RSSYakima must contain jail costs, not build new facility
Yakima Herald-Republic Editorial Board
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This editorial appears in the Nov. 29, 2009, Yakima Herald-Republic.
For the city of Yakima, crime indeed doesn't pay. It costs, dearly.
Skyrocketing jail costs have only added to the city's deepening financial woes. Too many prisoners and too few jail cells contribute to the problem. Solutions are few and the prospect of building more jail space comes with a high price, both in terms of real dollars and political capital.
On average, the city has about 140 prisoners in custody. Its jail, though, has only 76 beds for minor offenders and is rarely at capacity due to security reasons. One more thing: Yakima's jail can't house women.
That means the city must pay other cities -- Wapato, Toppenish and Sunnyside -- to house its prisoners. Yakima also sends some to the county jail.
This is where costs hit the ceiling. Right now Yakima pays almost twice as much for contract beds at other jails. For instance, it costs $52 to house a prisoner in the Yakima jail for one day. At the Yakima County jail, the price jumps to $86 in addition to medical costs.
That results in nearly a 2-to-1 cost ratio -- $2.65 million for contract beds compared to $1.5 million for the city jail.
To remedy the situation, city officials are venturing into stormy waters -- the prospect of building a 160-bed facility next to the current jail so all of its prisoners could be held under one roof.
Two years ago, the city appeared headed in that direction and set aside $80,000 for a feasibility study. That failed to materialize after early estimates pegged the construction costs at $8 million.
However, given the rising jail costs, city officials are again wondering if it's the right time to build that 160-bed facility. The city already has a location in mind. It recently purchased a site across the street from the police station on South Third Street for $350,000.
Looks promising, doesn't it? But not so fast. The city is a long way from even considering this option. Tackling such an expensive project, given the economic troubles the city is dealing with, doesn't make much sense.
The city certainly couldn't undertake such a venture without voter approval, and that likelihood is remote at best. If voters in Yakima are willing to say no to adding more firefighters as they did earlier this year with the defeat of the EMS levy, we hardly see them eager to pay for new sleeping quarters for jail prisoners.
We have two words of advice: cost containment. That's what councilwoman Maureen Adkison has advised, and we heartily agree. The city has already shaved costs by expanding the use of electronic home monitoring and having nonviolent offenders pay fines instead of serving time in jail.
That's where the battle lines should be drawn, not in pursuit of a new jail.
We already have a lot of empty jail space in the area thanks to Yakima County's checkered past with building bigger and better jails. Ideally, the city could work out an arrangement with the county so it could reserve some of that extra jail space at a more affordable rate.
Barring that, the city of Yakima doesn't need to add to the surplus.
* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Bob Crider, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.
We have a perfectly good jail still available and being wasted in the City Hall. I venture to say it is even MORE secure than the county jail, and for sure the new jail. Granted, it doesn't have a country-club atmosphere or hotel amenities, but it worked fine for a long time, and can work fine again. It even had a special floor for women, which is more than the NEW jail has.
Perhaps it is time to begin recycling in this new, "Green" world? We, in this country, are so wasteful of our spaces. IN Europe, the still used buildings and even homes that are hundreds of years old. Why can't we do that here?
Oh - That's right. We have something THEY don't have to deal with - the ACLU, that dictates that we must treat criminals like the victims or we will be prosecuted for the most serious of all crimes, a Civil Rights violation. Of course, we can't expect the same sentiments from the ACLU for the REAL victims, who REALLY had their civil right violated by the criminals.
Another way to cut costs in our jails would be to make the family and friends of the prisoner pay for the food and any creature comforts like they still do in some other countries Better yet - cut staff and let the prisoners run the place like they do in Colombia.
The less "friendly" the facilities they are housed in, the less the bad guys might like to be in there.
Meanwhile, this consideration has absolutely NO RELATIONSHIP to the EMS issue, as the editors suggest.
That called for the fire department to hire and train PARAMEDICS, not firefighters, requiring the city to enter into a whole new line of business than what they are intended for. Talk about an expensive duplication of effort!
Nick:
I agree with you generally and I agree with the editorial, but nothing is gained by creating "paper tigers" to distract us.
First, anyone that thinks jail is a "cush" arrangement needs to spend one night in any city jail. We're not in Mayberry anymore.
Second, while a convenient target, the ACLU is not the enemy. The ACLU's only mission is to "defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country." If the ACLU wins a case it means the legislature or some other governmental body did a sloppy job in crafting a law that conforms with the Constitution and its Amendments. One of the problems with "feel good" laws or sentences is that they too often fail the Constitution test.
Tough as it is sometimes, we need to ask ourselves "Do we really believe in the constitution, or not?" Are those principles really our core values. If we make exceptions, who gets to choose? If you really want local authorities to be able to abuse prisoners, get the legislatures to change the law legally.
We recently let our leaders abandon those values "in our name" and made us all war criminals - not a day I ever thought I'd live to see.
The Constitution isn't just a good idea, it's the law.
--Michael Badnarik
I am glad to see the Yakima jails overflow. This means that the offenders are actually being put away to pay their due time.
Now you stated that Yakima is paying others cities like Sunnyside to house their prisoners. With due respect to the Sunnyside jail. Why are they housing other cities offenders when they have 3.5 million dollars out on unpaid fines. I always thought municipalities are suppose to be non-profit. Now Sunnyside and other cities have entered into private enterprise for the sake of profit!~
This is not what Sunnyside's city jail should be for. It should be used to lock up Sunnyside's offenders that break the law within Sunnyside's city limits. It should be used to track down and bring home those people who have not paid their fines and lock their butts up. I am not familiar with Sunnyside'city jail. But lets say there are 20 cells. Say the city gets $40.00 a night for rent . That comes to an income of $24,000.00 per month income. That is going to take about fifteen years to equal out to the outstanding fines owed the city. Plus all the other fines being handed out each week by the Judge. How is our Police Chief and city council and city manager figuring they are coming out being in private enterprise for profit when they are currently running Sunnyside like a looney tunes cartoon ???????
We're not in Mayberry anymore-I am still chuckling over that one. It is amazing how many people still live there, lol.
YHR had it right on. Hope they don't plan on diverting sales tax monies recently approved by voters. If the council wants re-elected, this wouldn't be a wise choice.
"Granted, it doesn't have a country-club atmosphere or hotel amenities" Nick you say this as if the current city jail is a country-club and has hotel amenities. You are far from the truth if that is what you are getting at.
There are pods with bunk beds. Each pod is one room with all the beds. No TV, no comfy chairs, no sofas. They have a table, hard chairs and some cards. In fact, most prisoners want to be taken to the county because they don't like the no nonsense attitude at the city jail.
And before anyone passes over the idea of expanding the city jail, look at the numbers. If it takes $52 to house at the City and $86 plus elsewhere, don't you think the citizens are getting a better use of tax dollars at the city?
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