Written by Our police spokeswoman told us tonight that the new jail would most closely resemble the Cowlitz County Jail, which is an efficiently designed structure that is one story, with high ceilings that accommodate two levels of cells.
I found these pictures of the construction.
I could not find any pictures of the finished inside of Colitz County, but it is probably something like this:
After discussing the issue for nearly an hour tonight, we feel our only real choice to ensure we have jail capacity is to go forward with construction. Yakima, which holds some of our inmates now, intends to increase our fees 60 percent in the next couple years. King County is going to increase our costs by 20 % next year, and evict all our inmates by 2012. There are shortages of jail bed space across our state and across the nation right now.
I love how much that building looks like a highschool… =O
My high school looked like a bunch of tailers outside in the snow. Which is good, because that it what it was. My grad class size was 35, so I think I missed out on the institutional HS experience.
Are you from Renton?
I am interested in why the jail population increasing. If it’s increasing at a greater rate than the population increase, what is driving that? Is there a particular type of offense that is driving the numbers?
^ That.
The entire country needs to take a hard look at its justice system, society, and who’s in jail for what. The United states has by far the highest per capita (1%) of people incarcerated of any developed country.
I’ve always wondered if the national rate is due to the war on drugs, and if so, what drugs were involved.
I don’t personally partake, but I have no issue with those who do. Around here I believe most drug use is tolerated, but I have a feeling in the midwest/south it’s a different story.
Ditto.
There’s statistics everywhere and they vary wildly. for JAILS(different than prisons), drug violations were around 22% of the population. Most were in for violence-though this includes accessories. Anecdotal, but I can tell you that I know of at least 2 people doing 10+ years because they were in the same car or room as someone who shot(at)someone.
rambling answer….
Yes, as you’ve all commented, it’s the get-tough-on-crime legislation throughout the United States that has quintupled our prison population in the last couple decades. Particularly the minimum-sentences for certain crimes, three-strikes legislation, and war-on drugs sentences have all contributed to ballooning prison populations.
IN my opinion, some of these fit the crime, and some do not. For instance, I’ve once read about a woman with no criminal history who was sent to prison for twenty years because she took a phone message for her live-in boyfriend to call someone back, and it turned out her boyfriend was drug-dealing. Under a war-on-drugs law, drug dealers were given a minimum twenty year sentence, and anyone who assists them is considered an accessory and subject to the same penalty. The trial judge felt she deserved probation and assistance to get out of an abusive relationship, but his hands were tied, and he sent her up the river for twenty years. Total cost of her incarceration would be about $750,000 over twenty years, not including public defense fees, court costs, and other appeals fees. These “minimum sentences” were mostly eventually eliminated, and replaced with a much better system of “sentencing guidelines”, but many people are still incarcerated under the old system.
The three-stikes legislation, where three felonies earns someone a life term, is responsible for maybe a third of people in prison in some states. These laws were well-intentioned, but caught up some small-time shoplifters along with hardened felons. There are many tales of people stealing food, over-the-counter medicine, clothes, and other such things getting busted under a third strike and sent away. Sometimes the shop-lift itself won’t get them the third-strike and the life sentence, but any kind of an enhancement will…for instance if they are running from the store and they bump anyone it can be considered an assault.
I know there are two sides to all the above cases, and many people will tell you these criminals are getting the punishment they deserve. This may be true, but the costs DO add up… jailing someone is not cheap. At 100 dollars per day or more, a 60-year life sentence can cost society three million dollars in addition to the lost contribution of their taxes and productivity.
In Renton we have a smart judge and a good criminal justice system, and I’m convinced that we are seeing sentences which fit the crime and the circumstances in most of the misdemeanor cases that we prosecute. There are some cases where we should maybe go a bit harsher, such as repeat car thieves or DUIs, but in general we hand out misdemeanor sentences ranging from fines to 1 year jail sentences, and we are pretty fair about it. However, we are stuck with the jails being full due to the felon issues addressed above, so we have to create new capacity to make up for what we used to get from King County.
Re: rambling answer….
Another huge cost which could not be measured only in dollars is the children forced into the foster system or welfare due to the incarceration of the parent, especially when the mother is sent away. These kids are often older and unwanted, and have a very tough time creating a productive life for themselves when they grow up.