Voters have said NO on two previous bond requests to fund a new jail prior to the current economy. They are now willing to spend $35,000 of scarce tax dollars for a special election for a new jail.
Do they not understand we are paying all we can afford in property and business tax?
$46MM for the bond equals $58+MM on the easy pay plan they want us to underwrite. They are not telling us how much it will cost to staff and maintain a new jail. Average costs for a jail of this size run in the neighborhood of $15-20MM a year. This cost will come from higher taxes on all property and businesses in Canyon County.
There is a serious disconnect between the Sheriff, the Prosecutor, the judges and taxpayers ability to pay more property taxes. The United States has the highest incarceration rate on the face of planet Earth. It currently costs $84/day to keep someone in our jail.
Commissioners have twice violated public trust with illegal purchases of property for jail sites and twice citizens have filed lawsuits over their illegal behavior. What they tried to accomplish on the sly they now want to do with a bond election and are asking you to sanction their bad choices.
The average jail sentence is 18-20 days. In the mid 1990’s the average was 9 days. They could double the jail space by reigning in jail sentences and court efficiency by getting indigent jail inmates through the system in a timely manner.
More use of alternative sentencing along with the use of cite and release for misdemeanor violations rather than immediate incarceration.
If current jail conditions are atrocious it is due to poor management of a public asset. ACLU lawsuit cost taxpayers $190k for our elected and appointed officials not taking care of the place.
Now is not the time to put more tax burden on our citizens, businesses and property owners. We are asking you to vote NO on the jail bond Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010.
It will cost taxpayers $8,000/day to pay back the bond debt for the next 20 years. It will also cost taxpayers $39,600/day to operate a new jail of the size Commissioners want to build. $47,600 a day to keep people in jail at our expense.
Call the County Elections Office @ 454-7562 to find your polling place. Or you can vote early at the county elections office in Caldwell at the corner of 11th Avenue and Chicago. There are only 12 polling places open for this special election for the entire county.
I am from Florida and we used Pretrial Release to relieve overcrowding of the jail. It worked fine until the bail bond people and their lobby shut it down. Now we are back to overcrowded jails.
ReplyDeleteThere are some really nutty reasons why people end up in jail more often than not it is not for "criminal" activity.
Prison costs in Idaho on top of jail costs at the local level cost about $2MM/year on top of county jail costs. Ten bucks per hundred of every state tax dollar goes to IDOC.
This sounds like your own opinion rather than truth. You didn't meantion either how much it costs to run the current jail and to find out what the difference between the two would be. Your not letting people know all the info before telling them to vote no. And it would cost a lot of money to actually fix and maintain the current jail that was improperly built in the first place. The ACLU needs to stop sueing for stupid crap. Who do you think has to pay for their frivolous law suits everytime a criminal sneezes. The tax payers! Get rid of the current commissioners and kick the ACLU out and then get to work on whatever we need to get the job done. Whether it be a new jail or spending the same amount on fixing the old (which would need to be torn down and built again).
ReplyDeleteIdaho Legislature needs to follow this and how it actually works out for everyone..
ReplyDeleteBallot title: Changes California Law to Legalize Marijuana and Allow It to Be Regulated and Taxed.
Official summary: Allows people 21 years old or older to possess, cultivate, or transport marijuana for personal use. Permits local governments to regulate and tax commercial production and sale of marijuana to people 21 years old or older. Prohibits people from possessing marijuana on school grounds, using it in public, smoking it while minors are present, or providing it to anyone under 21 years old. Maintains current prohibitions against driving while impaired.
Summary of estimated fiscal impact: Savings of up to several tens of millions of dollars annually to state and local governments on the costs of incarcerating and supervising certain marijuana offenders. Unknown but potentially major tax, fee, and benefit assessment revenues to state and local government related to the production and sale of marijuana products.
I server on the Committe Against the Jail Bond.
ReplyDeleteA public records request was made for jail ops costs on 7-13-10. County is stonewalling a response. The sent me letter received on 7-16 stating they needed more time to fulfill my requested info.
In 2009/10 costs were $9.3 Million to run current jail or $84/day per jail bed as stated by Commissioner Kathy Alder in the Fall of 2009 during a citizens group in Caldwell. Average cost to keep someone in jail nationally runs at $60/day.
