Comments

1
You know, this conversation would be so much easier if Lowney had an earnest conversation. What was the maximum number of kids we've had in the jail at any time in the past five years? The statistic from one of the links said the average in 2015 was 55, so if our lowest point was 30, we've had to have had at least 60-70 at some point.

We don't want to short change the number of beds, nor do we want to keep the center filled to the maximum. We don't want so few beds that an incoming child or teenager has to be moved to an adult facility. Nor do I see a feasible answer to getting to zero crimes.

In a private prison system, they want to keep beds to a maximum so they can make the most money out of their facility (like a hotel or an apartment building). In a government system, we have the luxury of not profiting from the number of incarcerated people, so we can build extra space in case we do have larger attendance.

We're already reducing the number of beds. Doing nothing is an impossibility. And if neighborhood residents want it built somewhere else, why don't they just say that.
2
""The current detention facility is not acceptable. It's in terrible shape, it's unhealthy, and perhaps, most of all, it's very disrespectful. It tells the young person that's there, 'You don't count.'"

So let's delay construction of a new facility by another six months?

Here's the $10,000,000 question: How much is this delay costing taxpayers? If we cancel this project and start new, how much money will we have completely thrown away? (Architects, consultants, contractors, legal expenses, etc) They already say they've been hugely successful in reducing youth incarceration in the old building. How will the new one impede further success? It just doesn't make any sense.

Pandering is one thing. But squandering tax money while pandering? What's the point?
3
The only way to reduce juvenile prison growth is to limit non-white imprisonment to the percentage of non-white population in the service area.

When white kids get sent to jail as 72% of the population, politicians will care.
4
@3 I'm all for that. I knew some violent white assholes in my youth. Should have been locked up for the shit they pulled.
5
Jail the parents of violent minors.

Please wait...

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