Magsig on jail beds
question:
A consultant says Fresno County needs to build hundreds of new jail beds and retire two aging facilities. Do you agree and how should the county pay for it?answer:
What we need and what we can afford may be different things. I do agree that Fresno County needs a new jail facility, but before we abandon the old jail sites I would look to see if we could rehabilitate and expand the two other jails. If rehabilitation of existing sites was not a cost benefit to the county I would look for a new site. The county currently houses federal prisoners and receives compensation for this. According to the CAO the county receives more money than it costs to house the federal prisoners. One way to help pay off the mortgage of the new jail would be to use some of the excess proceeds garnered from these prisoners.
Tags