Jails could rent out 800 beds to ICE

Details are beginning to emerge of a proposal by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department that would allow the county to house more than 800 federal immigration detainees — most with criminal records — in county jails.

Some officials and citizens are raising concerns about residents’ safety.

The proposal calls for the Sheriff’s Department to rent out 838 beds to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to house inmates who have completed jail sentences for crimes and are in the process of being deported, according to a report prepared for the Board of Supervisors.

The program could generate as much as $20 million per year for the cash-strapped Sheriff’s Department, spokesman John McDonald said. The department is facing a $59 million shortfall for the 2010-11 fiscal year, and the program will generate revenue that will prevent the closure of jail facilities and help avoid layoffs and cuts to services.

The board this week authorized sheriff’s officials to proceed with the proposal, and the Sheriff’s Department will complete and submit the proposal to ICE by Monday. A decision by ICE is expected in the next few months.

Under the plan, 472 immigration detainees would be housed at Theo Lacy Facility in Orange and 366 at the James A. Musick Facility, in an unincorporated area near Irvine and Lake Forest.

Assistant Sheriff Mike James said detainees would be transported to the Mira Loma Detention Center in Lancaster for release. He also noted that the county could pick and choose which detainees it accepts in county jails.

“We ultimately have the right to refuse any inmate,” James said. “That’s part of what we want to start negotiating now.”

First District Supervisor Janet Nguyen raised the issue of whether the early release last month of hundreds of inmates from jail was an effort to create enough space for the federal detainees.

James denied the assertion and said there were already more than 2,000 empty jail beds in the county.

“I don’t believe that’s an accurate portrayal of what transpired here,” James said. “We’re not doing any early releases to manage our jail population because there’s no need to.”

Santa Ana already houses between 400 and 500 federal immigration detainees in its city jail under a similar program. Detainees remain in custody for two to six months before being deported.

The Sheriff’s Department says the program will generate revenue that will prevent the closure of county jail facilities and help avoid layoffs and cuts to services.