COUNTY CAN'T BUILD ITS WAY OUT OF JAIL-CROWDING PROBLEM

The proposed steep increase in the Milwaukee County House of Correction
budget for next year ought to be no surprise. After all, when you expand
jail space, you expand jail costs. The addition of 1,000 beds to the house
requires an addition to the number of guards and other staffers. Hence, the
institution's request for an extra $9 million in property tax funds.

The proposed budget does, however, underscore the heavy cost of
incarceration and thus the urgency of (1) putting in place less expensive
alternatives to jail and (2) steering kids at risk of winding up behind
bars away from that destiny.

Without Steps 1 and 2, the county will never build itself out of the
jail-crowding problem. The county will instead keep feeling pressure to
expand jail space even more at a cost of additional millions a year.

A promising alternative is a day reporting center. In lieu of going to
jail, petty, non-violent offenders report to the center, where they spend a
good portion of the day in intensive activities, such as drug treatment,
basic schooling, vocational training and life-skills education.

The clients have to submit to drug tests, and they are monitored while away
from the center. The idea is to change the lives of offenders so they won't
keep repeating the behavior that got them into trouble.

To its credit, the county is embarking on an experimental $100,000
day-reporting program -- albeit, as they say, a day late and a dollar
short. The county was tardy in backing the experiment, and the money
allocated may not be enough -- the County Board is quicker to pour millions
into lockups than lesser amounts into alternatives. Now, however, the
county must give the pilot program a fair chance to work.

Adults in trouble often emerge from hard, troubled childhoods. That reality
underscores the urgency of ensuring that the child welfare system actually
protects children -- a task that falls to both the county and the state.

Putting hope back in the inner city, through the development of jobs, must
also become a top county priority. Crime flourishes when jobs dry up.

All in all, the county has little choice but to boost by millions the House
of Correction budget for next year. But the county could and should act now
to prevent adding untold millions in expenditures in successive years.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski