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May 9, 2010 in Opinion
Best Spokane County jail plan rethinks the system
Voters have rewarded politicians for the war on drugs, three-strikes laws, mandatory-minimum sentences, and crackdowns on drunken driving and domestic violence. But the “lock ’em up” sentiment carries with it a significant downside. It is expensive. Very expensive.
In the next year, Spokane County voters will hear plenty about that as the debate over a new jail heats up. The current lockup has about 200 more people than it was originally designed to hold, and the county’s overall population is projected to climb by 230,000 in the next 25 years. Meanwhile, the lease for the World War II-era Geiger corrections facility expires in 2013, and the Airport Board has indicated that it doesn’t want to renew it.
We need a new jail, but the cost is a stunner.
On Wednesday, Spokane County commissioners will begin taking public comments on the best place to expand the jail now that the top three choices have costs attached to them. After the site decision, commissioners will then try to figure out when to pop the financing question to voters.
The finalists from the original list of 10 sites are: the Spokane County campus, where the current jail resides; the Medical Lake interchange near Interstate 90; and the “gravel pit” on Russell Road and Sprague Avenue, near the Airway Heights Correctional Center and Spokane Raceway Park.
Nobody wants a jail nearby, so the commission can expect to hear plenty of those types of arguments. Indeed, during an earlier public comment period, community leaders from all areas of the county had similar reasons for why it would be best if it weren’t built in their backyards. And that included the Cowles Co., which owns The Spokesman-Review, and whose chairwoman, Betsy Cowles, voiced opposition to the near-downtown site. Common concerns are that property values would drop and future commerce would be imperiled.
Cost and flexibility
Fortunately, there are better metrics for decision makers than “not in my backyard,” namely cost and flexibility. The expansion of the jail isn’t just about building more capacity. It needs to be an overall exercise in remaking the criminal justice system so that it is more cost-efficient and financially sustainable. As Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich says, a new jail with significant criminal justice reforms would last 25 years before it needed expanding. A new jail under the status quo would give the county 10 years.
So a robust array of drug and alcohol diversion programs, mental health intervention, efficient pretrial screening and streamlined court processes are vital.
The county has boosted the sales tax by 0.01 percent on six occasions and five of those increases were related to criminal justice in some way. If the County Commission places this request on the ballot, it will probably include another sales tax boost for maintenance and operation of the new jail. It would be much smarter for the community to rethink its position on crime and punishment, rather than periodically face these incremental tax hikes that do nothing to restructure the underlying cost drivers. Nothing makes that point better than the proposed price tags for jail expansion, which would be financed with a voter-approved bond.
Horizontal vs. vertical
The overall cost depends on whether the new jail has a vertical or horizontal design. Because the county campus site is limited to 2.3 acres, it must build a multistory tower and a parking garage, according to Essential Public Facilities documents. The total construction cost, including financing over 30 years, would be $265.7 million. Each of the two sites on the West Plains would occupy 40 acres and could be constructed for less than $230 million. A late push to find another way to configure the county campus would still need to beat that price tag.
At this point, it appears as if a horizontal orientation would provide more flexibility, because expansion could be done in 256-bed increments. Each additional pod would cost $21 million, which is much cheaper than erecting another tower on the county campus. Currently, construction costs for a horizontal site would be about $36 million cheaper. If expansion is needed beyond 2035, the cost advantages become much greater.
However, the operational costs per year for a horizontal site would be about $1.3 million more, because some services would be duplicated and transportation costs would increase.
It’s at this point that jail planners should consider the lessons learned by their colleagues in the 1960s and 1970s. Predicting future needs is highly speculative, as the consultants hired to assess the county’s jail needs note in their report. Planners back then woefully underestimated capacity needs because they could not predict the crackdowns on various drug crimes, domestic violence and drunken driving. Similarly, current planners need to factor in the possibility of the pendulum swinging in the other direction, with the demand for beds decreasing with the widespread acceptance of diversionary programs and alternative sentencing.
Demand would also decline if society could settle on a better upfront approach to dealing with mental illness, rather than letting afflicted persons languish in jail while cut off from Medicaid-financed treatments. Approximately one-third of people booked into the county jail are diagnosed with some form of mental illness. These changes could lessen operational costs, too.
Being realistic
Though the regular criminal justice players – law enforcement, attorneys, judges, bail and bonding businesses – would find the county campus to be more convenient, what the commissioners must be chiefly concerned with is a price tag that taxpayers will accept. For that reason, flexibility becomes a major component.
