Posted 6:01 am Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Smith County Voters to Decide on Jail Plan
By ADAM RUSSELL
Staff Writer
Today Smith County voters will approve or defeat the proposed $59.6 million jail expansion project bond.
Staff Writer
Today Smith County voters will approve or defeat the proposed $59.6 million jail expansion project bond.
In the past two jail bond elections, in 2006 and 2007, voters handily defeated a $73.4 million and $83 million, dual-choice bond and a $125 million bond.
State Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, mediated a group that whittled the previous bond proposals down to what they call a "bare bones" jail expansion plan. The group included concerned citizens and Commissioners Court members who were on both sides of the previous bond elections, architects and sheriff's department personnel.
Eltife said the two sides gained credibility by banding together and working through a long, give-and-take process.
"The public has to ask themselves 'Do we need a jail?'" Eltife said. "If the answer is 'Yes' then I would have to say this is as good of a proposal as we will get."
Advocates and officials say now is the time, and this is the plan to fix an outdated and overcrowded facility.
District Court Judge Cynthia Kent, who has spoken out in opposition of the bond with the "What Part of No Don't You Understand?," action committee asked why a bond that has failed twice in different forms is going before voters again. She said providing more courts -- not more prison beds -- will cure the overcrowding problem.
Judge Kent said since 1978 the number of district courts has not increased yet the number of criminal felony cases have increased tenfold, from 321 to more than 3,200. She said disposition of cases will reduce the number of inmates in the jail, eliminating the need for expansion.
County Judge Joel Baker said the county has addressed the parts of the plan that voters disagreed with. He said the formation of the jail plan committee after the previous bond failed and finding consensus among the opposition and advocates of that bond concluded with a balanced and thoroughly scrutinized proposal.
He said court space was included in the most recent bond that failed and this bond represents the first step in upgrading county facilities.
Sheriff J.B. Smith agrees with the judiciary's need for more court facilities. He said he has argued for 20 years without additional courts the system becomes a bottleneck at the bottom of a barrel.
The Smith County Commissioners Court approved moving forward with requesting another district court from the Texas Legislature this January, though some judges question adequate space in the courthouse for another court.
The critical need right now, however, Smith said, is the jail facility because it has been inadequate since it opened. Expanding, with a new facility and then refurbishing the old tower as it should have been in the first place, will reduce safety risks to his officers, the inmates and most importantly the public, he said.
He said the current jail is antiquated and poses major space, security and safety problems for his officers but the new facility will remedy the situation and give them room to grow because of the planning process.
"We have had more input on this jail," he said. "The commissioner's court, the architects have all worked with us very closely on this new jail."
Baker said moving forward to address countywide-facility needs is the responsibility of the Commissioners Court but voters will determine the bond's fate by using certificates of obligation to build.
