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Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 15:30:45 -0500
To: improvetheworld &AElig umich.edu
From: anthony nicholson <tonynich &AElig eecs.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: vote today in Washtenaw county- yes or no for the new jail/court/mental  health center?
Status: O

Everything I've heard has been bad---i.e., emails today from people 
urging me to vote against it. The reasoning is, this basically is a 
tax/bond increase to add 200 beds to the washtenaw county jail.

Crime in Washtenaw County has been declining steadily over the past few 
years (sorry, don't have data on this). The current jails aren't 
overcrowded.

Also, when other communities of similar size around the country have 
built jails that aren't immediately needed, what has happened is that 
the supply of inmates has increased in order to justify this swanky new 
(empty) prison that was built.

In other words, arrest rates seem to increase once such jails are built, 
whether the cops are doing this consciously or not.

Sorry that all of this is completely without pointers to fact. Just 
summarizing the arguments I've heard about this. Feel free to disregard.
The other portions of the bond may be good as you pointed out (new 
courthouse and especially mental health centers). But I'm of the opinion 
that our society locks up far too many people already.

--anthony

Dave morris wrote:
> Does anyone know anything about this? I'm inclined to vote for it, 
> because having another courthouse will reduce the load and cycle people 
> through faster- people who aren't guilty shouldn't have to spend time 
> waiting for trial. That and additional mental health centers will get 
> people who are in jail because they're broken the help they need. I'm 
> iffy on whether or not we really need more jail cells, maybe pressure 
> there is a good thing because it'll let out people who are there for 
> dumb reasons, like smoking marijuana or cheating on their taxes or other 
> non-violent offenses... throwing people away may be too easy of a solution.
> 
> Also it helps to pay for this here because otherwise these services and 
> expenses will come out of other budgets, like hiring cops who should be 
> out searching for those three guys who broke into a house on central and 
> robbed everyone in it at gunpoint the other week.
> 
> But I'm torn, I don't have a full understanding of the tradeoffs. I was 
> wondering if anyone else had an opinion or additional info.
> 
> To those of you outside of Washtenaw county, sorry for the irrelevant 
> spam, though your opinion is welcome too!
> To those of you inside Washtenaw county, get out and vote! :-) Polls 
> close at 8. www.publius.org tells you where to go to vote.
> 
> Dave Morris
> University of Michigan EM PhD candidate, aka thecat &AElig umich.edu, aka KB8PWY
> home: 734-995-5525  office (2104 SPRL): 734-763-5357  fax: 734-763-5567
> ElectroDynamic Applications Inc.
> phone: (734) 786-1434 fax: (734) 786-3235
> morris &AElig edapplications.com