Arrest the plans to a new jail

We have a problem in Monroe County. The county council is thinking about spending $58 million … on a band-aid. \nBecause of an inmate-rights lawsuit, Monroe County officials have found themselves scrambling to rectify the problem of jail overcrowding. With little time to work out a solution, the county council is considering using an 85 acre plot of land on the south side of the county to patch the hole. The county purchased this land just last year to build a new juvenile facility, and now, possibly a newer and larger jail.\nJust a few short years ago, Monroe County built our current jail (which is still a new jail as far as many are concerned). When it was built, the citizens of Monroe County were promised the jail would have enough space to last well beyond what it actually did. This phenomenon is not very surprising. In our security-obsessed society, when we have jail cells, we fill them.\nThat being the case, what assurances could the county possibly give us that the new jail -- should it be built -- would not find its inmate population swelling to overcapacity in a very short time? If they can give us none, this new jail would not be a solution to our problem. It would be nothing more than a ridiculously expensive hairplug that would only delay our need to find real solutions to our very real problem.\nThe problem is not our jail. Many of the people in it are not there because they have been convicted of a crime. They are there because they cannot afford bail.\nWhen asked about his opinion on the new jail, criminal justice professor Bill Head said, "It would be silly to waste money on a new jail. It's a well known fact in Monroe County that only a couple of judges are responsible for filling the jail, that most of them are perfectly happy to look for alternatives to incarceration."\nOur judges have at their disposal a vast array of alternatives. Among them are probation, house arrest, day reporting, community service and on and on. The judges are well aware of these alternatives. Anyone who has been picked up for illegal consumption or public intoxication can attest to that.\nSo, why is it then that these judges are sending people to jail for nonviolent, victimless crimes like possession of a controlled substance (something I'll bet a few of you are familiar with as well)? Honestly, I do not know.\nInstead of focusing on temporary fixes to our problems, our elected officials ought to focus on the roots of these ails. What we need is not a $58 million quick fix that will cost us another $2 or 3 million annually to operate. Since the new jail will be located a few miles away from the courthouse, there also will be an unknown cost for transporting the inmates back and forth.\nWhat we need is for our justices to stop locking away anyone who comes into their courtrooms for the most meager of legal infractions. What we need is for bail to be set at levels where ordinary people can afford to pay it. We do not need to have a jail full of people who ought to be considered innocent, as they have yet to even stand trial, much less been found guilty.\nBuilding a new jail is not the answer for Monroe County. Doing so would only take money out of the hands of the taxpayers and allocate it into a black hole. Our schools have found themselves millions of dollars short. Personally, I believe that if we are going to spend $58 million, we might as well do it on our children, not on cages of steel and concrete.