Please tell me I didn't read what I thought I read. I'm referring to the story in the Feb. 8 Ledger Dispatch, "Supes eyeing money for new county jail," and if so, could this be just another example of the short-slightness of our supervisors?
The article said our current 76-bed jail built in 1984 is inadequate (true), and by 2010 the jail will need an additional 89 beds to keep up with the increase in crime and growing inmate population, so they, our supervisors, are looking to build a new 165-bed jail.
If all the estimates are correct, we don't need a 165-bed jail, we need a 250-bed jail; do the math. An additional 89 beds added to the already existing 76 equals 165, the 2010 prediction. We're in the year 2008 and nothing but talk of a new jail has been done. If and when it is approved, it will be years before it becomes a reality.
Supervisors, please, just once do it right and plan beyond the next year or two and really plan for the future. Stick with the 165-bed plan and by the time it's built, we'll be facing the same overcrowding we are today and back to square one, again.