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2nd Public Forum on Jail Moved Across the Street
9 comment(s)
Originally Published Aug 18, 2008, 7:48am
(Updated Aug 27, 2008, 8:37am)
Tuesday's public forum on the Jail Bond has been moved across the street, to the county admin building.
Because the amount of inmates exceeded our existing Jail Capacity of 134 prisoners, in 2007 Forsyth County spent over 2 million dollars to transport & house inmates into detention facilities outside of Forsyth.
Spending over 2 million dollars to outsource inmates in 2007 represents:
* 20% increase, compared to 2006
* 236% increase, compared to 2004
In November 2008, registered Forsyth County citizens will have the opportunity to vote for a 75 million dollar bond referendum to build a detention facility designed to house approx 480 inmates.
The Board of Commissioners, staff, and consultants reviewed possible sites & purchased land (on Veterans Memorial Blvd) for the proposed jail. Criteria such as proximity to the Court House was key (minimizing the length of time required to transport inmates from the Court House to the Jail House improves security).
The 1st public forum on Aug 12th was only attended by 0.019% of Forsyth County. Residents of the Wyngate Neighborhood expressed their concern because the land purchased for the proposed jail is located near their community.
If you are not one of the 30 who attended the meeting, watch the video footage posted onwww.cumminghome.com
under the Newsflash Section (thank you, Steve Carter of cumminghome, for helping to keep us updated on the issues!).
Meanwhile....now is the time for us to educate ourselves about the proposed jail & vote accordingly. Before deciding yes or no.....attend the upcoming Forsyth Detention Facility Public Forum:
* 6PM Tues., Aug 26th
(Jail data source: Sheriff's 2007 Annual Report viawww.forsythsheriff.org)
Click HERE for more info...
Be sure to tune in to our TV show, Fridays at noon on Comcast channel 25
Comments
9 comment(s) on this page. Add your own comment below.
We are being asked to spend too much money on this jail. There is no way anyone can justify this amount of money to expended for a jail. According to Mr. Richard in a previous post on another thread, we spent between 8 or 9 million on the land already and the taxpayers are being asked to spend 74 million on the jail, how much more money will we have to spend on personnel too.
The Forsyth Sheriff's website has been updated and includes the following information:
Architectural Renderings of the Proposed Jail & Proposed Sheriff's Headquarters
Existing Jail Costs for 2006, 2007, & Partial 2008 (Jan-Jul)
Photos of Work Conditions in the Existing Sheriff's Office
Go to: www.forsythsheriff.org
(the jail link is on the upper right corner of the home page)
The Public Forum Meeting Location has Changed...
* Forsyth County Administration Bldg (in the Atrium) 110 E. Main Street
Tuesday is your opportunity to learn the details of the proposed jail. This is the place to bring your questions. I hope there is a great turnout!
The jail is just too darn expensive to expect the taxpayers to foot the bill in this economy.
Have the commissioners considered a privately operated jail. Aprox 7% of jails are privately run and appear to be successful.
If you follow the numbers you will see how voting positive for the jail will increase the bottom line on spending for the county. Now the county is trying to use smoke and mirrors to muddy the figures on housing out inmates. Remember, the correct numbers are approximately $83.00 per inmate for in county housing and $49.00 per inmate for out of county housing. Why is the FCSO trying to make the public perceive the out of county housing cost and large amount more than housing in county.
Here are the facts straight from the 2007 certified budget that Sheriff Paxton signed:
If you housed all the the inmates in county your total: 265 inmates x $83.00 a day = 21,995.00 a day for indirect supervision ($8,028,175.00 year)
131 inmates out of county is $2,374,446.40 year 134 inmates in of county is $4,101,481.90 This totals $6,475,928.23 a year with housing in and out of county. This is saving the county 1,552,246.80 no.
After the bond is passed you will be paying $27,295.00 a day to house in county =$9,962,675.00 for the same number of inmates with out the increase of manpower to have a direct supervision jail.
The price to have the new jail and house in county will be over $3,486,746.80 more.......
Who would want to pass a jail that would cost that much more for the citizens?
What about a tent city? Maybe out by the land fill. Phoenix and other big cities do it
What about getting the illegals out of our jail and sending them back or turning them over to ICE or whatever else we need to do so that taxpayers are not footing the bill? If we did that, the overcrowding problem would decrease dramatically as well as the cost per day. Other than the safety issue for the staff, I am not worrieed about prisoners being comfortable and certainly don't want to pay for them to be air conditioned and watch tv while hard working families stuggle to find gas for our cars. I agree with Sheriff Joe Arpaio to put them in tents and let them and wear pink. This is supposed to be punishment for breaking our laws, not a vacation or an upgrade in living conditions for most of them. Vote no on this jail and speak up about treating criminals like CRIMINALS!
What about getting the illegals out of our jail and sending them back or turning them over to ICE or whatever else we need to do so that taxpayers are not footing the bill? If we did that, the overcrowding problem would decrease dramatically as well as the cost per day. Other than the safety issue for the staff, I am not worrieed about prisoners being comfortable and certainly don't want to pay for them to be air conditioned and watch tv while hard working families stuggle to find gas for our cars. I agree with Sheriff Joe Arpaio to put them in tents and let them and wear pink. This is supposed to be punishment for breaking our laws, not a vacation or an upgrade in living conditions for most of them. Vote no on this jail and speak up about treating criminals like CRIMINALS!
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