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| Jam-packed jail facing inmate cap |
| By The San Mateo Daily Journal |
| Published: 06/30/2006 |
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SAN MATEO, CA - The county's overcrowded jails run the risk of legal action for unfit conditions and a cap on inmates that could keep some offenders from serving complete sentences, Sheriff Don Horsley said yesterday. “One judge might put them in the front door while another sends them out the back. If there is a cap, some people who commit crimes may never do time or only do something like two days out of a year sentence. I don't want to see that,” Horsley said. The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation gave Horsley 60 days to submit a plan fixing the areas where the jails are non-compliant. Horsley plans to bring a consulting contract for a new women's facility to the Board of Supervisors in July. A new jail could provide a children's area and help alleviate conditions currently out of compliance with state standards, Horsley said. The jail is out of compliance with standards on size, occupancy, programming space and the ration of toilets and washbasins to inmates, according to a June 21 letter to Horsley from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. While the women's jail is roughly 50 percent over capacity, the Maguire Correction Facility is no better. “If Maguire Correctional Facility were operating at its rated capacity, the current staffing level is probably appropriate; however, crowding has exacerbated the need for added staff,” wrote Donald M. Allen of the Facilities Standards and Operations Division. On the day of inspection, the men's jail had 189 extra inmates. The jail is rated for 688 inmates but held 877. The average daily population is 900 and has soared up to 1,075. Horsley emphasized the overcrowding during county budget hearings earlier this week and unsuccessfully sought funding for nine new positions. Despite the denial, Horsley said he is hopeful to get the money at the final hearings in September and plans to hire 17 people by then regardless. “I don't think they understand that the department is not like the hospital where you can go to a registry and find extra workers,” Horsley said. “We are not like Planning where workers go home. This is a 24/7 operation and in the jail where people have every kind of communicable disease, people get sick and there are vacancies.” Aside from a new jail, Horsley is pushing other ways of easing jail overcrowding. Twenty-two percent of the population is minimum security and Horsley wants to expand the use of work furlough and ankle bracelet monitoring to get appropriate inmates out of cells. A new women's jail, though, may be a harder solution to reach. If the contract is approved, consulting firm DMJM will create both a needs assessment and conceptual design. The jail will most likely be rebuilt on the existing Maple Street site, leaving the question of where to house inmates during construction, Horsley said. The price tag may also be a problem. Horsley doesn't believe voters will back a bond, much as the measure to fund the county crime lab fell short. |
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