Friday, December 21, 2012

TAXPAYERS NEED GOVERNMENT TO HELP CONTROL JAIL COSTS


QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR JAIL EXPANSION’S EXPANDING COST

Stats for the jail – maximum capacity 216 inmates, 168 males and 48 females.

Source: Dearborn County Sheriff Mike Kreinhop

Number of bookings per year:

2005 – 2,720

2006- 2,539

2007- 2,584

2008- 2,448

2009- 2,284

2010- 2,242

2011- 2,395

 

Daily Average number of inmates:

2005- 198

2006- 223

2007- 206

2008- 212

2009- 231

2010- 248

2011- 231

 

Number of individuals placed on probation and not incarcerated by Dearborn County Courts in 2011: 2,329

Number of individuals placed on in-home incarceration by the Dearborn County Courts in 2011: 1,037

 

Is our legacy going to be building a monument to negative behavior and filling it up by arresting and re-arresting criminals for minor probation violations as shown by the statistics and the local arrest records in the paper.   

This is evident in the sheriff’s statistics showing decreased bookings since 2005 and yet an increased average daily population in the jail. The jail committee looked at the average daily population to justify increasing the jail expansion, but we need to be looking at the number of bookings. It tells a different story. And it raises some questions regarding policies in the justice system.

1.   If the number of bookings has trended downward since 2005, why are the number of daily average inmates increasing in inverse proportion to the bookings?

2.   The highest number of bookings was in 2005, when the 3rd court was created. The work load in this category is decreasing, so the increased number of judges should actually be moving cases more quickly with less waiting time. What is causing the inmate population to swell?

 

We should ask why we are building an expansion of the JCAP programs into the jail with no data other than anecdotal evidence like letters regarding the measurement of the success of that program. JCAP beds are expensive to build and are not easily renovated due to the security of the jail and the stout  nature of the materials used to maintain that security.Why expand a program that includes housing inmates at taxpayer expense, without KNOWING how to measure success with actual data. Anecdotal reports are the lowest level of scientific evidence. Data driven measurements should have been set up and used from the beginning of the JCAP program. Why weren’t they?

Council and Commissioners should be asking for monthly or quarterly reports from the jail and justice system on population, bookings, average length of stay, crime rates, and bonds. Keeping an eye on the numbers will help all parties do their part to control use of the jail space. The taxpayers should not be the only ones responsible for solving jail overcrowding. Rigorous real time data driven analysis needs to be used.   Judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, sheriff, police officers, probation departments, and jail staff all need to look at their policies and procedures and see if they can help alleviate some of the overcrowding as well.

If we don’t, we will be looking at a jail that is full well before we can afford to add on to it again.

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township

 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well said!

Sir Mayor said...

The whole point of the JCAP expansion is to help TREAT those who are dealing with substance abuse and addiction INSTEAD of putting them in jail for minor violations again and again and again.

Your argument makes ZERO sense - unless you just want to bash everything that is trying to be done because you have some "persona" to uphold.

You are against building a jail with more space to treat individuals, but you don't want people to get treatment? I am assuming that you think Dearborn County should just let all inmates out in the streets, because why keep them in jail, right?

I bet you your yearly salary (I guess that would be working on the assumption that you work) that your fiddle would play a different tune if one of the heroin addicts in Dearborn County broke into YOUR house at night to steal your TV so they could take it to Cincy to trade for heroin.

It seems to me that you have no REAL understanding just how dangerous a heroin addicted individual can be...maybe that would change if something happened to you or a family member of yours.

In the end you are never going to stop rallying against anything that is proposed, I guess one can just hope that you become a little more realistic and less antagonistic.

Sincerely,

The Mayor of Rationality (come on in...the water is nice)

Anonymous said...

I usually don’t respond to posts on this blog, but I had to respond to this misrepresentation of the original post and the pointedly personal attack on Ms. Brauer Mueller.

It is clear from Ms. Brauer Mueller’s post that she is questioning why we are expanding the JCAP program when there has been no evidence, figures or statistics---or, to be frank, any apparent interest in obtaining such evidence, figures or statistics---regarding its effectiveness. It may very well be a program that works and for the sake of the citizens of this county and those involved in the program, I hope it does. However, it would have been nice if those in power would have taken some time to look at whether the program is working and is effective in treating the problems it claims to before deciding if it is worth using and/or wasting new jail space on. I can’t imagine any successful organization or company that would be willing to spend money on a new machine or procedure without first doing studies or gathering information on whether the machine or procedure works. Why in the world should government be any different?

You said: “The whole point of the JCAP expansion is to help TREAT those who are dealing with substance abuse and addiction INSTEAD of putting them in jail for minor violations again and again and again.” This demonstrates to me that you do not understand the program. Those involved in JCAP are dealing with substance abuse and addiction, BUT they remain incarcerated while doing so.

As for the rest of your post…well, I stopped reading after your unnecessary parenthetical regarding whether Ms. Brauer Mueller works. I’m not sure what that has to do with anything, besides exposing you as a mean-spirited, narrow-minded person who cannot help but throw in a personal jab at someone who very obviously gets under your skin.

I would rather be surrounded by citizens like Christine Brauer Mueller---citizens who take the time to question our government and those involved in it, to educate themselves and others as to what goes on locally---than lemmings like you who buy into and believe whatever the current regime is selling.

Anonymous said...

Or sometimes it is a matter of someone who is against everything the current regime for no reaason other than it is the current regime.

Works both ways.

That said, there does need to be some accountability about how the JCAP is really doing.

UC-Berk Prof said...

"Regime?"

It's a council for some little county with 40,000 people...

puhthetic...

Anonymous said...

The Mayor of Irrationality and Ignorance. Just like the "regime" he so ignorantly supports!