By Jennie Tunkieicz, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jul. 7--RACINE, Wis. -- A coalition of groups joining together in opposition to the idea of a county jail construction project will launch a formal campaign today outside of the county Law Enforcement Center.
The group is calling itself the SAFER Racine Partnership, which stands for Studied, Affordable, Fair and Effective Reforms for the Racine County criminal justice system. The six organizations in the partnership are the Racine Interfaith Coalition, the Racine Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Racine Taxpayers Association, the Alliance for Drug and Alcohol Management, the Racine Community Criminal Justice Initiatives and WISDOM, a state organization of interfaith coalitions.
The SAFER Racine Partnership will hold a news conference at 11 this morning outside the building that contains the jail, 717 Wisconsin Ave.
'We don't feel that the alternatives to incarceration and reforms are getting proper attention in the County Board process,' Ken Hall, a representative of the Racine Taxpayers Association and a spokesman for SAFER, said Tuesday.
Hall said the groups involved see a strong 'culture of incarceration' in Racine County, and more should be done to reverse that trend.
Although the six organizations in SAFER might look at the issue of jail expansion differently, they believed they could work more effectively and persuasively together, Hall said.
SAFER contends that: A jail construction project overemphasizes incarceration, and Racine County has the highest costs per arrest in Wisconsin. The county's ample jail space is overused, not overcrowded. Risk assessments and other tools are needed to bring jail use in line with best practices. Cost-effective alternatives for low-risk offenders, such as drug courts, are needed. Education, accessible health care, employment and public transportation initiatives are much better values and far higher priorities than jail expansion.
The Racine County Board is expected to vote next week on a proposal to hire an architect to begin work on possible design plans for jail expansion. The cost would be set at $200,000.
The scope of a jail construction project has not yet come to the board for a vote. Sheriff Robert Carlson is supporting a $17 million option that would renovate the jail's intake area, expand inmate property storage and provide for extra beds for work-release inmates.
Carlson said Tuesday that he agreed that risk assessment tools are needed for the jail and that several plans are in the works to review what type of system would work best. He said he also was pleased that a group is reviewing the idea of a drug court. He also agrees that societal issues, such as health care, employment and public transportation, have to be addressed.
But, Carlson added, there are serious safety issues that need to be addressed at the jail that require building.
'We need space down here for more things than just extra beds,' Carlson said. 'We need space critically in order to do the programming that we want to do, and that a lot of people say we ought to be doing, along with improving medical services, inmate property and inventory. We also desperately need space to more properly provide for the housing needs for special needs inmates, particularly females.'
On Tuesday, 672 inmates were in jail, with a total of 53 sleeping on the floor (42 males and 11 females). The jail has a capacity of 650 inmates.
SAFER is gearing up for what it is calling a Pre-Bonding Vote Rally at 6 p.m. Tuesday before the Racine County Board meeting. The board is scheduled to meet at the Western Racine County Service Center, 200 North Main St., in Burlington.
The meeting's location in Burlington is a concern, Hall said, and is seen by SAFER as an 'unprecedented effort to mute opposition.'
County Board Chairman Ken Vetrovec said the board is simply trying to bring county government to different parts of the county.
'With the recent victories of the girls softball and girls baseball teams for Catholic Central, the supervisors who represent that area said we could have the meeting out there and recognize these folks,' Vetrovec said.
As a result, Vetrovec said, plans are being made to have live video conference of the meeting at the Dennis Kornwolf Services Center.
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