Baker Ranch Opens / Musick Jail Expands

Baker Ranch is about to start selling more than 2,000 homes  that are located within a mile of Musick Jail. For those of you unfamiliar with Musick, it is a County Jail located on County land between Irvine and Lake Forest, between Bake and Alton East of Trabuco. In the old days it used to be called “the farm” and it used to house reasonably low risk inmates convicted of crimes like prostitution, DUI, etc. In recent years, however, the low risk inmates have been replaced by higher risk inmates and more dangerous felons. One reason for this was the Sheriff’s decision to “rent” beds to the feds, and the other major reason was the State’s decision to reduce the size of the State prisons and move felons back to the County level. The State, under pressure from a federal court, still has some 10,000 more prisoners in their charge, so the movement of more serious inmates from State prisons to County jails is likely to continue.

To make matters worse, the Sheriff has asked for and received funds to build a $100,000,000 new jail on the grounds of Musick, and this one will be designed for the more serious prisoners. Indeed, there are cells being built to house maximum security inmates who will be held there for an indeterminate period.

All the media hoopla about the opening of Baker Ranch has avoided mention of the nearness of Baker Ranch to the existing jail and to the proposed new addition. According to real estate law in California, sellers must disclose such things as neighborhood noise and other nuisances , access to the location of registered sex offenders, location within one mile of an area which may contain live ammunition, etc. You would think that being located within one mile of a jail (and especially a jail that is about to have a new building that houses maximum security inmates) would be classified as a “neighborhood nuisance”, yet in all the literature I’ve seen about Baker ranch, there isn’t a peep about this.

The City Council has also been quiet about Musick Jail, probably because it is their agreement with the Sheriff which paved the way for the new addition. The City of Irvine, on the other hand, has been fighting the new addition in the courts. To date it’s been a losing battle, but to their credit and to the disgrace of our own City Council (especially Voigts and McCullough who voted for the expansion), they are continuing their fight. Our own City refuses to put up signs warning drivers not to pick up hitch hikers near the Jail, and they refuse to spend the additional money required by the County to set up a system whereby locals would be warned whenever anyone escapes from the Jail. Escapes are not uncommon, and some years there are several episodes. To date, there are no known assaults upon local residents, but it’s only in the past three years that the nature of the Jail has changed so radically, and continues to change.

Baker Ranch is entitled to sell their homes to anyone who wants to buy them, but in all fairness to the people and the children, people should be warned about the fact that Musick Jail is just down the block.