SANTA ANA – The additional 173 U.S. Marshals Service inmates that Santa Ana agreed to house temporarily at Santa Ana Jail will generate about as much revenue as the facility lost from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recent contract termination.
On a 6-1 vote, the City Council on Tuesday, Aug. 15, approved an appropriations adjustment recognizing $10,217,316 for 10 months of additional jail operations-related revenue in the fiscal year 2017-18. The jail contract that ICE terminated in May represented a roughly $11-million-a-year loss for the city.
“We just had a surprise end-of-the-year loss with the (ICE) federal agency, so this effectively plugs that hole back in at least for two years,” said Councilman Jose Solorio, adding that the new contract moves the city “forward in terms of what we do with our jail because it is an asset.”
Council members have been divided on the future of the 20-year-old jail that has long been operating at a loss but on Aug. 1, with the exception of Mayor Pro Tem Michele Martinez, they voted in favor of accepting 173 more U.S. Marshal’s Service inmates for two years while a detention facility in Los Angeles undergoes renovation.
Martinez, the lone dissenter, did not comment on the dais Tuesday. On multiple occasions, she has said the city should get out of the jail business.
The council Tuesday increased the jail operations budget by $5,924,910 in order to accommodate the larger inmate population. The adjustment includes funding for 13 additional full-time and 25 part-time positions at the jail, overtime and meal, laundry and contract services costs.
“The addition of these positions will return staffing closer to the fiscal year 2015-16 levels when the jail had a higher average daily population. In contrast, the fiscal year 2016-17 staffing levels reflected the decrease in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement inmate population,” the city staff report states.
Council members on Tuesday also adopted a resolution amending the jail’s operations budget to include the 13 full-time correctional officer positions – 10 correctional officers, two supervisors and one manager – and continue housing operations through June 30, 2018.
“This has nothing to do with the previous tenant (ICE), but what it does is it will help for at least two years to have a tenant there in place that can give us time to assess what we plan to do with the jail,” Councilman Vicente Sarmiento said.
The 173 Marshals Service inmates being transferred in “also puts us a lot closer to 100 percent occupancy, which would make the numbers even stronger,” said Mayor Miguel Pulido, who has continued to advocate for running the facility as a jail.
Under the Marshals Service agreement, an estimated 138 inmates would arrive on or after Sept. 1, followed by 35 over the next few months, according to the staff report. The federal agency will pay $105 per inmate per day, consistent with terms of its existing contract with the city.
Tuesday’s vote included putting $4,292,406 toward the reserve appropriation for deficit reduction.
Vanir Construction Management Inc., the firm Santa Ana hired to produce a jail reuse study, reported August 1 that the assessment is about 35 percent complete. The study is expected to recommend detention uses, as well as other options for the building, such as a mental-health facility.