County Should Build Jail on Seized Land

I normally do not write to the editor, but the editorial “Supervisors Correct to Sell Seized Land” (Jan. 13) really made me upset.

This whole affair is crazy. It is designed to add more money to the developers’ coffers by allowing them to buy land for development at low cost. At the same time, the county is spending untold millions trying to find a suitable site for a jail, which they will probably buy at an outrageous cost from some land developer.

Why doesn’t the county build a suitable jail on this site as well as the sheriff’s training center? Your article states that the county needs the $13 million for the deficit. Well, the county would not have such a deficit if it were not trying so hard to please the developers and wasting the taxpayers’ money so freely.

Further, if this site is unsuitable for a jail, it should become a park instead of expensive ranchettes for the chosen few!

I have a suggestion for our esteemed politicians regarding a jail site. They should consider building a jail in one of the many massive industrial centers located in Orange County.

On weekends these areas are like ghost towns, and a jail could fit right in with the industrial architecture and not offend homeowners, because there are none in the immediate area.

TOM SZWAJKOS, Laguna Niguel