Phase two of the James A. Musick Jail expansion project has been officially green lighted by the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

A first expansion at the Irvine facility was approved last December, and at that time, the board had allocated $100 million in state grant monies to fund construction that would ultimately add 512 beds.

The OC Sheriff's Department has confirmed that the design for phase one is already underway.

Now, the county is waiting to hear back from Sacramento to learn whether $80 million of that grant can be reallocated to fund what they describe as being phase two. Phase two does not call for additional square footage, they said, but will instead amend the number of expanded inmate beds from 512 to 384.

At a day and time where many county jails are busting at the seams, some wonder why the county would want to cut the initial expansion by nearly 25%.

A Musick Jail spokesperson said that the total project is expected to add approximately 3,000 square feet.  Instead of using all of it for housing, they said, they would like to re-purpose a portion of it to set up substance abuse treatment areas.

They are also looking at other programs that will help reduce recidivism.  They believe that healthy, better educated inmates are less likely to re-offend.

They say the primary goal in all this is to rehabilitate detainees in such a way that they don't wind up back behind bars.

At the current time, the state's recidivism rate tops 70%.  This, coupled with ongoing pressure to reduce the number of inmates being held in county and state facilities, means placing a greater focus on rehabilitation.

Musick Jail officials have also said they will begin to have probation department officers meeting with inmates before their sentences are up.  They are hopeful this will help keep detainees on the right track once they're reintegrated into society.

Area residents are reportedly wary about projects that involve making jails bigger.   The primary concern, according to Irvinians, relates to public safety.  As long as the jail will continue to have an honor farm character to it, they are OK with more inmates being housed there.

On the other hand, if the county wants to begin adding medium and maximum security offenders, that's when they'll really put a proverbial foot down.

The Supervisors continue to state there is no plan to expand the Musick Jail to a mega-facility.