You can go to the ACLU website and pull up the actual Canyon County complaint. Fix it, maintain it, and stop overcrowding. No mention in lawsuit lawsuit of buiding a new jail in the ACLU complaint. The decree cost taxpayers $190k for ACLU legal fees.
Commishes were given tons of time to do the right thing but thought they could use the ACLU to arm twist the taxpayers for a new jail.
Old part of jail was shut down by the Sheriff due to wet toilet paper on the air ducts put there by inmates. No airflow and high humidity caused mold and mildew to form on a newly rennovated jail. Sheriff spent $300K sending inmates to other counties due to the TP problem on the air ducts.
All of this is a matter of record and can be found in the local paper archives.
Liar liar pants on fire! $10 of every dollar does not go to IDOC. $9.40 of every $100 goes to Public Safety which includes IDOC, State Police, State Lab, Policemans academy and so forth.
ReplyDeleteLook at the state budget and try reading it this time. Anonymous 1 doesn't know the Sherrifs are pushing the pre trial angle already and are starting to win the support of the judges to use it. Anonymous 2 nailed the real problem on the head. Anonymous 3 wants to legalize pot, which has nothing to do with this thread, and Anonymous 4 is just well I dont know what his problem is.
Plese respect the fact some people are now private citizens and not public officials. Comments about private citizens will be moderated ..nice word for removed.
ReplyDeleteCivility is the word of the day here..
Paul
It's not like it will cost that much for building the new jail. I would have to pay about $32 dollars a year more on my taxes which only comes to $640 in the whole 20 years. Really??? I'm willing to pay it to keep my kids and family safe from the people who are currently walking the streets because there is no room in the current jail. It comes down to how much do you love your children? Do you love them more than $32 dollars a year or not? I do think though that most the people who want to vote no have criminals in there family. Why else would they not want a new jail? It means they're son or daughter would actually be punished instead of walking free right now. All though maybe they haven't thought about the nicer facilaty that their precious little babies would be living in instead of that horrible run down nasty place they're in now.
ReplyDeleteThe building is not the major cost. It is operations costs for a new jail. If the county can't afford a doggie jail for less than a million where will they come up with $15 million or so to run a new jail.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a case of if we build it we will "find" the money. It will surely be a huge county tax increase. Enough, I say, I also see inmates now residing in the work release section here to fore with only 52 people. We were fed a bunch of lies about not being able to house inmates in there and had to pay the cost of inmates in other jails. How much of our money was wasted in out of county jails?
I am disgusted with all the lies and half truths from the commissioners and sheriff.
Unfortunately our so called city ,county and state leaders are following the same line of thinking we have in Washington D.C. We will borrow money that does'nt exist and pay for it with money we don't have. Things will change at some point but the question is how that change occurs. God help us it could be a long rough ride.
ReplyDeleteThe Work Release Center is only a tent. Has anyone been camping and realized how easily a tent gets torn. Now remember, people are in jail for breaking the law, what are the chances that they follow the rules while in jail? So when they are told not to tear the tent, do you think they listen?
ReplyDeleteNow imagine that we fill this "tent" with all the inmates we can, 218 people who don't want to be in jail. We have rival gang members (but according to some "we don't have a gang problem"), these people are in a stressful situation, with a lot of tension. How long will it take before we have a full scale riot? What will that cost the tax payers?
The Work Release Center was designed for people to leave for most of the day and then come back to jail to sleep. Tax payers don't want to pay more taxes no matter what the economy is doing. What you have to do is sit back and look at the bigger picture. Ask yourself this question, is this a good price now or would I rather pay $80 million when the economy gets better?
Please take the time to gather all the facts, talk to Sheriff Office employees and their families, get input from your elected officials (but take it with a grain of salt, they are politicians after all). Once you feel you have all the information then cast your vote on August 3rd.
Unless something major changes my mind, I will be voting No on the jail bond this time around. AND YES I did my research, after all I voted yes on the bond last year.
ReplyDeleteWhere to we get vote NO signs?
ReplyDeleteWhy dont they ease some overcrowding by have non violent inmates work, and stay at the animal shelter?
ReplyDeleteSigns can be had in downtown Caldwell from Arlene Yamamoto at 215 S. Kimball (the old Sherwood Florist bldg)
ReplyDeleteBrandt realty office in Nampa from Maurice Clements.
If you want to contact me I can give you more info on signs. See the header on my blog for my email address.
paul