But taxpayers must also accept that while they might prefer being tough on criminals, they might not have the money to back it up. So they must do their part in lobbying for statutory changes that would help lower the incarceration rate and shorten the length of stays.
The county’s consultants have identified several areas where the county could pick up efficiencies without compromising public safety. The felony rearrest rate in Superior Court is two times the national average. Work release is underused. The county leans heavily on the sentencing option: 77 percent in District Court and 71 percent in Superior Court cases. David Bennett Consulting assessed the jail population and found that 71 percent of felony offenders were sentenced to jail. The national average is 28 percent.
The county has taken strides to rectify this by establishing drug and therapeutic mental health courts and alternative programs for domestic violence and drunken driving offenders. Pretrial services is another area in need of reform. Too often, those arrested are released because charges do not get filed within 72 hours. This leads to an inordinately high rearrest rate and missed opportunities to funnel people into the appropriate diversion programs. But recent layoffs in the prosecutor’s office have stymied progress in this area.
Long-term solution
With the help of David Bennett Consulting and Integrus Architecture, the county has produced jail designs that take into consideration all of the criminal justice reforms that need to occur. No matter where it’s built, the new jail would include a Community Corrections Center, which would house minor offenders who have been diverted to alternative programs. The goal is to cut down on the number of reoffenders through education and treatment.
If the county can focus on keeping those beds filled, it has a better chance of achieving a more satisfactory and cost-efficient criminal justice system. To that end, a jail with a horizontal configuration and greater flexibility for expansion gives the county the best chance to rebuild an entire system and save taxpayers some money.
We’ve been tough on crime for 30 years, and it’s proved to be tough on taxpayers. Now it’s time to get smart and think of jails as one piece of an integrated and efficient criminal justice system.
Associate editor Gary Crooks is a member of The Spokesman-Review’s editorial board. He can be reached at garyc@spokesman.com or (509) 459-5026.
Smart Bombs: Greatest generation? Not us 
ChefGus/ John Olsen on May 09 at 7:23 a.m.
Mr Crooks… thank you for your very comprehensive and factual piece…
There is ample proof nation wide that we are doing it wrong..by just locking folks up… and your statistics point in a jarring way at that expensive fact. Incarceration merely delays repeat acts…. recidivism is reduced by programs such as sheriff Ozzie’s gutted pilot not included in the budget for renewal.
A very very large proportion of inmates are mentally ill, drug or alcohol addicted, or low level non violent offenders… and can and could be treated with much less expense and reduced rates of recidivism with programs being used in other counties in the country. People do NOT get better on their own… and people need services including food, shelter and medicine and treatment when they are released.. or better before they go to jail.
Our current jail is a mental health facility, and a poor one in the manner of “One Flew Over the Cukoo’s nest” not a pretty sight.
So i take some measure of disagreement with your sentence:
“Now it’s time to get smart and think of jails as one piece of an integrated and efficient criminal justice system.”
It is time to actually “think of jails” AS the broken part of our Mental Health Care system….. John Olsen Shalom Ministries Central Methodist Church Spokane
No_Forked_Tongues on May 09 at 8:21 a.m.
I see Police Chief/Sheriff Crooks has all the answers to none of the questions.
Probably been listening too much to the overpaid, underqualified bottom feeding “consultants” like David Bennett whom are clueless and are just catering to the latest political whims. Just how much are we paying this “seer”? If he has such insight maybe we should put him in charge of the Race Track while we are at it?
Doug Clark should take over this column.
Funny how “INNOCENT” people awaiting trial, are treated the same under our system as the “GUILTY” serving their jail sentences.
Chef Gus is correct as is many voices that if we spend more up front to avoid citizens problems, then we would be warehousing fewer of them at these extreme costs to society, the individuals and the tax payers.
Funny how the Spokesmans and society “our kids, our business” practice ends when they turn 13, when most young people really need our communities help to turn into good citizens. Just drive by any of the jr. high’s/high schools during their lunch hour and it looks like the county jail. We are failing our kids by allowing them to be ragga muffin, pants dragging, not-respecting, filthy mouth little monsters. and thats not counting all the pregnant 14 year olds our system is churning out and glorifying into welfare generations.
yellowcat on May 09 at 11:01 a.m.
Don’t forget, the U.S. incarcerates more people per capital than any country in the world. We incarcerate at rates 7 times that of Europe. There is something terribly wrong. Why, in Spokane County, do we want to perpetuate this status quo by building a new jail?
