We were
told we needed a new larger jail because we had too many prisoners. The fact is the reason we had too many prisoners
is the District Attorney's Office under Janelle Haverkamp was too slow in prosecuting cases. When she moved over to
District Judge, she left a backlog with an average age of 1007 days. Compare that to an age of 395 cases as of 1/1/2008.
I think most of the credit for reducing the average age of cases goes to the hardworking staff in the DA's office since more
than 95% of criminal cases are settled without a formal trial.
Judge Haverkamp
has continued her slow ways as District Judge. According to the Texas Office of Court Administration, she averages 40%
more cases older than 120 days than the average District Court. That's right, they stop measuring at 120 days.
We may have double or triple the average number of old cases if they took measurements at 6 months or a year.
All those
prisoners awaiting trial take up jail space. If you have 40% more old cases, is it unreasonable to think you'd have
40% more prisoners in jail than the average County/District Court? If I remember right, based on the numbers for the
new jail in 2004, 40% of 80+ beds would have pretty much eliminated the over-crowding we were hearing about.
The fact is
we're spending more than $1,6000,000 a year more in taxes on the jail budget compared to what it was a few years ago.
For an average taxpayer with a $100,000 house, that comes to about $65 a
year
or $260 over a four year term.
Isn't it time
we get that backlog down to at least the state average and stop the incessant tax increases? Maybe we can move some
of that money over to help find the criminals and out them away in state prison.
See below
for more analysis.
Our
jail costs have risen substantially since 2004 when the jail bond was passed. We were told that the jail costs
would be paid for by the expenses we were incurring for Out of County Prisoners, which was $676.834 in FY 2004-2005.
The
jail bond was originally intended to cover three pods with a fourth pod shell for expansion. After the bond passed,
Commissioner's Court decided to build out all four pods because the long term construction costs would be cheaper which could
well be true.
Unfortunately,
it appears they didn't plan for and tell us how much additional taxes the larger jail would cost because of increased
manpower required for a larger jail.
While
the Sheriff's budget didn't separate out the jail in FY 2004-2005, if you allocate the actual costs based on how they were
split the following year, it appears the cost of the jail in 2004-2005 was about $1,800,000. That included $676.834
for housing Out of County Prisoners. If you subtract that cost, the taxes required to operate the local jail in FY 2004-2005
were about $1,125,000.
Compare
that to the FY 2007-2008 jail costs. according to the Cooke County budget dated 8/1/07:
| Jail Operations
2007-2008 |
$2,397,510 |
| Bond payments on Jail 2007-2008 |
$791,380 |
| Total Jail Costs 2007-2008 |
$3,188,890 |
|
|
| Rev from Housing Prisoners 2007-2008 |
$460,000 |
| Net cost of jail 2007-2008 |
$2,728,890 |
If you subtract $1,800,000 from
$2,728,890, our jail costs, using optimistic revenue projections have risen about $928,000 a year.
How many more projects like this can we afford where
we don't know the real costs until after the project is completed?
$928,000 a year is more than any single Cooke County
tax increase since 2004. That money could pay for a lot of patrol officers if it wasn't going to an under-utilized new
jail. They would probably have a much better chance of catching the burglars and thieves plaguing our county if the
money had been spent on patrol officers.
How many roads could that money pave each year?
Could this money have been better spent if we had
a more efficient justice system in Cooke County. Could some of that large tax increases have been avoided?
We as
citizens should know the full story before we vote on any more bond issues and tax increases!
