The white elephant is becoming a bit of a political liability in a year in which two of the three commissioners – Sandra Romero and Cathy Wolfe – are up for re-election.
We encourage Commissioners Romero, Wolfe and Karen Valenzuela to continue their attempts to get the doors to the new jail open and the doors to the existing jail slammed shut.
The quest to open the jail has been a decade-long endeavor with some steps forward and some steps back.
After years and years of planning for a new county lockup, voters were drawn into the issue on May 18, 2004. Voters were told that the existing jail, which dates to the 1970s, was overcrowded with dozens of prisoners sleeping on mattresses on the floor every night. The overcrowding sparked concerns for the safety of inmates and correction officers.
In addition, the undersized kitchen was insufficient to meet the demands of a growing inmate population and so were the heating/air conditioning and plumbing systems.
Voters were asked to approve an $88 million bond to build a new Law and Justice Center on county-owned property in Mottman Industrial Park, not far from the courthouse. Voters were told the courts would operate in conjunction with the jail to ensure more efficiency.
Voters responded with a resounding “no.” The final tally of ballots showed 61.16 percent opposed, 38.84 percent in support.
Undeterred, county commissioners scaled back the jail plans and proceeded to build the $45 million Accountability and Restitution Center. The new jail is designed to be expanded in stages.
While the downturn in the economy helped the county when it came time to select a contractor, the loss of revenue meant there was not enough money to staff the new jail once it was completed.
After his election in 2011, Sheriff John Snaza pressed commissioners to hire a consultant to provide the county with jail options. That report, filed this fall, outlined a path to close the county’s lockup and move the jail operation to the new facility. The consultant’s report said the county could move all operations to the jail for about $1.1 million more per year if the jail switches to modified 12-hour staff shifts and puts more inmates than planned in the cells and dorms, along with other money-saving options.
Meeting in a rare Saturday session recently, commissioners pushed the issue forward.
While they did not take official votes, commissioners tentatively agreed to:
• Build a facility and attach it to the ARC to house work-release inmates. A cost hasn’t been determined, but it is expected to cost less than the $1.9 million estimate for adapting an existing building on the jail property.
• Add beds to increase the jail’s originally planned capacity.
• Put a transition team in place to begin moving to the new jail.
• Begin planning to add a women’s jail facility to the ARC. In the meantime, the jail would open with men and women segregated in the same facility.
Don Krupp, the county’s chief administrative officer, said there is $1.5 million left over in the budget for the ARC. That money would be used to get the jail up and running. The goal is to open the jail next year.
It’s a reasonable plan. Neither Commissioner Romero nor Wolfe has filed notice with state officials that they plan to seek re-election in 2012, but it would be a whole lot easier to run on a platform of solving the unopened jail crisis.
