What We Need Next

It's obviously difficult to think past where we are right now in terms of the economy. What goes down does eventually come up. By all accounts we will see some tough times over the next 18 months before recovery kicks in with some relief.

It's time to plan for that recovery and what we, as a county, should be focused on. I would offer that it's time to consider our jail situation.

For most of us the jail has been an issue for many years that doesn't quite hit home. We have heard conflicting information. We have listened to those who are firmly rooted in the past at a time when the present jail was built and then value engineered into a configuration that was simply only adequate for the time.

Jails must be more today than just a lock-up. Jails must provide for public safety by allowing for isolation between inmates with different issues. Jails must provide a higher level of safety for those who run them. Inmates with dangerous infections must be quarantined. Violent offenders must be secured differently from the general population. There must be more space designed to allow deputies a place to do the administrative work necessary to track inmates effectively through the system.

I have toured the jail and while it is far from a Mayberry-style three cell lock-up, it clearly does not meet the needs of those who run it, or those who are held within it.

This issue has been studied to death.

When the time is right I suspect you will be asked to support a new jail facility. I've come to believe it is justified.