City Orders Study on Challenge to Jail Expansion

Charging that a planned expansion of the County Jail would “hurt business and jeopardize the safety of residents,” the Los Angeles City Council directed the city attorney Wednesday to explore mounting a legal challenge against the project.

Three council members, who collectively represent Chinatown and East Los Angeles residents near the project, said the area already has too many jails and prisons.

Endorse Motion

“Very frankly, what we’re saying is build the jail somewhere else,” said Councilwoman Gloria Molina, joined by Councilman Michael Woo at a City Hall press conference to endorse Councilman Richard Alatorre’s motion for the legal inquiry.

The unanimous council action came in reaction to an Aug. 29 decision by the Board of Supervisors to add 2,408 beds to the facility, which is the county’s largest jail.

Sheriff Sherman Block has said that increasing the jail’s capacity to 9,000 inmates is badly needed to alleviate overcrowding. The jail is already so crowded that inmates must sleep on cots in hallways and the chapel.

Undersheriff Robert A. Edmonds, reached for comment after the council vote, said a legal challenge would amount to an attempt to kill the $325-million expansion project by stalling it long enough to deny it needed funds. If construction does not start by Sept. 1, 1990, he said, the county would have to return $235 million in state bonds.

David Diaz, a leader of a coalition of Latino and Asian groups fighting the expansion project near Union Station, said Alatorre’s council motion would mark the start of “a long and extended legal battle.”

Alternative Sites

Diaz, co-chairman of L.A. Action, charged that the project’s environmental reports were incomplete, which he said would serve as the legal basis for a challenge. Both Diaz and Alatorre said the county violated state laws by not looking at alternative sites before preparing its environmental reports.

Alatorre said the council’s legal staff could report back in as little as a week. His motion also called on the Board of Supervisors to reconsider its approval.

“Clearly, they went in with the idea that ‘we’re going to construct a prison next to the present facility on Bauchet (Street), irrespective of the impact it has on the surrounding community,’ ” Alatorre said.

Woo said the supervisors made a “disastrous” decision without considering issues such as the jail’s proximity to schools and residents.

Molina said the fight against the jail expansion should not be viewed as opposition to jails in general. Instead, she said, it comes from the recognition that they should be built or expanded in other areas besides downtown or East Los Angeles.

Community Encircled

“This is a community that is encircled by these penal facilities,” she said. “We have an over-concentration.”

Edmonds said the city of Los Angeles is one of the biggest users of the County Jail. The Los Angeles Police Department books many of its prisoners directly into the facility, he said, adding that “the city has got to come to grips” with the fact that the jail has existed in the area for about 30 years without causing major problems.