TREATMENT MIGHT GET INMATES OFF THE COUNTY JAIL FLOOR

RACINE - Deadbeat parents, the mentally ill and drug users appear to
account for a relatively small number of Racine County Jail inmates,
but if helping them reduced the jail population by just 5 to 10
percent, inmates might no longer need to sleep on the floor, according
to a Journal Times analysis of jail statistics.

Currently, approximately 20 to 50 inmates sleep on floor mattresses
each day, said Lt. James Formolo of the Racine County Sheriff's
Department. The total jail population is currently about 650 inmates.
This means a 10 percent reduction in total inmates could largely solve
the problem of inmates sleeping on the floor.

Sleeping on the floor is a real problem. It may create a safety hazard
and it could open Racine County up to lawsuits. "On the floor" means
an inmate is literally sleeping on a thin mattress on the floor. This
generally means a cell built for one bed is instead holding two beds
plus a mattress on the floor for a total of three inmates.

Racine County Executive William McReynolds and Racine County Sheriff
Robert Carlson say the main way to solve the problem is to expand the
Racine County Jail. More space would get inmates off the floor and it
would allow for the expected future growth in the inmate

But opponents to jail expansion say the way to solve the problem is
through more treatment programs and other alternatives to
incarceration. For example, Racine County Jail records show that on
Thursday, July 15, there were 56 people charged, sentenced or
otherwise held as deadbeat parents in the jail. If slightly more than
half of these 56 people had jobs thanks to programs aimed at employing
single parents who can't pay child support, there never would have
been 29 people sleeping on the floor that day.

Unfortunately, this is a simple analysis, easily called into doubt by
questioning the hidden details.

Could half of those 56 people really have been steered toward work by
rehabilitative programming? Or are they unwilling to work, unable to
work, or too incorrigible to maintain a job? Getting 29 people off the
floor may alleviate the space problem today, but what will the jail's
space problems look like in a few years? Don't we need to build a jail
now to plan for the future?

And doesn't the county already have at least some programming in place
to assist deadbeat parents? How can we know new programming will do
more than current programming? These kinds of questions frustrate
Debra Hall, an anti-expansion activist who taught classes in the jail
for two years. She feels strongly that jail crowding can be alleviated
if some minor offenders are helped instead of locked up, but she
doesn't have the numbers to prove it. That's why Hall and other
members of the SAFER Racine Partnership, an anti-expansion group, are
calling for a government-sponsored jail use analysis.

The jail use analysis would be a study of the jail, similar to today's
Journal Times analysis but in far greater detail. It could take three
to six months. It could cost thousands of dollars.

But it's not on the agenda.

Literally.

The County Board agenda for 6:30 tonight instead includes a vote on
architect's fees for the design of the jail expansion. It's a step
toward the proposed $17 million taxpayer-funded expansion of the jail.
Protesters will call for a jail use analysis instead at a 5:30 p.m.
rally outside the board meeting location, the Ives Grove Office
Complex, 14200 Washington Avenue.

"Our perspective is we can't talk about what we can afford until we
talk about what we need," Hall said. "The jail use analysis would look
at the whole comprehensive system."

Carlson, the county sheriff who supports jail expansion, said he is
not opposed to further study of jail usage, but he doesn't think
waiting to study jail expansion would be a good idea. "We have been in
this process for at least the last four to five years," he said. "I
believe we are at a point where we need to get at least this very
preliminary information."

The County Board vote Tuesday will allow for an architectural study
that merely gathers information, he said. "We need to keep focused on
the idea that tomorrow night's vote doesn't approve building
anything," Carlson said.

He added that the jail crowding problem is so severe that no one
solution is likely to be enough. He believes that both jail expansion
and new programming ideas are necessary.

But opponents to jail expansion worry that more beds will make it too
easy to put aside alternatives to incarceration. Why pursue new ideas
when you've got the space for inmates? Some opponents to jail
expansion were happy to read in The Journal Times Sunday that at least
one judge is reducing sentences in response to jail crowding. To them,
the system is responding.