July 16, 2008
Opinion: “County can’t be serious about putting re-entry facility in rural area”
While a well-designed re-entry process that allows prisoners to learn marketable job skills and transition into law-abiding citizens is a worthy goal, I have two concerns about the proposed re-entry facility for Yolo County. I find both the ambiguity of the county's role in providing "services" and the proposed location troubling.
We have no estimates of the long-term cost to the county for housing this facility. Budget shortfalls at the state level seem likely to shift more and more responsibility and expense to the county under the guise of the "collaborative partnership" so vaguely described in AB 900. Yolo County tax payers a decade from now are likely to pay escalating costs associated with services for this facility, and these costs will be even higher if the facility is located at a distance from existing county infrastructure. Surely there are less risky ways to provide funding for more beds in our jail…?
LINK - DailyDemocrat.com
