A “Smaller Jail” may be in the making.
Jay – The Delaware county Public Facilities Authority Wednesday approved creating a cost analysis on a compromise solution for what has become a 4-year struggle to resolve overcrowding in the Delaware County Jail.
After nearly 2 hours, Authority member Duane Watts made the motion to request the engineering firm develop a new concept to build possibly 60 more beds adjacent to the current jail, and limit the tax to 2/10%
John McArtor of the local group Get America Back was first to speak, and suggested to authority members that putting people in jail is the most expensive choice to correct bad behavior. Currently, the people of Delaware County want more than a new jail, they want the county to develop alternatives to incarceration.
McArtor also told the authority members, that this last election caught Grove leaders by unprepared and there was no time to mount an aggressive campaign against the jail tax. This next time if the authority goes again with such a proposal, that will not be the case.
Tom Sanders representing a new statewide organization “Oklahoma Smart” also suggested “We can’t continue to see putting more people in prison as the solution… we just can’t afford it.” Sanders suggested that we look at new alternatives, suggesting using the existing jail as a base, and figuring out how and where we ad 50 beds to meet our current needs.
Delaware County District Attorney Eddie Wyant energized a compromise by indicating his support for the 2/10s cent sales tax idea, suggesting building a smaller jail on site could meet our needs for some time, and with the bad economy we are in, that might be the solution. Wyant also threw his support towards new concepts replacing incarceration in some cases with community sentencing.
“I am not in favor of a band-aid,” committee member Becky Farley said repeatedly. “I know a lot of people don’t believe this, but we have been trying to be good stewards and look for the best option for the county in the long term.”
Still, Farley said she is willing to concede that bringing the north and south communities of the county together to get something done at this point is more important than the committee’s long-term goals.
According to Farley, the board previously considered the cost of expanding the county’s current jail facility astronomical on a per-bed basis as compared to building a new facility. But when it comes down to building something that will get the county’s residents out from under the threat of being fined on their property taxes or building something that will take the county through the next 20 years, Farley said she would be in favor of a short term solution, as unpalatable as it may be.
According to Delaware County Commissioner Ken Crowder, a .2% sales tax would bring in approximately $578,000 per year.
Video Recordings of the entire meeting will be uploaded for review by Thursday evening….dd
They see what needs to be done but everyone is waiting for someone else to get the courage to say it. Drug offenders should not be incarcerated. There I said it. Now talk about it. It will save money in about 5 different ways. Like direct savings on the corrections. Less manpower directed at a moral choice and more on dangerous crimes. Howabout the foster care and child welfare system? Hard to be a parent behind bars. Lets free up the docket and the jails. Use education and mandatory treatment imstead of the Gulag.
.2% sales tax increase to build a solution to the county’s jail woes? How about re-allocating the current .9% tax rate for rural fire/greenbox to include the .2% for a new jail? According to CommIssioner Ken Crowder’s data on tax collections, the rural fire department tax generates approximately $1,156,000 per year for the purchase of fire equipment. And this amount is surely based upon revenue flows to the county during a recessionary economy. In the 8-10 years of its existence the tax revenue for the purchase of equipment must approach $10 – $12 million dollars. That amount does not include the voluntary contributions by the fire district residents. That’s a lot of modern fire equipment. The green box tax based upon Mr. Crowder’s own data would have produced even more $millions. Sure seems to me that a new sales tax is not needed in order to build a new jail. An election for re-allocation in lieu of an election for an increase in ANY kind of tax might garner majority support. Oh well.
Becky Farley may have finally relented on her continued position of full blown prision with 228 beds in the industrial park. However, she adamently refused to agree for a review of the rehabilitation of the present abandonded 36 bed jail in the court house. The reason being the flooding, mold and sewer problems. During a recent visit these items were discussed with the guide ( a sheriff department employee) the sewer problem has been fixed, and the main reason a flooding problem still exists is the abandonment of the sump pumps in the facility. The writer could not detect a moldy environment, but if it does exist it can certainly be remediated. Several companies should be asked to inspect that facility and present a plan with cost to fix. That would immediately increase the size of the jail by 50%. Let's get our head completely out of the sand and look at all options.