‘If nothing changes …’

County can shrink jail’s population

The Washington County jail population is up, as high as I’ve seen it since I began monitoring the jail in 2019. Sheriff Tim Helder stated in Nov. 28 news article he expects the jail count will exceed 800 by spring “if nothing changes.”

If nothing changes. These exact words are used several times in the Criminal Justice Assessment Study presented to the county in November 2020 by the National Center for State Courts.

If we keep the same attitudes and practices when it comes to locking people in our jail, we’re not going to see change and we will never be able to build a jail large enough.

Sheriff Helder is quoted saying that the county’s experience, even through a public health emergency, has convinced him we need more jail space. When I read the article and look at the facts and data, I see the opposite: We do not need more jail space.

At the end of April 2020 after the pandemic was beginning to hit, there were 346 people sitting in our jail. Due to covid-19, decision-makers were forced to take what a month or so earlier would have been considered bold, if not impossible, steps to reduce our high incarceration numbers. But they did that and it worked. The jail maintained a jail census hovering around low 500s (often less) until mid-December 2020 into January of 2021 when it began to climb, but it stayed under 600 until June 2021.

Those numbers show that while fewer people were incarcerated, we still had a very safe community with the exception of a couple of heart-wrenching instances that require targeted response. We did not experience a huge crime wave, or any crime wave. People weren’t afraid to go to the parks or trails, or to live their lives, because we had 350 fewer people in our jail.

Of course, there were fewer arrests and fewer cases filed because of the pandemic, and that certainly helped with the lower numbers, but the community was safe with fewer people sitting in our jail. We were able to get the numbers down then and protect the community, and we can do that now.

The Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee was formed as a result of the study. It is beginning to get up and going and we need to give it a chance (that includes proper funding). The Quorum Court recently allocated $250,000 of American Rescue Plan Act dollars to pay for architectural and engineering fees for a 230-bed jail expansion at a potential cost of $25 million or more (no one knows the exact amount). Why are we even looking at spending money on a jail expansion when we haven’t implemented the strategies and changes the experts told us we must make if we want to see change?

We will never build our way out of jail overcrowding and we cannot go on trying to do that. The jail maintenance and operations budget and the sheriff’s budget total for next year is $29,702,448. That is 34% of Washington County’s entire budget for 2022 and it is not sustainable. Think of the programs such as drug addiction treatment, mental health services, expanding drug court, job training and much more we could do with a fraction of that amount.

With talk about expanding the jail, there has been no public discussion about how to pay for that increased jail capacity and its associated increase in expenses. This is a discussion we must have. It is not financially responsible to make such a large expenditure without knowing how we will pay for it. We cannot increase jail bed capacity by over 30% and not expect a similar increase in operating costs. Will the Quorum Court ask taxpayers for a tax increase after a couple years? Our sales tax rate is already very high and it hurts the most vulnerable.

I hope those in power do not plan on trying to cover the difference by renting out more jail beds, or any jail beds. The renting out of our jail beds contributes significantly to our jail overcrowding and results in more people sleeping on the floor.

In February 2020, the Quorum Court passed a resolution asking Sheriff Helder to stop housing inmates from other jurisdictions. As of Nov. 18, we have 60 U.S. Marshal holds and 34 Madison County holds in the jail. That’s 94 beds. The Legislative Joint Auditing Committee verified a daily cost of $94.68 to house a person in our jail.

Madison County pays us daily rent of $73.81 and the U.S. Marshal pays $80 per day bed rental. Through September 30, 2021, Madison County had rented 5,956 bed days for rental income of $439,612, but at the verified expense of $94.68 per day that equals $563,914, or a loss to the county of $124,302.

During that time period, the U.S. Marshal rented 16,772 beds for rental income of $1,341,760. At the verified expense of $94.68 per day, that equals $1,587,972, or a loss to the county of $246,212. That’s a total bed rental loss to Washington County taxpayers of $370,514 through Sept. 30.

Does wanting to profit from incarcerating people meet the moral standard of justice, of fair and equitable treatment for all? I don’t believe it does.

We have the knowledge, resources, and the tools to create real change in our criminal justice system today. We could change so many lives and save millions of tax dollars, but we have to want to change. If we don’t, then nothing changes.