
Sarge, Anon and GM:
I still have Part 2 to post but let me correct an apparent misapprehension: I'm not drawing a direct comparison between the Santa Ana Jail and OCJ. My primary purpose is to examine the direct supervision approach to corrections. There are many county jails around the country using direct supervision, and I'm coming around to the belief we need to adopt it to the maximum extent possible here in OC.
Sorry guys but I have to disagree, at least in part, with some of your comments. You should all take your own tour of the jail and check out the charges; it is not an ordinary city jail. A large % of the inmates at SAJ are waiting for sentencing or trial on felony federal charges. They range anywhere from very serious violent offenders like the mexican mafia to members of the aryan brotherhood who had been transferred from federal supermax facilities for the most violent offenders in any jail system in the world. You may have missed all the articles about their trials and that they were being held--some for two years--in SAJ. Before you dismiss their operation and how good it really is you ought to spend the night there so you can live with some of the OC cop killers who spent years there while going through their trial processes. You don't hear anything about the people at SAJ abusing these inmates because it never happens. Maybe that has more to do with the leadership, training and treating people with respect. In turn, the inmates don't feel a need to act up or get aggressive. Although in OCJ the deputies would have probably enjoyed their visits with these minor offenders. At any rate, thanks for the informative write up and comments. Oh, one other thing, SAPD does book its own inmates there, it isn't all rented to other agencies.
BTW, in case you think it takes brute strength to keep order in the jail, I was one of the many women who worked at SAJ and I never had a problem with inmates. Thanks again for the recognition.
Be careful about talking about the age of the respective facilities. Santa Ana's jail is nice and new because they, the City, wanted it. It sounds like it's a money-maker for them. I doubt you could find one typwritten word of concern or opposition from the County on the City's jail construction project, EIR, etc.
In contrast, if the County wanted to upgrade OCJ, you can be your monthly retainers that Santa Ana would whine about how it shouldn't have to burden the County's burden of being home to the County jail. So much for their "Downtown Orange County" jingoism.
Or, much worse, the County would be forced into entering into some lame agreement like that which they signed with the City of Orange.
So it's OK when a city wants to build a jail and collect more of Uncle Sam's money. But if the County wants to do its duty in serving the County (how dare they!), including the city in which their jail is located, it's Not In My Backyard.
Nice article Jubal. It adds a different twist to what we have been reading about the jails. I don't think you can compare the two either. It would take cosiderable doing to redesign that hunk of concrete they call OCJ.
The answer is quite simple. If the offending deputies wanted to play video games, sleep, watch movies and send text messages during work, they should have became firemen, not cops.
:)
OC Insider: I hope your comment was tongue-in-cheek. My son is a firefighter-paramedic in a skid-row area. He works 48-hour shifts and maybe gets 4-6 hours sleep total over the two-days if he's lucky. On his last shift, he ran 19 calls in a 24-hour period. During his "down-time", he's expected to maintain the equipment, clean the firehouse, and participate in on-going training classes. There's hardly time for text messages or video games. My son is a hero. He's saved many lives at risk to his own. He, and his fellow firefighters, deserve our respect.
Nice try! This is obviously a publicity stunt engineered by Lewis, Holder and Walters to try to elevate Walters. Look how nice his jail is... look how crummy the old Main jail is! What a farce!
Try comparing apples to apples as previous posters have suggested.
I ain't buying what you are selling.
How can there be any inmates in the SAJ with the crime rate being at the lowest levels in the last 20 years according to the Mayor & Council?
Glad walters has time to take Lewis and Holder on a tour of his and campaign on my dime instead of chasing the criminals that do 3 million worth of graffiti a year or getting that gang assesmant done.
Warning to South County- Reject Walters for Sheriff unless you want to end up like Santa Ana
Tin foil alert!
Anon @ 10:58 a.m.:
This is not a "publicity stunt." I met with Walters to talk to him about his background, experience and what he wants to do as Sheriff. I I've also met with Craig Hunter, Bill Hunt, Ralph Martin and Jack Anderson. I thought doing so would help me provide better coverage of the Sheriff succession stories.
I'd been wanting to go on a tour of the Santa Ana Jail for long time, especially after touring the OCJ last fall. When Walters asked me if I wanted to tour the facility, I took him up on it.
Thomas:
Is there something wrong with a me taking a tour of the jail? Explain exactly how it deleteriously impacted SAPD operations. Was I taking Walters out of a patrol car or something?
Greg Smith said:
OC Insider: I hope your comment was tongue-in-cheek.
Note the smiley face at the end of my comment.
Lighten up, Frances.
Hey Jubal, I know you are fair and have been spending time with many of the candidates for Sheriff. My questioning it as a publicity stunt was because Lewis and Holder were there with you as well. It just seemed off to me. No offense to you as I think you are fair and unbiased. Sorry if it came off that way.
Why, Thomas. I am beginning to believe the reason you don't want Walters to go to the Sheriff's department is because you have a secret man-crush on him! If he goes, you and Pedroza won't be able to heap your Every-Bad-Thing-That-Happens-In-Santa-Ana-Is-Your-Fault propoganda on him. Don't worry, I'm sure there will be a new chief you will be able to harass.
Matt and John asked if I wanted to meet with Walters. Since I'd wanted to already, I said sure.
Matt and John wanted to tour the jail, as well. It didn't make any sense to have Walters and the Jail Administrator conduct two tours, so I glommed on to John and Matt's tour.
And then instead of writing one article about it, we have your three and another one you solicited. Seems a little much, don'tcha think???
Well, I completely disagree with most of the good that is being said about Santa Ana's Jail facility. The Staff is rude, sick and perverted. I was taken into jail under false circumstances and now am being charged for something I had nothing to do with! (yahh really... thanks for witnesses...) So as soon as I stepped foot I was laughed at by officers, tricked and teased and thrown into isolation for saying I Love You to my boyfriend who was behind me. They accused me of being suicide, they were extremely sarcastic, and i do not remember fighting back, saying a word. I know how to respect my elders and authority, been in a Catholic school for 12 years. I am a good girl, and they knew it and used it against me for their satisfaction. It took 2 1/2 days of me sitting inside an isolated room, they also put some girl who was on heroin inside my cell with me, who was throwing up, and definelty not all there, the girl had no clue where she even was and looked like she was having seizures. Isn't there supposed to be a staff of nurses? guess not. Then the worst part of all was the showers (by the way the food was digusting and OLD. celery and carrots had to have been at least 2 weeks old, wilted, dry and I am a fabulous chef so I KNOW food. and not even the hungry and poor would have been satisfied, not to mention how much of it they WASTE!b/c its so sick nobody wants to eat it)SO ANYWAY the showers, the guard made me take TWO embaressing showers bc "i didn't wash my hair all the way" yah, yelled at me, humilated me and WATCHED me wash my hair and body all over again in front of all the other girls. I am done complaining b/c I know someone as real and honest and good as me wont end up back in there ever again, and theres nothing anybody will do anyway, so whats the point! this System is of a DOWN.