Started Already
All you have to do is bring up the jail and the spinning begins.
We had a response from a reader who wants to pit building the jail we need against the needs of local youth to "keep them off the streets". I read that sort of thing and just shake my head.
Effective criminal justice and keeping kids busy are mutually exclusive in this discussion.
We have OYA.
We don't have the best option for holding adults.
If the argument is about money, that's different again.
"We can't support both a swimming pool and a new jail"
The aquatic center clearly needs a different marketing strategy..actually, it needs a marketing strategy period. This expensive animal is just a concern for Astorians. The jail is a countywide problem that needs meaningful solution and citizen support from a majority of county citizens who should be convinced of the need by now.
6 comments:
Tom,
While the concept of a new jail may seem like common sense given all the press, there are some big missing pieces. For example, how would a new jail reduce crime in Clatsop County? Logic may say that putting 50 or 100 more people in jail will eliminate the crime that 50 or 100 people might commit, but the fact is that there are and always will be more people that need to be put in jail than can be put in jail and putting 50 or 100 more in may or may not reduce crime. Local law enforcement will fill any jail as soon as it is built, but that may not be effective in reducing crime. What needs to be done before a jail is effective is to design an effective criminal justice system. That means, in our case, that our independently elected law enforcement leaders (district attorney, sheriff and judges) must agree on who will be in jail, for how long, what happens to them in jail and what happens to them when they get out. Blindly echoing the cry that the jail is overcrowded is as bad as asking for a new study. First, the people we elected must do their jobs. Second, more money can be provided to improve those jobs. Not vice versa, which is what you suggest.
If we want Judge Nelson's Drug Court to work, we need a (bigger) jail, if we want officers to get their reports written before the people they arrested are released, we need a jail.
It's not a jail and nothing else. You need a jail like you need a water treatment plant.
I agree that our elected criminal justice officials need to get their acts together before we add $10 million or so to our property taxes. Look at the recent drug task force bust. The Sheriff's drug task force finally arrested a few people and the druggies were back on the street the same day. Blame the matrix? The Sheriff runs the matrix! But, then, maybe drug enforcement is not his priority anymore. Unless the people we elect to manage the system can come up with some guarentees that spending millions will result in something other than enriching their egos, their demands should not be met with tax payer money. Now, if the Sheriff wants to privatize the jail, that's another matter. Private jails are cheaper and they provide more to inmates than the Clatsop County Jail.
The JUDGES decide who goes to jail and for how long.
Come to court if you think there is anybody in jail who does not belong there.
It's the other way around.
And, who says the drug court system works? Didn't the Daily A just report on a druggie who "successfully" completed drug court and was just convicted of another another possession of meth charge? Oh well, it is a nice try in an effort to get adults to take responsibilty for their behavior without having to suffer the appropriate consequences. Would a new jail help? No, because the Sheriff does not understand and has never had the gumption to deal with the idea of treatment. Prison would work, but that is a State of Oregon issue.
While a worthy effort, why should one believe the drug court concept works? Look at the recent newspaper article about the drug court "graduate" arrested and sentenced for possession of meth.
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