The $420 million expansion and renovation of the James A. Musick Facility, a plan broached about four decades ago that survived long-ago legal tussles with neighboring cities, is now just a few weeks away from welcoming its first inmates since 2019.
A new 324,300-square-foot facility will hold up to 896 inmates, well down from a once-proposed capacity of nearly 8,000, aims to focus on rehabilitation and mental-health care.
"All these philosophies are employed at our other facilities," said Commander Mark Alsobrook of the Orange County Sheriff's Department, which operates this jail and the others in the county. "This is just the first facility that we've had the opportunity to design with all these philosophies in mind."
This facility first opened in 1963 when it was called the Orange Industrial Farm.
At the edges of Irvine and Lake Forest, Musick has historically been the destination for Orange County's low-level offenders -- drunk drivers, those popped for minor drug possession or who skipped out on child support. Informally known as The Farm, inmates at Musick once toiled the land on the 100-acre parcel, growing food that fed the county's high-security lockup facilities.
The effort to bring a large expansion to a minimum-security institution better known for its low-key structures and agricultural setting drew repeated roadblocks over the years and scrutiny from neighboring communities that feared a change from farm-like facilities to custodial structures more reminiscent of the county's higher-security jails.
But Musick, named after Orange County's sheriff from 1947 to 1975, will serve low- to medium-risk offenders, Alsobrook said, with the facility itself offering maximum-security in structure and design. Besides walls to prevent escape, there will be sheriff's deputy work stations in the housing sectors and more than 800 cameras letting staffers keep an eye on inmates.
Several years ago, Musick's residents were placed in other facilities. Then construction kicked off, in 2020, and included new housing and intake, medical, dental, administration, kitchen, lobby and visitation areas and a warehouse. The bill for construction was $287 million, with another $133 million spent on permitting, fees, the design, new equipment and legal costs.
Some old buildings remain but were heavily renovated.
Musick's layout is meant to minimizing movement. Meals will be eaten in housing areas as opposed to a communal dining hall. Medical and dental services and counseling will all take place under the same roof, connected to the housing area. This will allow prison staffers to reduce the time spent locking down inmates and increase those in custody's out-of-cell time.
Housing areas includes classrooms, where inmates will learn such skills as parenting and getting ready to get a job and how to then find one.
Sheriff's deputies will train inmates, who will in turn work with other inmates on such things as their post-release plans, Dominic Mejico, the sheriff's inmate-service's manager, said while standing in a classroom.
"We have staff that will be in every single housing unit, because their office is located here," he said.
Grays and blues in the housing sectors aim to promote a peaceful environment, aided by murals depicting California landscapes.
"The intent is to provide somewhat of a quiet space so that everybody can decompress," Alsobrook said. "We put a lot of thought into the well-being of the people in our care. Everything here, including the color palettes and murals on the walls, is intended to set that expectation, but also induce a sense of normalcy."
Musick will initially start at a quarter capacity and gradually grow its population, so some construction and modifications can take place. In the beginning, only men will come to Musick before women inmates are added in separate quarters.
Once, there was substantial backlash about a Musick expansion from officials of nearby Irvine and Lake Forest.
A plan in the 1990s called for the jail, in an unincorporated swath not far from Lake Forest homes, to become a maximum-security prison that housed nearly 8,000 inmates -- prompting lawsuits from both cities that failed.
In 2012, a man in custody for theft and drug charges escaped from Musick but was eventually recaptured. A year later, another inmate, in custody for a property crime, took off but got nabbed as well. But that was before added safeguards.
If any fears exists, they shouldn't, said a county leader.
"I don't think the residents genuinely have those concerns in any significant numbers, and they certainly shouldn't," Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner said. "This is a safe facility, and it's going to be a state-of-the-art facility that's going to benefit the whole community."