Comments on: Ada Jail Offers Discount Rates To State

By: Corporate Justice

Corporate Justice — Fri, 05 Feb 2016 20:51:23 +0000

Heard about this 20 years ago. Prison is a great place to convert to hate and find a large family who loves you for it:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/05/grassley-raises-concerns-on-prisons-using-terror-tied-groups-to-vet-islamic-chaplains.html?intcmp=hpbt1

By: Corportate Justice

Corportate Justice — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 02:34:48 +0000

If I’m in the corporate justice business and I want to increase profits, I just need to eliminate my highest cost items. Therefore no jail needed. I’ll still take the tax money, pocket most of it, and give small amounts to my criminals to manage the crime rate at tolerable level.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/02/dc-might-pay-criminals-to-not-commit-more-crimes.html

By: modern columbo

modern columbo — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 16:32:46 +0000

With the highest rates in incarcerated citizens why do we still have the highest crime rates in the industrialized world? Drugs are just a symptom of the problem. Theft, burglary and robbery are the income sources for the drugs. We incarcerate people as a result of that. Letting people out will increase crime rates. Just look at California. They passed a measure last year letting out 90,000 inmates. The upswing in robberies, burglaries and such has been proportionate.

By: jj

jj — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 13:52:13 +0000

So one is left with two possible conclusions:

The sheriff duped voters into building a larger than needed jail (higher fixed costs) so the added capacity could be sold to augment his operating budget, or

The sheriff was thoughtful, built a facility for future growth, and in the interim it is prudent to sale those beds at a discount for higher utilization and some revenue.

Not knowing, I would at minimum question if $45 is covering the variable cost to receive, process, store and discharge a “guest”.

EDITOR NOTE–JJ, good analysis. Of course, all construction was done under the previous sheriff. Bartlett was appointed in 2015.

By: Corporate Justice

Corporate Justice — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 01:10:44 +0000

I find it very hard to believe they’d let $3M slip away. Is see several members of a tight knit club near the center of this. What’s the rest of the story? Who’s benefiting? Is it lawful to allow such a large loss? Is it being replaced in some way?

EDITOR NOTE–Apparently the $45 paid by the state is written in law. Sheriff’s are left with the decision to either turn down the $45 and have empty beds, OR rent at a discount to defray costs. It’s a financial balancing act for sheriffs. Same for our hotel analogy: do you sell at a discount or have unsold rooms? Staff, maintenance, utility costs are fixed, so cheap on-line rooms are worth the gamble.

By: jj

jj — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 19:17:37 +0000

At $92 a night, I would expect a cookie on the pillow

By: erico49

erico49 — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 18:35:36 +0000

It seems to me that the Sheriff should talk to the state so Ada doesn’t end up paying for something that the state is doing elsewhere.

http://www.ktvb.com/story/news/local/capitol-watch/2016/01/31/lawmakers-consider-3rd-crisis-center-southern-idaho/79614242/

By: Yossarian_22

Yossarian_22 — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 16:34:42 +0000

J Smith, Erico 49, Corporate Justice, Lynn and L.D. say it all for me. We don’t have a justice system, we have a “corrections” industry that requires a recidivist entity to fuel a zombie institution. Yes, there are people that need to be incarcerated for REAL crimes, but the drug prohibition laws are the largest contributor to this corruption. Look how the Scandanavians deal with offenders. They treat them with the real intention of rehabilitation (not to be confused with their refugee problem…that’s a whole other problem). We have got to end this NeoFeudalism.

By: Eagle Writer

Eagle Writer — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 15:24:26 +0000

J Smith,

Well said. We don’t often agree but you are spot on today. Put bad guys in prison, but no need for most low level druggies.

By: jj

jj — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 14:57:43 +0000

Agree with many of the comments… we have far too many people in jail, the result of far to many laws.

America is 31st in the world rankings for personal freedom (2012 Cato Institute study)..so much for land of the free…even Chinese controlled states such as Taiwan and Hong Kong, or former Soviet Block countries like Czech, Lithuania, Slovokia and latvia ranked higher for personal freedom.

As a society we tend to take what is probably a good idea, and make it a law so everybody had to make that same good decision. We tend to not worry about the lack of freedom this creates, since we think the law is a good idea.

It is easy to not care about those who break the laws, many in jail are repeat offenders who have yet to and may never really add much value to society, but the economic cost is enormous. This is not just money, this is money not going into education, infrastructure, social security, or other beneficial programs.