ORANGE COUNTY JAILS

Four jails are controlled by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department Custody Operations Division, who work in tandem with the Orange County Police Department. If an arrestee is not bailed out at one of the OC Police Departments, they are usually transferred to the Orange County Jail Intake-Release Center (IRC) in downtown Santa Ana. The IRC is the entry point to the Orange County Jail system. There, arrestees are screened for medical and mental health issues, booked into the system and assigned a housing unit. This process can take several hours – anywhere from two to ten – but once it is completed, licensed Bail Bond Agents are allowed to "post a bond" at whatever jail the defendant has been assigned to.

Below you will find information for the all four Orange County jails. Each jail listed below features visitor's hours and a link to additional information including location, directions, and inmate information.

THE OCSD JAILS

IRC and Men’s Central Jail

The Central Men's Jail and the Central Jail Complex, opened in 1968, and is located next to department offices in Santa Ana. Collectively, they are known as "OCJ" or Orange County Jail.

Central Women's Jail 

Women in Orange County are taken to the main jail at OCJ or at Theo Lacy. There was a women's section of the main jail. However, it was closed in 2009 in hopes of using the beds for federal prisoners which would represent income to Orange County.

Theo Lacy Jail

This jail is in the city of Orange. It was built in 1960, but a 2006 expansion brought its capacity to 3,100 inmates, making it the largest jail in the county. Theo Lacy sits on eleven acres of land adjacent to the Santa Ana riverbed. The jail has free-standing buildings within fenced compounds. Each contains large outdoor recreational areas. Theo Lacy houses both minimum security inmates and maximum security inmates.

The jail contains its own booking and intake/release center, classification and records sections and inmate law library. A bail bond can be posted at Theo Lacy. All persons who enter the Theo Lacy Facility are subject to a search are required to pass through a metal detecting screening device. Anyone with contraband, firearms, deadly weapons, mace or any instrument likely to produce injury can be arrested. Visitors who won’t submit to this screening process will be denied a visit.

James A. Musick Jail

This is a minimum security facility located land near Lake Forest and Irvine. Also known as "The Farm," it provides work, educational and rehabilitative programs for 1256 adult male and female inmates. The inmates housed here are considered to be a low security risk and most serving time for crimes like driving under the influence, minor drug possession, burglary, failure to pay child support, and/or prostitution.

RECENT OC JAIL REFORMS

In order to upgrade conditions and treatment of inmates, Correctional Head Sheriff Hutchens has made a lot of changes in the OC Jail System. She has personally selected experienced captains to head these jail facilities and she has seen to it that more than a dozen lieutenants and 30 sergeants have rotated through jail assignments.

The Correctional Department implements a “platoon system” that has sergeants supervising the same Deputies each tour instead of having to ride herd on different officers at every shift.

Electronic logs have replaced paper logs and they cannot be changed once an entry is made. Managers can now also view them in real time. Sergeants and Lieutenants are required to inspect the jails more frequently during each shift and digital video cameras have been placed in key facilities, recording all movements of inmates and staff.

Officers undergo ethics training based on lessons learned from recent jail deaths. Sheriff Hutchens also met with the District Attorney shortly after taking office to ensure that he investigates all jail deaths or cases where injuries are life threatening.

New cots and bedding have been issued. Televisions, most electronic entertainment devices and non-professional Internet access has been barred from use by jail staff. A new Use of Force policy requires that all staff witnessing any kind of physical action taken by a Department member, including the use of a Taser or a pepper ball round, must report the incident to their immediate supervisor.

Deputies are trained and expected to identify inmate “shot callers” and if it is believed that an inmate is intimidating other prisoners he/she will be transferred. Deputies are subject to discipline if they lend legitimacy to the role of an inmate leader.