County developing jail, law enforcement ballot proposal

By Dan MacArthur
Correspondent

Larimer County officials have pledged to unite in a renewed spirit of cooperation to present voters with a comprehensive plan for relieving jail crowding and improving law enforcement capability.

County commissioners expressed particular interest in Sheriff Jim Alderden's proposal to use county general fund revenues to finance all mandatory functions such as operating the jail and alternative sentencing unit. Then voters could decide whether they are willing to be taxed for other nonmandated or nonessential law enforcement services--especially those that are primarily a state responsibility.

The commitment to collaboration came out of a summit among the county commissioners and criminal justice officials on Feb. 2. The meeting followed the sheriff's pointed criticisms expressed in a North Forty News interview.

Alderden contended that chronically insufficient funding of his department would force early release of inmates and threaten public safety with too few deputies attempting to cover too much territory.

But rather than entering the fray that she characterized as a battle between two bull elk, Commission Chair Kathay Rennels called for a truce. Front-page broadsides, she said, don't solve the problem and only damage efforts to arrive at a solution voters can accept.

"It has to go on the ballot as a group with all of us behind it," she said.

"It would be good to start the dialog," Alderden agreed, detailing solutions to jail overcrowding.

Chief among his suggestions remained releasing inmates early when the jail exceeds 90 percent capacity of 486 prisoners. "We're to the point where we're going to have to start releasing sentenced inmates," Alderden insisted. He said only those convicted of nonviolent offenses would be eligible for early release, and those soon should be subject to a new home-monitoring system.

Alderden said state-sentenced prisoners also could be farmed out to jails in Logan, Park and Moffat counties, which also could rent Larimer County cells for its own prisoners.

Other options offered by the sheriff included:

• Hiring additional prosecutors and public defenders for faster disposition of criminal cases.
• Expanding pretrial services to allow elimination of bail bondsmen.
• Increasing crime prevention efforts.
• Addressing underlying causes of crime such as mental health issues as well as drug and alcohol abuse.

"The scourge of meth is starting to cause us a lot of problems," said District Attorney Stu VanMeveren. More than half the juvenile criminal cases, he added, are related to the abuse of illegal and easily produced methamphetamine, or "speed."

"We could take down two meth labs a week if we had resources to do it," said Alderden.

The sheriff said officials also may want to further pursue Commissioner Glenn Gibson's previous suggestions to the sheriff that there be less enforcement of drunk driving, domestic violence and traffic offenses.

"This is taken way out of context," Gibson protested. Insisting that he was attempting to "think outside the box." Gibson said he was only questioning whether the sheriff's department should do traffic enforcement within Loveland city limits. On DUIs, he said judges should have more discretion. And Gibson said he didn't believe every response to a domestic violence report required incarceration.

"I'm trying to look out the windshield of the car and see how we address all these problems," he said.

"These laws have to be enforced," responded VanMeveren.

Other options such as stopping population growth "or at least making growth pay its own way," Alderden admitted, were unrealistic despite their appeal to environmentalists.

Given the urgency, Commissioner Rennels suggested forming a broad-based task force as quickly as possible to consider all the options. The lack of that comprehensive scope, she contended, was responsible for the overwhelming defeat of last year's proposal seeking a 0.4 percent sales and use tax increase to finance expansion of the alternative sentencing unit.

"If we don't touch all areas, I don't think the people of this county are going to vote for it," she said. "You're going to have to be honest about it."

"We have to get out there and let people know what the problem is," said county manager Frank Lancaster, insisting that the county did a terrible job of making its case in last year's election.

"We have to convince people there's a need," he said. "I don't think people know that."

Lancaster said he and the county staff would help assemble all the necessary players and assist them in preparing a proposal by June.