Theo Lacy Facility (TLF)

Captain Davis Nighswonger
Captain Davis Nighswonger
The Theo Lacy Facility is commanded by Captain Davis Nighswonger and employs over 325 sworn and 105 professional staff members. It contains a diverse arrangement of housing areas, from minimum to maximum security. The barracks are free-standing buildings within fenced-in compounds containing large outdoor recreational areas. The minimum security inmates housed there have more freedom of movement than those assigned to the more secure areas of the jail. Many of these inmates hold jobs as inmate workers, performing various cleaning, kitchen and maintenance functions throughout the facility. The maximum security housing areas are state of the art, modern modules where inmate movement is more restricted. The facility performs a wide range of functions, including providing over 63,000 meals a week from its kitchen. Medical, dental, and mental health facilities are provided as well. The jail contains its own booking and intake/release area, classification, records sections, and inmate law library. In addition to these services, the Theo Lacy Facility hosts two unique programs that are found nowhere else in the Orange County jail system: "Phoenix House New Start Program" and the "Community Work Program."

History

Named in honor of former Sheriff Theo Lacy, this is the largest correctional institution in Orange County. Situated on eleven acres of land adjacent to the Santa Ana riverbed in the City of Orange, this facility has undergone a great deal of expansion in the past decade. The final stage of construction was completed in 2006.
Originally opened in 1960 to relieve overcrowding at Santa Ana's Sycamore Street Jail, the Theo Lacy Facility consisted of only five barracks with a housing capacity of slightly over four hundred inmates. Those numbers remained unchanged for over twenty-five years, as jail expansion occurred elsewhere in the department with the building of the Central Men's and Women's Jails and the Intake Release Center. Additional barracks were built in the late 1980's and early 1990's, and planning began for the construction of a new administration office complex as well.

Beginning in the mid 1990's, the facility began a period of rapid expansion that continued until 2006. During this renovation period, the facility’s original barracks were also remodeled and completed in 2004. After the final phase of construction was completed in 2006, the facility was able to increase its total population capacity to over 3,100 inmates.