25 April 2018 — 0538 mdt
Flathead needs fewer prisoners, not more jail cells
They’re at it again, our county commissioners and law enforcement types, promoting spending tens of millions of dollars for a bigger Flathead County jail. Yesterday, architects from Idaho told the commissioners that a new 260-bed slammer could cost $53 to $73 million.
That’s money that never can be spent for education, medical care, housing, safe roads, or the things that law abiding citizens need.
The only people who benefit from building a new jail are builders, architects, and law enforcement organizations (bigger jails require more guards; a larger jailer force means higher pay at the top). Everyone else takes a hit in the pocketbook.
When I looked at the issue back in October, 2017, I found that approximately one-third of the current jail’s occupants were charged with drug offenses, not violent crimes:
At some point, of course, if crime keeps up with the Flathead’s increase in population, a new jail may be needed. But before removing $50 million from the taxpayers’ pocketbooks so that pickpockets can be picked up and placed in a glorious new slammer, the emphasis should be on finding ways not to put so damn many people in jail.
How many people charged with a crime are locked up in Curry’s hoosegow because they can’t make bail? Has bail deliberately been set so high that impoverished prisoners can’t possibly make it? If so, their presence in the jail amounts to serving a sentence before being convicted of a crime. Are inmates being over-charged so that the prosecutor has more leverage in negotiating a plea agreement?
On a programmatic level, we need to reconsider whether our lock-’em up until they’re clean law enforcement approach to drug dependence is the best policy.
Montana has a higher incarceration rate than Iran, Singapore, and Russia
After writing that post, I read Missoula’s 2016 jail diversion study, which contained this astounding observation:
It is often repeated but important to note that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, surpassing that of China, Russia, and Iran. With 358 of every 100,000 residents behind bars, Montana has a higher adult incarceration rate than Iran, Singapore, and Kyrgyzstan. According to U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, this country currently incarcerates 2.2 million people, 731,200 of whom are held in local jails. Of those in community detention, 500,000 are pre-trial detainees. On any given day, therefore, more than half a million people who have not been convicted of a crime are incarcerated in a county detention center. [Footnote numbers omitted.]
Montana crams a higher proportion of its adults in the quod than does Iran. That chilling statistic is a cause for shame, not pride.
There are viable alternatives we should consider.
If offenders are not violent, don’t lock them up; let them out and monitor their behavior. And stop criminalizing drug use. Treat it as the medical problem it is. Just those two reforms could reduce or eliminate the need for a bigger calaboose, improve lives, and save the taxpayers serious money.