July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
It's time to get it done (02/11/08)
Editorial
Nobody loves a jail.
Not the people who are incarcerated in it.
Not the people who work in it.
Not the taxpayers who build it and support it.
But this isn't about love. It isn't about want.
It's about need.
Jay County's jail is more than 20 years old, and it has served the county well.
But it's antiquated, crowded, and unsafe.
If you don't believe us, take a tour.
We took two in 2007 and came away convinced that something needed to be done as soon as possible to make the place safer, more secure, and more humane.
Because nobody loves a jail, this has been a particularly difficult issue for the county's elected officials to approach.
Sheriff Ray Newton and his predecessor, Sheriff Todd Penrod, deserve credit for pushing the issue to the fore. But it's not surprising that then-Sheriff Penrod withdrew jail expansion and remodeling from the agenda when financial challenges at the Jay School Corporation were making property taxpayers uneasy.
Sheriff Newton deserves credit for pursuing a course of action that's not likely to be politically popular.
Expanding or improving a jail is an extremely tough sell.
Those of us who are out of jail, law-abiding taxpaying citizens, can't get enthused about taking on debt to provide accommodations for those accused of breaking society's rules. That's why you routinely hear the comment that no jail should be a "Holiday Inn."
But the fact is, jails are necessary. And if they're necessary, it's also important that they be safe.
That's about as basic a measure as you can come up with.
Is the present Jay County Security Center safe?
Good question. Because of the caliber of the jail staff and the procedures in place, we'd say yes. With an asterisk.
That asterisk is due to the age, design, and condition of the current facility create risks that the county's jail prisoners should not have to face.
Given the right set of circumstances - circumstances we won't go into here for obvious reasons - the current jail could become the scene of something deadly, perhaps even something horrific.
The short version is, Jay County has been dodging a bullet.
Of course, having said that, it's another thing to figure out how to solve the problem.
The Jay County Commissioners, to their credit, have been struggling with this issue for something like seven or eight years.
They've been hesitant to move forward precisely because of the first sentence of this editorial: Nobody loves a jail.
But nobody ever loves making an investment in utilitarian devices.
Has anyone ever gotten excited about buying a new sump pump?
Of course not.
And a jail falls into the same category.
For months, the commissioners and Sheriff Newton have been looking at possible jail solutions. Two firms - DLZ and SchenkelSchultz - have drawn up schematics of a possible jail expansion. SchenkelSchultz has also revised those schematics to scale things back in an attempt to come up with a more affordable solution.
At the moment, the options look like this: An expanded jail with a price tag of about $6.2 in construction costs or a scaled-back version of an expansion with a price tag of about $4.2 million in construction costs or doing nothing and crawling back under the covers, hoping nothing will go wrong at the present jail. Neither of the cost estimates includes "soft costs" for architectural fees and bonding, so we're not talking about chump change.
Now the matter heads to the Jay County Council. The commissioners are looking for both guidance and approval. They want to know how much the council is willing to stick its neck out with the taxpayers and how serious the council is about solving the problem.
Nobody loves a jail.
Taxpayers don't love a jail.
But taxpayers are smart enough to know that good, safe, humane jails are part of the reason we bond together for the common good. They're fundamental to the operations of local government.
And while we can't get excited about them - just as we aren't thrilled about buying a new sump pump - we're smart enough to want to do it right.
And that, ultimately, ought to be the county council's focus this week and the commissioners' focus in the weeks to come: Doing it right.
Get the best bang for our buck. Keep it simple but keep it humane. But get it done. - J.R.[[In-content Ad]]
Not the people who are incarcerated in it.
Not the people who work in it.
Not the taxpayers who build it and support it.
But this isn't about love. It isn't about want.
It's about need.
Jay County's jail is more than 20 years old, and it has served the county well.
But it's antiquated, crowded, and unsafe.
If you don't believe us, take a tour.
We took two in 2007 and came away convinced that something needed to be done as soon as possible to make the place safer, more secure, and more humane.
Because nobody loves a jail, this has been a particularly difficult issue for the county's elected officials to approach.
Sheriff Ray Newton and his predecessor, Sheriff Todd Penrod, deserve credit for pushing the issue to the fore. But it's not surprising that then-Sheriff Penrod withdrew jail expansion and remodeling from the agenda when financial challenges at the Jay School Corporation were making property taxpayers uneasy.
Sheriff Newton deserves credit for pursuing a course of action that's not likely to be politically popular.
Expanding or improving a jail is an extremely tough sell.
Those of us who are out of jail, law-abiding taxpaying citizens, can't get enthused about taking on debt to provide accommodations for those accused of breaking society's rules. That's why you routinely hear the comment that no jail should be a "Holiday Inn."
But the fact is, jails are necessary. And if they're necessary, it's also important that they be safe.
That's about as basic a measure as you can come up with.
Is the present Jay County Security Center safe?
Good question. Because of the caliber of the jail staff and the procedures in place, we'd say yes. With an asterisk.
That asterisk is due to the age, design, and condition of the current facility create risks that the county's jail prisoners should not have to face.
Given the right set of circumstances - circumstances we won't go into here for obvious reasons - the current jail could become the scene of something deadly, perhaps even something horrific.
The short version is, Jay County has been dodging a bullet.
Of course, having said that, it's another thing to figure out how to solve the problem.
The Jay County Commissioners, to their credit, have been struggling with this issue for something like seven or eight years.
They've been hesitant to move forward precisely because of the first sentence of this editorial: Nobody loves a jail.
But nobody ever loves making an investment in utilitarian devices.
Has anyone ever gotten excited about buying a new sump pump?
Of course not.
And a jail falls into the same category.
For months, the commissioners and Sheriff Newton have been looking at possible jail solutions. Two firms - DLZ and SchenkelSchultz - have drawn up schematics of a possible jail expansion. SchenkelSchultz has also revised those schematics to scale things back in an attempt to come up with a more affordable solution.
At the moment, the options look like this: An expanded jail with a price tag of about $6.2 in construction costs or a scaled-back version of an expansion with a price tag of about $4.2 million in construction costs or doing nothing and crawling back under the covers, hoping nothing will go wrong at the present jail. Neither of the cost estimates includes "soft costs" for architectural fees and bonding, so we're not talking about chump change.
Now the matter heads to the Jay County Council. The commissioners are looking for both guidance and approval. They want to know how much the council is willing to stick its neck out with the taxpayers and how serious the council is about solving the problem.
Nobody loves a jail.
Taxpayers don't love a jail.
But taxpayers are smart enough to know that good, safe, humane jails are part of the reason we bond together for the common good. They're fundamental to the operations of local government.
And while we can't get excited about them - just as we aren't thrilled about buying a new sump pump - we're smart enough to want to do it right.
And that, ultimately, ought to be the county council's focus this week and the commissioners' focus in the weeks to come: Doing it right.
Get the best bang for our buck. Keep it simple but keep it humane. But get it done. - J.R.[[In-content Ad]]
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