Should Taxpayers Say Yes or No to Measure J and Gypsum Canyon Jail?

On Tuesday, the voters of Orange County will have a final opportunity to say no to an outrageous and unnecessary sales tax increase by voting down Measure J, a billion-dollar jail funding boondoggle proposed by politicians who oppose sensible expansion of existing Orange County jail facilities and a dozen other less costly alternatives to the problem of “jail overcrowding.”

This proposed tax burden, plus that of Measure M and the governor’s recent additional tax proposal, will amount to a 35% increase in our sales taxes, at a time of record deficits and government spending, not to mention today’s worrisome national recession.

Measure J represents but another frustrating chapter in an ongoing dilemma that is not unique to Orange County. Rather, it is symptomatic of what has been happening in other urban centers of this state and across this crime-ridden nation.

Politicians and bureaucrats--federal, state and local--have long attempted to deal with record, uncontrolled crime and resulting crowded penal facilities by throwing more money (our tax monies) at the problem.

It is high time that we come to grips with such problems of overcrowding in our jails and prisons without further jeopardizing public safety and the security and integrity of our established neighborhoods.

Despite the failure of a previous, poorly worded ballot measure, let’s expand our Central Jail adjacent to the Criminal Court for presentenced inmates on trial. The advantages are many and obvious from the standpoint of no land acquisition costs, construction costs, inmate transportation costs and transport safety factors, increased freeway congestion, avoidance of disrupting residential neighborhoods, etc.

Post-sentenced inmates, on the other hand, should serve out their time at truly remote sites, and in this regard consideration should be given the idea of multicounty regional facilities. Surplus military installations might also be utilized.

In any event, decisions here should be based not on political expediency and self-interest but rather on budgetary realities and sound principles of planning. The most logical and cost effective alternatives must be fully explored. Were this done, it would not include funding and constructing one of America’s largest and costliest penal facilities in Gypsum Canyon on some of the most expensive residential land in Orange County.

HOWARD D. GARBER, Director and former legislative chairman, Taxpayers for a Centralized Jail