Jail project wasteful

I am skeptical that spending $67 million to finance construction of a new jail facility is a wise use of taxpayer money. Just two years ago in neighboring Montana, the small community of Hardin predicted, as does Kootenai County Commissioner Todd Tondee, that prison space would soon be in short supply and they completed a new 464-bed detention facility. They have been empty ever since and are now begging for prisoners.

Mr. Tondee estimates that it would cost $52 million to transport prisoners over the next 10 years if we used facilities outside of Kootenai County. Even assuming that this worst-case scenario is correct, it would be much less expensive to transport those prisoners than to build a new facility: It would save Kootenai County $15 million over the next 10 years. And if more innovative drug rehab programs, etc., are implemented to reduce the need for prison beds, we would save even more.

Building a new facility would create local jobs, true. But so would hiring local officers to transport prisoners to the Hardin facility. We should utilize existing facilities before building new ones, while we seek innovative ways to rehabilitate inmates to be productive members of society, when possible.

Justin StormoGipson

Coeur d’Alene