Why should law-abiding taxpayers who will never set foot in a jail in their lives approve construction of a new $13 million Blaine County Public Safety Facility?
One word: Safety.
The vote on Feb. 6 will determine whether or not residents are serious about keeping taxes low and families safe, and keeping dangerous people behind bars while they await trial.
The county's existing 34-year-old jail—grossly grungy, overcrowded and dangerous—is one of the worst in Idaho.
The sheriff notes that inmates have escaped from time to time—just a few blocks from the Hailey Elementary School.
It's dangerous for law enforcement officers who work inside. Who wants a job with a high risk of being attacked or encountering flying body fluids?
It's time Blaine County citizens started to worry about retaining and recruiting enough officers to keep the county safe.
It's time to worry about what might happen when parents or their kids make a mistake—even a little mistake.
Women charged with drunk driving or other offenses now are shipped out of county to await trial because there's no room for a women's section in the present jail. Juveniles are shipped out as well—away from family and friends.
That's expensive. It costs $50 a day to send inmates outside the county—far more than keeping them here.
Not worried yet?
Blaine County voters are not the only ones who have put off a new jail.
Jails in Portland, Ore., are so crowded that the Board of County Commissioners told the sheriff to release the least dangerous people awaiting trial. Pre-trial incarceration is a joke.
Fire up the computer and take a look at www.inmatereleases.org. There that county lists people released: names, photos and charges like drug dealing, possession, burglary and theft.
The pictures aren't pretty. They're not pretty in the Blaine County Jail either.
Local taxpayers looking for a bargain facility will get what they're looking for.
The facility includes a new 44-bed jail plus 20 work-release spaces for a maximum of 64 inmates. It would also contain training areas, office space and a new countywide dispatch center.
The price tag at nearly $13 million would cost property owners less than 2 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. That means that the average Hailey homeowner would pay just $8 a year for this project.
It's a pay now or pay later proposition. If the jail's old pipes give out or the roof goes, it will shut down. Every inmate will get shipped out of the county, and only the whopping bills will come back.
If the county loses a major lawsuit because of jail conditions, its budget could be crippled for years.
Safety is worth eight bucks a year. It's worth giving up a few cups of coffee to sleep soundly in the knowledge that the county is doing something about crime.
