LESS COSTLY JAIL OPTIONS

I am amazed at the lack of public outcry over the county's plans to spend
more than $20 million on a jail expansion when we already have a greater
percent of our population incarcerated than any city in the state,
including Milwaukee. With all the public furor over any increase in school
district spending, and cuts in all quality of life services such as the
zoo, public library, and health care coverage, how can we even think this
kind of spending can be good for our community?

The SAFER Network which has brought together a coalition of concerned
citizens from Racine Taxpayers, Racine Interfaith Coalition and other
groups has provided the county with numerous alternatives to incarceration
for nonviolent criminals. Joe Kivlin's excellent commentary on Aug. 5
outlined the drug court option. For those delinquent on child support ...
find them a job and garnishee their wages. How can they pay in jail?
Milwaukee County has a day reporting system which focuses on the services
inmates need including drug and alcohol counseling, job skills, and
parenting classes, to help people pull their lives together and become
contributing members of society in ways a jail sentence could never do.

All of these alternatives cost money, but far less than expanding the jail
and then hiring the staff to cover the expansion. Furthermore, they have a
much higher success rate of keeping people out of the legal system after
release. I hope all citizens concerned about wasteful spending of tax
dollars will call your county supervisor insisting this project not move
forward without a referendum, and asking them to set up alternatives to
incarceration for nonviolent offenders.

Connie Hohlfeld Molbeck

Caledonia