JAIL IS NEEDED

Evidence continues to mount that Lubbock County needs a new jail. The
latest telling data is the projection of a consulting firm hired by Lubbock
County that reveals we will soon outgrow the old one.

The jail population is already consistently well above 800 inmates in a
jail that has the capacity of 795. The Texas Jail Commission could set a
mandatory cap on the number of inmates allowed in the jail. Lubbock County
Commissioners have approved an arrangement to house inmates in the Dickens
County Jail if a population cap is imposed in our jail. It is good that a
contingency plan has been made but bad that it had to be made.

When the State Commission on Jail Standards inspected the jail in
September, the jail had averaged populations greater than the jail1s
capacity for three of the previous 12 months.

It is only going to get worse. Carter Goble Associates Inc. of Columbia,
S.C., the jail consulting firm hired by the county, concluded that the jail
population is going to grow significantly in the future.

In the six-year period between 1995 and 2001, the county population grew by
five percent, but the jail population grew by 38 percent and the average
stay in days climbed from 10.8 days to 16.2 days.

The projection is that Lubbock County will need 1,408 jail beds by the year
2016. That is a staggering amount of growth ( particularly for a county
that currently has 795 beds available for jail inmates.

The old jail and the really old jail

Renovation or expansion is always an option, but the costs of properly
renovating the old jail are going to be more than building a new one.

When we say 3old jail,11 we are referring to the one built in the early
1980s. But space shortages require Lubbock County to house some prisoners
in the 3really old jail11 ( the one built in 1931. It is in terrible shape.

Lubbock County Sheriff David Gutierrez and other county officials are
reluctant to say we need a new jail. Mr. Gutierrez says the county needs to
look at all options. The county commented by hiring a consultant to examine
the situation.

We have the feeling that they quietly have already made up their minds that
we need a new jail and that they are working now to sell the public that
one is needed.

Consider us sold. We would very much like for county taxpayers not to have
to spend money for a new jail. But the jail population is already pushing
the capacity limit and is projected to get much worse. Why wait until the
average jail population is even worse than it is now before we act?

Modern jails that use a pod system of housing inmates are run much more
cheaply than the linear jails such as the county currently has. We consider
that to be one good side to the solution.

And it is nice that there is a good side, because we unfortunately see no
other way around the problem than that solution. Like it or not, Lubbock
County needs a new jail.