On August 21, local activist and businessman Mark Weiler brought along, to an Archuleta Board of County Commissioners work session, an interesting document that he’d obtained from Undersheriff Tonya Hamilton:
The document seemed to support ‘Plan B’ — a plan for addressing our abandoned County Jail without raising anyone’s taxes. ‘Plan B’ was not the BOCC’s plan; it was Mr. Weiler’s plan.
Does the BOCC even have a plan?
As far as I can tell, the Board of County Commissioners — Steve Wadley, Ronnie Maez and Michael Whiting — have yet to make a final decision about placing a $25 million (or will it be $30 million?) tax increase on this November’s ballot, to fund a much expanded Sheriff’s Office and a much expanded County Jail.
Even though a previous BOCC had made a commitment, back in early 2015, to abandon our existing County Jail — and even though Sheriff Rich Valdez and his staff, citing environmental hazards that no one seems able to locate or verify, have steadfastly refused to occupy the existing Sheriff’s Office in the existing County Courthouse — we have not yet seen any plans for what might be constructed with the proposed $25 million tax increase (or is it $30 million?)
We do have some plans left over from last year’s failed election. Are those the plans the BOCC is proposing to use?
Last year, the ballot measure was rather vague about what the BOCC would do with their one-percent sales tax increase. Basically, they have been allowed to use the increased taxes for anything to do with the “justice system capital improvements.”
The ballot measure, last year, did not promise any particular size for any new buildings, nor any particular location. It merely ensured that we would pay an additional one percent sales tax, and the money would be used in a vague way for a “justice system” — in whatever way the BOCC decided to use it.
A majority of the voters didn’t like that proposal.
Perhaps we will finally hear some specifics about this year’s proposed tax increase, next month? Four years after a commitment was made to abandon our existing facilities?
The BOCC has not yet told us what ‘Plan A’ is. But at a work session earlier this month, we heard local activist and businessman Mark Weiler once again made the case for ‘Plan B.’
Sitting at the table with the three commissioners and with Undersheriff Tonya Hamilton, Mr. Weiler outlined, in a bit more detail, a plan to build a new jail on donated land in Harman Park — without raising taxes.
We had heard Mr. Weiler publicly present his ‘Plan B’ to the BOCC on at least a couple of previous occasions. He reportedly has also met privately with at least one of the commissioners, to explain how this could be done. But on August 21, Mr. Weiler brought along an interesting document that he’d obtained from Undersheriff Tonya Hamilton, based on data maintained by the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office:
In the far left column, we see the years 2000 through 2018. In the next column, we see the number of arrests made by the Sheriff’s Office. The third column shows the total number of ‘inmate days’ for each year. (For example, an individual inmate housed for three days would equal ‘three inmate days.’) The highest number of inmate days — 16,251 — dates from 2004.
The fourth column shows the daily average number of inmates housed by the Sheriff’s Office. As we see, the highest average dates from 2004: an average of 45 inmates per day. That was the average. So presumably, there were days when Sheriff Tom Richards was housing more than 45 inmates. (And presumably, Sheriff Richards and his staff were violating federal law in 2004, because our existing County Jail was designed to accommodate only 34 beds.)
The lowest number of inmates dates from 2015: 10 inmates, on average. Less than a quarter of the average number housed in 2004. That year — 2015 — also saw the lowest number of arrests since 2000: 305 arrests. So we have an interesting situation here. The Sheriff’s Office made about half as many arrests as in 2004, but those arrests resulted in only about 22 percent of the ‘inmate days.’
Did anyone notice this, back in 2015? I mean, did any Archuleta County residents notice that, in 2015, we had potentially 350 ‘unhoused criminals’ running around loose — compared to 2004? I certainly didn’t notice it.
We also see, from Undersheriff Hamilton’s chart, that the number of arrests increased greatly between 2015 and 2017 — from 305 arrest to 521 arrests. And the average number of inmates housed also increased; in fact, it nearly doubled between 2015 and 2017.
Nearly doubled, to an average of 19 inmates. That’s a number which, presumably, could have been easily accommodated in a 34-bed jail. Like, for example, in our existing (but abandoned) 34-bed jail downtown.
We also see, in the far right column, that between 2011 and 2018 our inmate housing was “over capacity” a grand total of 3 days. (What a pleasant change from 2005, when the jail was over capacity for the entire year.)
I believe these numbers reflect a changing American culture, and more particularly, a changing Archuleta County culture. Once upon a time, we believed that locking people up in jail was a good solution. In 2018, we’re not so sure. We’re beginning to understand that jails are places where inmates are taught — by their fellow inmates — how to be successful criminals. We’re beginning to understand that people who are locked up in jails and prisons often leave with unresolved anger issues.
We’re beginning to understand that “incarceration” should be the last choice, not the first choice.
I believe the numbers presented by Undersheriff Hamilton also reflect a particular reality of law enforcement: that a Sheriff’s deputy or Town Police Officer often has to make a definite decision whether to arrest and lock up an alleged offender. The officer also has the option of issuing a warning, or resolving the situation in a way that does not result in incarceration.
I assume that’s what happened in 2015, when the BOCC closed the existing County Jail, and we saw the number of inmate days drop to its lowest level in at least 15 years — down to less than a quarter of what we saw in 2004…
We’re beginning to understand that “incarceration” is the most expensive choice.