County jails are expected to be filled to capacity in four months.

When that happens, officials said there may be no more bed space to rent out to federal agencies in county jails, putting an end to contracts Sheriff’s officials have used to off-set deep budget cuts in the department.

The growing jail population is pushing out space to lease out beds to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals. It will also leave the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in a situation it has not found itself in for years: the potential to reach full capacity and the need to search for the space to house its own inmates.

Since October of last year, more than 1,500 inmates have been shifted from state prisons to Orange County jails.

“(We’re) trying to guess where we’re going to hit the break point,” said Assistant Sheriff Mike James, who handles custody and court operations. “We do anticipate some leveling off, but if the trend that we’re seeing now continues we could be completely full in the next four months.”

The department has already begun to look at their options to control the increasing population, including placing more inmates on electronic surveillance and speaking with city police departments to use city jails as a sort of “pressure valve.”

Officials with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said they need to start planning now.

As of June 20, the population in county jails reached 6,586. It’s a sharp contrast to where the county’s average monthly population was two years ago. With crime rates continuing to decrease across the country, the jail population in Orange County averaged 4,663 in Feb. 2010, a low that had not been seen since 2002.

In a time of declining crime rates, sheriff’s officials closed down some of the jail wards and leased the empty beds for immigration detainees, helping the department to stave off deep cuts to personnel or resources.

Federal payments

Under the agreement with federal agencies, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department was paid $118 per immigration detainee per day. Depending on the number of detainees housed in county jails, the department stood to receive about $30 million from the federal agencies a year.

On June 20, there were 793 immigration detainees being housed in county jails.

“What we have been successful in doing is keeping the ICE number up, while keeping everyone else in custody,” James said.

Sheriff’s officials will need those beds by October, he said. To meet the demand, the department has gradually re-opened sections of the jails that were previously closed. In April, the last of those facilities was back in full service – Women’s Jail in Santa Ana.

Though the department currently has about 450 empty beds in the jails, 150 to 300 of them can’t be used in a daily basis because of inmates isolated for protective and security reasons. And since Oct. 2011, the department has continued to see a steady increase in the population.

Authorities credit much of the increase to AB 109, a state program referred to as “realignment” that has shifted the housing of thousands of inmates from state prisons to county jails. Since then, county jails have housed convicts and parole violators that would have been sentenced to state prison earlier.

There are currently 789 inmates in county jail that would have been in state prison previously, James said.

The state’s legislature has provided funding to counties to handle the increase in costs, but officials point out it is not as beneficial as the Sheriff’s contract with ICE and U.S. Marshals.

Electronic surveillance

From Oct. 2011 to the end of the year, Orange County received $26 million from the state. The Sheriff’s department received $13 million of those funds. The department used $4 million to handle the cost of health care to the inmates.

More inmates are being placed under electronic surveillance and the Community Work Program. Under the Community Work Program, inmates are assigned and supervised to work in county facilities instead of serving their time behind bars.

The program usually kept about 130 inmates, but has seen as many as 310 recently, he said.

Sheriff Sandra Hutchens also plans to ask the board of supervisors for the ability to use electronic surveillance in for inmates in misdemeanor cases, James said. Under the proposal, the inmate would have had to have completed 30 days of their sentence.

That could help check the population, he said. Of those currently being held in county jails, 70 percent of them are awaiting trial proceedings.

James said the department is also exploring the possibility of reaching out to city agencies, where local jails could be used as a sort of “pressure valve” when the population peaks. The proposal is still in its early phases, but the Sheriff’s Department could possibly transfer inmates to city jails if county jails reach their limit.

In March, the Sheriff’s Department secured a $100 million grant to expand the minimum security James A. Musick jail, adding 512 beds to the department.

“It doesn’t look like it’s going to be enough,” James said.

Contact the writer: shernandez@ocregister.com or 949-454-7361