Prisons Orange County

Two men who served brief periods in Orange County Jail for traffic violations each filed $1-million claims this week against the county, alleging that sheriff's deputies beat them in separate incidents. The claims, filed Thursday, come three weeks after sheriff's officials opened a criminal probe into accusations that deputies attacked dozens of inmates during a November jailhouse protest.

Overcrowded conditions in the Orange County Jail have contributed to sagging morale among Orange County police officers, who believe that the people they arrest are released too quickly, according to a recently published survey by a UC Irvine professor.

In southern San Diego County, on a dry bluff overlooking Mexico, workers are putting the final touches on an $80-million jail. Come Feb. 22, the East Mesa Jail will be substantially complete, ready for the Sheriff's Department to take the keys and begin checking out the electronic monitors, food services, alarm-rigged fences and the like.

"Welcome to Musick," Sheriff's Deputy Craig Nelson told the 24 stony-faced jail inmates, just off the bus from Santa Ana on a cold, rainy night and now huddled on wooden benches. "This is the easiest time you're going to do in Southern California, provided you follow the rules and regulations." Few inmates who have had the opportunity to compare accommodations at other jails with those at Orange County's James A. Musick Branch Jail would argue.

The city will be the first in Orange County to allow misdemeanor offenders to pay extra to serve their sentences in the less-crowded city jail instead of County Jail. Under the new program, unanimously approved by the City Council on Monday, 16 qualifying misdemeanor offenders may serve their time in the city jail in exchange for a fee ranging from $65 to $100 a day. The program is expected to start this week.

A Superior Court judge Monday ordered the county to reveal whether maximum-security inmates have been housed at the Theo Lacy Jail in the city of Orange, in violation of previous agreements with the city. Earlier this year, Orange had sued the Board of Supervisors after the county unveiled a plan to double the size of the 1,000-bed, medium-security facility, in large part because of overcrowding throughout the jail system.

Five years after his conviction in a sexual assault case, a former Costa Mesa police officer was ordered to begin serving a 60-day sentence in County Jail. William Lauchlan, 39, reported Monday evening to the jail, having been ordered to do so earlier in the day by Superior Court Judge Myron S. Brown. The sentence was first ordered in 1984, but Lauchlan was allowed to remain free as he pursued his appeals, which ended at the U.S. Supreme Court when it refused to hear his case.

An Orange County Jail inmate who died at UCI Medical Center in Orange was identified as a Santa Ana resident, Sheriff's Department officials said Wednesday. Anniele Gillian, 37, had been arrested by Santa Ana police on Jan. 4 on suspicion of possession of narcotics. She was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange Monday night after she experienced difficulty breathing, Sheriff's Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

Over objections of hometown legislators, the Senate on Friday approved an unusual measure designed to break a political deadlock in Orange County and allow officials there to build a new jail near Anaheim Hills. Legislators on both sides of the debate agreed that while the bill was drafted narrowly to deal with Orange County's jail overcrowding problem, it has statewide implications.

It is by anyone's definition a monumental task: finding an acceptable place in Orange County to build a jail. Sheriff Michael S. Carona knew the pitfalls last year when he pledged to south Orange County residents during his election campaign to do what he could to reverse the county's plan to expand the 1,100-bed James A. Musick Branch Jail near Lake Forest. Now, even as Carona met again Monday with elected south county officials searching for new jail sites, roadblocks were apparent.