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Voice of reason ignored

The Spokesman-Review

Commissioner Bonnie Mager was the only voice of reason at Tuesday’s Spokane County commissioners’ meeting. Commissioner Mager proposed deferring the choice of the jail site for a year due to the recent drop in jail population and to allow time to implement programs that may reduce the jail population further.

Commissioners Richard and Mielke would not agree but instead voted to go forward with their plan for a new jail which will cost about $400 million and be built at Medical Lake, a site that was not recommended by the consultants the county hired.

The violent crime rate has slowed for the past three years locally and five years nationally, even while this county has been experiencing the worst economic downturn in decades. This does not seem like an “anomaly,” especially with all the evidence that diversionary programs are working. This is not the time to be building a new jail.

Kristen Cejka

Spokane

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