Lock 'em up

Dane County Supervisor David Blaska is in the news this week misleading everyone on the county's plan for jail space and treatment centers. He is trying to paint a bleak picture of overflowing prisons and huge amounts of money being wasted in our county. His editorial in the Wisconsin State Journal is full of misleading facts and flat out misstatements.

Blaska might want to check his inbox and actually read the memos sent to him by Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk about the county's options on dealing with and treating prisoners. In his editorial, Blaska demands that Falk work to provide more "hard cell" jail space and calls for building a mixed-use facility for treatment and jail space. The crazy thing is, that is exactly what Falk has outlined in a memo to County Board Supervisors.

Falk and Dane County Sheriff Gary Hamblin have called for a facility that will house 100 'special needs' beds for inmates who require closer monitoring due to medical or other conditions, space for 100 inmates to receive intensive substance abuse treatments, and 300 additional 'hard cell' jail spaces.

Blaska also says we need to plan jail space using a three percent growth rate and emphasizes the point by saying Dane County is growing by 60,000 residents every year. However, the county jail population is not growing by three percent. The 2003 growth rate was 1.3%, in 2004 it was 0.7%, and last year it actually dropped by -4.6%. But Blaska won't be satisfied until the welcome sign for the 60,000 new residents this year says "Welcome to Dane County, We're Building Your Jail Cell Right Now!"

Blaska might also want to read this story from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about a new study out on Wisconsin's prison system. In it he will find

The study found that Wisconsin's prisons hold roughly 2,900 prisoners serving time for low-level, non-violent offenses. At an annual cost of $28,622 per prisoner, they consume $83 million a year in correctional resources. For an estimated $6,100 per person, the state could provide quality substance abuse treatment as an economical alternative to incarceration, the study found.

Or he may want to read this story from the Janseville Gazette about the same study. In it he will find:

The study cited findings reached by the Rand Corp.'s Drug Policy Research Center that for people prosecuted on federal cocaine charges "residential drug treatment programs are 15 times more effective at reducing serious crime than mandatory minimum prison sentences."