Riverside County Ponders Jail Plan

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday debated a massive, $2.4-billion proposal to fund new jails, sheriff’s stations, and district attorney and public defender’s offices, with two board members quickly voicing opposition to the possibility of a sales tax hike.

The proposal outlines how the county should address severe overcrowding in its jails, and offers options to pay for the project, including a quarter-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax increase; a pay-as-you-go approach, using revenue from the county’s general fund; or new impact fees on developments.

In 2005, the county released about 3,000 inmates early to comply with a federal court order requiring all inmates to have a bed, said Undersheriff Neil D. Lingle.

The supervisors emphasized fiscal caution: Authorities “can’t be building five-star prisons,” said Supervisor Jeff Stone.

Two-thirds of county voters would have to approve an additional quarter-cent sales tax to pay for the new jails, an issue that wouldn’t appear on the ballot for at least a couple of years, said county Treasurer-Tax Collector Paul McDonnell.

“Before you go out and ask for more money, I think you need to demonstrate to people that you’re doing everything you can with the dollars you have now,” McDonnell said.

Supervisor John F. Tavaglione said county voters, who this month overwhelmingly rejected state propositions to fund libraries and preschools, would be reluctant to pay more for jails.

“People are tired of having their taxes raised, and rightly so,” Tavaglione said.

Riverside County voters as recently as 2002 approved a half-cent sales tax to build roads and fund mass transit.

Riverside has struggled to keep pace with a mushrooming population: It nearly doubled from 1.1 million residents in 1990 to more than 2 million today.

Sheriff Bob Doyle told the board that creating more jail space should be its priority. The county’s five jails house roughly 3,200 inmates and are nearly at capacity. A short-term expansion at Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning will add several hundred beds later this year, officials said.

The board will discuss the proposal in more detail Monday.