Originally posted at Liberal OC.
By Dan Chmielewski.
Lost in the debate about Jail High or Great Park High is an effort underway by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to seek additional state funds — a maximum of $80 million extra dollars — to expand the Musick Jail on Irvine’s Northeast Corridor.
Staff members of the Sheriff’s Department plan to meet with Irvine City Staff and members of the Irvine City Council to discuss their plans to seek additional funds under SB1022 specifically to expand Musick Jail. The total funds available under SB1022 are $500 million to pay for construction financing for jail facilities with extra consideration being granted to counties that seek to replace existing antiquated facilities with new ones that can handle prisoners for re-entry into society, mental health treatment and space to manage an “adult offender” population.
The total financing is being divided among small, mid-sized and large counties with a maximum of $80 million awarded per large county. It’s unclear how much would come to a successful Orange County bid for more funds, but what is clear is the new funds are earmarked for Musick expansion.
The plans from the OCSD will be presented to the County BoS in early October for their approval. OCSD wants to add two new housing modules in addition to previously disclosed expanded housing modules under AB900; the new newest modules are designated for programming, treatment and medical and would add 384 new beds to the jail site.
With an expanded jail site comes an expanded neighborhood consisting of immediate family and close friends of inmates. We’ll be watching to see how Supervisor Todd Spitzer responds to this threat against Irvine’s neighborhoods with a significantly expanded Musick Jail.