An update on the Jail crisis
Worth repeating from my last blog post: “For those of you who are unfamiliar with how I operate, I firmly believe in the ability of citizens to effect change without having to hold an official government position. Which means that, win or lose, I am all in — I am currently doing my part to tackle problems that face our community, and I will continue to do so regardless of the outcome of the County Commissioner election.”
That being said, here are some updates on my recent efforts to solve our local crime crisis.
Board of Commissioners Meeting (Dec 5, 2023) — I spoke up again about the need to declare a local emergency to handle the surge in crime in our neighborhoods. Commissioner John Sweet repeatedly mentioned that “we have options” and that “we should talk” and so we spoke for a little while after the meeting. He did not bring up any more “options” other than his repeated claim that a 5 year property tax increase (the “jail levy”) is the only solution to the crisis in that it will provide needed funds for the jail. I have explained to him over and over that this is AT BEST a temporary solution because it is only a 5 year increase in funds, and that it will also only amount to opening ONE additional “jail pod” which would increase the capacity from approximately 50 beds to 100 beds.
Commissioner Sweet and Sheriff Fabrizio have both contended that the actual need for jail beds is higher than 100, and indeed much closer to the 250 bed capacity, at which the jail used to operate a few years ago. I agree — I believe we have an immediate need for a jail operating at full capacity — 250 beds. So do we need an even larger property tax increase to fully open the jail? Or are there still other unexplored options? I brought up two alternative solutions during my talk with Commissioner Sweet.
The first was the idea of having volunteers work certain positions at the jail (others have mentioned this as well) to which he said is not possible due to insurance reasons, to which I say: Bullshit. An insurance company should not be blocking our county from hiring volunteers to help us open the jail. The second idea was redirecting funds from other programs that are less important, such as this years $29 million budget for Coos Health & Wellness. Think of how many jail deputies we could hire with that money, instead of spending it on programs that enable the non-contributing, drug-addicted lifestyle that is plaguing our communities. Not to mention the overlap — some people receiving “services” from those funds are the very same criminals that need to be housed in our jail. We don’t have the option to fund both the jail AND Coos Health & Wellness, so if we have to choose, then I pick the jail.
As to the other two commissioners, Rod Taylor mentioned after the meeting that “we should talk” so I gave him my cell phone number but he has yet to reach out. Bob Main did not speak with me, nor offer any solutions at the meeting.
Phone call with Sheriff Gabe Fabrizio (Dec 6, 2023) — I approached Sheriff Fabrizio with an out-of-the-box idea: Would the Sheriff’s Department be willing to hire officers on a temporary basis from a few of the city police departments if they were able to loan an officer or two, until the county can hire more jail deputies? He said that he would absolutely be willing to do that and he even has the funds to pay them. They currently only need FIVE more “sworn officers” to open another pod in the jail (50 beds), however he does not believe he would be able to convince any police departments to get on board to loan out their officers.
When pressed, he said that the Coos Bay Police Department would be the best place to start the conversation because they have the most personnel and could potentially have a few officers to spare. I told him that I would follow up with Coos Bay Police Chief Chris Chapanar in the coming days and get back to him. He offered to have me speak at the next monthly meeting of all heads of law enforcement for Coos County, which I plan on doing, but I told him that another month is too long to wait. This is an issue that requires immediate attention.
We also spoke briefly about having volunteers help out at the jail. He did not mention insurance issues, but said there are state regulations that require most positions to be worked by a “sworn officer”. However, he said there are a few positions like the control room and food preparation that could be filled with volunteers. That would currently only free up one (1) sworn officer to work a different position. But hey, one is better than none, right? I believe this is a viable solution because as more jail pods open there will be an increase in need for volunteer-capable positions.
So where does this leave us? Our leadership needs to aggressively pursue alternative solutions to the jail crisis and not just offer up excuses. Each of us needs to decide whether we believe the current state of our local criminal justice system is acceptable or not. So if you’re like me and believe that this is — NOT ACCEPTABLE — then we need to take immediate, decisive action to prevent the situation from getting worse, and work together to come up with an acceptable solution that will make our neighborhoods safe again. Sadly, our elected leaders are currently sitting on their hands.
Regardless, I will not stop pressing them to take action. To be continued…