Building a bigger jail means paying to run it

Snohomish County Council members have good reason to go ahead with putting a jail operations levy on the September ballot.

The jail is packed with inmates kept in such overcrowded conditions that many sleep on mats on the floor. It is built to house 477 people but routinely holds 600 to 700. The situation risks federal intervention to force the county to release people who have been sentenced by judges to well-deserved time in jail.

The county has sound plans for adding a new jail and remodeling the current facility. Fortunately, the $87 million downtown Everett expansion project can be accomplished without new taxes.

Building the new jail, however, won’t do much good if the county doesn’t have the money to operate it. With criminal justice and court costs already running at 70 percent of the budget, the county would have to make drastic cuts in other areas to have the $13.1 million a year needed to run the expanded jail facilities.

That’s why the council is considering a measure asking voters for a tenth-of-a-cent increase in the sales tax. On Tuesday, the council went to Edmonds Community College to hear voters’ comment on the jail issue. Council members came away encouraged by the comments.

Council chair Gary Nelson said voters are pleased that the county can finance the construction itself without new taxes. John Koster said the interest in public safety remains high among voters, who have questions about the jail levy but seem satisfied with the answers.

Further hearings are planned for Lake Stevens on Wednesday and Everett on June 17. Unless council members find important new concerns about what appears to be a well-conceived proposal, they should place the jail issue on the Sept. 17 primary ballot.

As voters and the county study a new jail, there should be time for checking whether efficiencies can reduce the costs for the operations. As a Herald news department review of computer records last month showed, the county has spent $20 million over the past five years incarcerating some 1,100 people who keep committing relatively minor offenses. Alternative punishments and drug or alcohol treatments could surely reduce some of the costs while offering a chance to end such patterns of behavior.

Still, a jail levy vote makes complete sense. Changes to sentencing practices won’t eliminate an overcrowding problem of the magnitude faced by the county. Voters deserve a chance to decide whether they want to pay for the strong law enforcement that most of us say we support.

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