Thread: CA: Grand jury says 2nd jailhouse needed in Santa Barbara Co

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/stat ... lwoes.html

Grand jury says 2nd jailhouse needed in Santa Barbara County

ASSOCIATED PRESS

7:41 a.m. March 29, 2007

SANTA BARBARA – A second jailhouse is needed in Santa Barbara County due to overcrowding caused in large part to a burgeoning population of illegal immigrant inmates, a county grand jury report said.

The Board of Supervisors needs to come up with a plan for getting a second county jail built, said the grand jury report released Wednesday. Last year, the cost of a north county jail was estimated at $153 million.

“Barring new taxes or bonds to support the need, the Grand Jury recommends exploration of other, more creative methods for financing construction of a new North County jail,” the report said.

Sheriff Bill Brown conceded there is a problem in housing inmates.

“We're under a court-ordered cap and we need to do something immediately because we're exceeding that cap,” he said.

The grand jury report said an increase in illegal immigrant inmates is putting pressure on jailhouse facilities.

“Inadequate enforcement of federal immigration laws has resulted in a jail population of which illegal immigrants represent an annual average of 10 to 20 percent of the total,” the grand jury report said.

Supervisor Brooks Firestone said the report was an eye opener.

“The grand jury prodded us a bit, and I think that's good,” he said. “We know we've got to do it. We've got a huge problem.”

"family values don't stop at the Rio Bravo" -Jorge Bush, CA., January 5, 2002

And he's said that about 10,000 times since then.

All the contradictory evidence in the world doesn't seem to phase GW.