There are so many examples in other counties of alternatives to building new jails. In four years, Rock County Wisconsin went from overcrowding and farming out inmates to having empty beds. They had the same struggle Spokane is having and they found an alternative solution to building a new jail. Rock County reverses overcrowding problem: http://www.kxly.com/news/22925069/detail.html. Listen to the sheriff of Rock County speak on the video.
State prisons are being closed. Across the country incarceration rates are dropping. Violent crime has dropped 19% in Spokane county from 1994 to 2008. “Violent crime rates in Spokane County have dropped significantly over the last fourteen years (1995-2008). In that last year, the rate stood at 4.2 crimes per 1,000 residents, down from 5.2 per 1,000 in 1995, or a 19% decrease. However, this is a significant increase (6.5%) over the prior year. (2008 figures are preliminary)”. http://www.communityindicators.ewu.edu/graph.cfm?id=64
Speaking of children, junior high and high school kids like to sleep. I’ve read statistics that high school and junior high kids have less time to get into trouble when they start school at 10 a.m. and end school at 5 pm. By that time parents are home from work. Would that help with juvenile crime?
Spokane is NOT utilizing alternative programs nearly to the extent they could. I think jail is for violent crimes. Those with mental health issues should be triaged before they are booked into jail. Those with drug and alcohol possession offenses should NOT be in jail — use drug court; use treatment; use home monitoring or better yet, QUIT the drug war that doesn’t work. Traffic infractions and non-payment do NOT belong in jail. I heard Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich say he doesn’t want criminals sitting home playing Nintendo. Home monitoring is $12 a day; jail is $100. As a taxpayer, I choose home monitoring.
Hawaii has studied and adopted a program of short and swift sentences. They have found it successful to deterring crime. Long sentences are not always necessary to get the message across.
Spokane County has a lot of alternatives to explore before building a new jail, We must demand that.
SugarShane on May 09 at 11:13 a.m.
Reform drug laws and bam! Theres goes 30% of the jail population.
Marie on May 09 at 7:02 p.m.
Drug Court is an excellent program and it is used. People have to choose to enter it. Even if drugs were legalized, unless you’re giving away drugs, it will not reduce the number of property crimes committed by people who need to support a drug habit. While you might consider theft, forgery and burglary to be non-violent offenses I suggest you spend some time with people who are victims of those crimes. You may get a different perspective after talking to them.
greyhound2 on May 10 at 5:54 a.m.
Of the 5.7 million Americans locked up in jail, about 60% of them are their due to Nixon’s failed War on Drugs. Most of these offenses are non-violent and victim-less. This program of criminalization of drugs has been a failure, as there are now more drugs on the street than when Nixon started it years ago.
It costs taxpayers about $30,000 per year to warehouse someone in jail. Bringing some common sense to the drug problem would save the lives that jail destroys, as well as saving the taxpayers a whole bucket full of money.
Jails should be for criminals, not potheads. Unfortunately, the biggest winner in the War on Drugs has been the Prison-Industrial Complex, so bringing some sanity to the issue is going to require a really big fight.
MichaelP on May 16 at 11:23 a.m.
You have a number of facts wrong. Most especially the price tag. The quarter billion you quoted is only the cost of the cheapest jail plan. It does not include the cost of financing which everyone conveniently forgot to include in their estimates. That makes the “cheapest” jail over $400 billion.
CougarGold on May 17 at 5:16 p.m.
Projected cost(s) for the jail are:
Vertical - $266M plus $127M financing costs = $393M
Horizontal - $229M plus $110M financing costs = $339M
Additional Operations Costs:
Vertical - $1.8M per year
Horizontal - $3.2M per year
Over the twenty year bond, the additional capital cost for vertical, less the operational cost offset equals about $30M less for horizontal versus vertical. Of consideration though is how the operational costs are supported through different jurisdictions in contrast to a countywide bond for the capital cost. It’s not a simple apples to apples comparison. At the end of the day though, the horizontal configuration is more cost effective.
abeytafish on May 18 at 7:57 a.m.
Hey you guys… i think that i would much rather have a new jail, then people getting an easier sentence because we dont have room for them. Just something for you to think about.
-Daniel
EDGUISE on May 18 at 2:50 p.m.
I SUGGESTED WE MOVE OUR PRISONS TO MEXICO OVER FIVE YEARS AGO. RECENTLY GOV OF CALIFORNIA AGREED.FOR EVERY PRISONER THEY TAKE WE TAKE ONE GUEST WORKER. VISITATION AND PAROLE HEARINGS ON THE INTERNET, PROBLEM SOLVED
garyc on May 21 at 10:37 a.m.
I am definitely against a $400 billion jail. :)
You’re right about the financing costs. Not included.