OUR VIEW: Jail expansion question needs outside analysis
By The Bakersfield Californian
Really? It's cheaper to spend $100 million to expand the Lerdo Jail than to lease three vacant city-owned prisons in Kern County? That's how Sheriff Donny Youngblood has put it to supervisors ever since the state began requiring counties to take in more state prisoners.
When the issue arose again Tuesday, Youngblood alternately said the cost to transport inmates from the community correctional facilities in Shafter, Wasco and Taft to medical appointments would be prohibitive and that using those facilities is tantamount to replacing deputies on the street with private security guards.
Youngblood's argument on this subject lacks the kind of hard numbers we need to make any sort of reasonable judgment. What county supervisors really need is an outside analysis of the cost-effectiveness of leasing (or purchasing) existing and available facilities versus spending $100 million.
The County Administrative Office needs to hire an independent management analysis firm to study the options. Supervisors should demand more information before making such a potentially expensive decision. And taxpayers deserve to be confident that the choices have been weighed with all due consideration.
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