An Opening in the Jail Jam : Expanded Vista Facility Begins Shakedown; Inmates Due Soon

Like a new department store that quietly holds an unpublicized “soft opening” to break in the new staff before the formal opening, the expanded jail in Vista will begin limited operations today.

But the first inmates to move into the expanded jail, 15 months and $29 million in the making, won’t show up until about Aug. 26--nearly two months behind schedule.

Sheriff’s Capt. Jim Marmack, jail commander, said the opening, originally scheduled for July 1, was delayed because of difficulty in rounding up staff.

“We’ve had a problem hiring the cooks, the nurses and getting our deputies trained fast enough to work up here,” Marmack said Monday.

The Vista jail opened 14 years ago to hold 242 inmates. By the time the facility closed in May, 1988, as many as 583 inmates had been squeezed into it.

The expanded jail will hold about 1,000 inmates--making it the largest, single county detention facility in San Diego County. That capacity will probably be reached by the end of the year, Marmack said.

The jail will open in phases, he said.

Starting today, North County’s law enforcement agencies--the Sheriff’s Department, the California Highway Patrol and the Carlsbad, Oceanside and Escondido police departments--will start booking daytime arrestees at the new jail’s booking desk. Those arrested will either be released on their own recognizance, released on bail or transported to either the Central Jail in downtown San Diego or the women’s jail at Las Colinas.

Persons arrested outside the normal day shift will be booked at a smaller booking facility next to Vista Municipal Courthouse, which has continued to be used even while the Vista Jail has been closed for construction.

Bookings to Be Handled at New Jail

Starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday, bookings will be handled at the new jail 24 hours a day, but those held for detention will continue to be transported to downtown San Diego or Santee, Marmack said.

On Aug. 26, jail trusties in San Diego who have Vista court appearances will begin moving into the new jail, “to clean the place up,” Marmack said. And, starting Aug. 28, the jail will begin housing inmates arrested in North County as well as housing inmates held in San Diego or Las Colinas who return to Vista for court appearances. “They’ll be told to bring all their belongings with them, and they’ll stay up here,” Marmack said.

“By Sept. 1, we should have 375 inmates up here, and the jail population will continue to rise to about 1,000, which we should have by the first of the year,” Marmack said.

Fifty-two deputies had been assigned to the jail when it closed 15 months ago. More than half were assigned to other county jails and most have since been transferred to other assignments as part of regular rotations, Marmack said, making staffing difficult.

The expanded jail will be staffed by 121 deputies, many of whom are still in the sheriff’s training academy and not yet graduated, Marmack said. The civilian support staff--booking clerks, correctional counselors, custodians, nurses and cooks--will increase from 38 people in the old jail to 98 in the expanded jail, and many of them are not yet hired.

He said the jail itself is virtually 100% completed. More than 4,000 items--ranging from faulty light switches to fire doors that wouldn’t open properly--have been fixed since the problems were detected in the final months of construction.