Jail funds diverted

Dear editor:

Seven years after Garland County voters approved $42 million in jail construction taxes and an additional permanent $6 million tax to operate the jail, it sits half empty with criminals being released early and others turned away daily.

Why?

In large part, because the county and city took the $2.1 million annually that funded the jail in 2011 and diverted it to non-jail spending in the general funds of the city and county.

The solution is for the city and county to restore the $2.1 million annually that was diverted from jail spending to other departments and return it to the jail as the public intended when they voted for a tax increase in 2011 for the jail. The city and county can keep the $7 million they diverted from the jail to other areas in 2015 through 2018 and the $12 million in tax collected to run the jail from April 2013 to April 2015 before it opened, but the $2.1 million that was diverted from the jail budget to other departments should be reinstated into the jail budget in the 2019 and later budgets as the public intended. The general public did not understand that the city and county intended to use the issue as a way to increase in spending in areas by $2.1 million and that needs to be corrected to follow the will of the people.

Russell Thomas Hot Springs