Criminal justice proposal will buy beds and time
By Dan MacArthur
North Forty News
Proposals to accommodate 240 more prisoners while expanding programs to
divert offenders from the detention center are likely components of a $301
million tax proposal expected to go before voters for consideration on
Nov. 7.
Criminal justice coordinator Angela Erker is now further refining that
package on its fast-track path to the ballot following a March review by
the Larimer County commissioners.
As currently proposed, the county will seek a 0.2 percent sales tax increase
and a five-mill property tax to finance the expansion and programming package.
However, budget director Bob Keister said the county's bond underwriter
continues reviewing alternative financing approaches that would reduce
the especially unpopular emphasis on the property tax.
The proposal calls for devoting almost 55 percent of the revenues to expanding
the detention center. Erker said the bulk of that, or nearly 40 percent
of the total, would go toward operating expenses such as hiring guards
and feeding prisoners. The remaining 15 percent would go toward actual
construction.
"The largest chunk is not building it, it's maintaining it and staffing
it," Erker explained.
That construction would add 96 high-security single cells, 72 general
population beds for nonviolent offenders, 72 beds for inmates with mental
health issues or who could be otherwise victimized, and a medical and mental
health clinic.
Erker said there is a dire need for more prisoner housing. She said 399
inmates were released early last year to make room for new ones arriving.
The next biggest item is debt service, consuming some 36 percent of the
revenues to retire bonds issued to provide the improvements.
About 7 percent of the revenues would be dedicated to building a shared
structure for providing mental health care and expanded pretrial services.
"That's the most important one to me," Erker said, noting that pretrial
programs have proven most effective in reducing jail populations.
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