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Here’s an ominous warning for residents of Davis County. It comes from a broad-based citizens committee that spent ten months studying whether to recommend bonding to expand the county’s severely overcrowded jail. “If the community does not pass the bond to expand the jail,” concluded the committee, “the community would be put at risk because the ‘rule of law’ would lose its effectiveness.” KSL believes it is a legitimate warning and is worth heeding.
The present jail built in 1990 has a total capacity of 496 beds. Yet, the facility is almost always at or beyond capacity. And with the Davis County population expanding rapidly hundreds of additional beds will soon be needed.
County residents are being asked to authorize a $24.8 million bond to cover the cost of almost doubling the size of the jail. As much as we’d like to think people will stop breaking the law, they won’t. And as long as they do, a place will be needed to lock them up. As the citizens’ committee concluded, “there is no other viable alternative” to spending the money to expand the jail.
In KSL’s view, Davis County leaders have offered citizens a valid proposal for resolving a serious problem. It is a proposal that deserves voter support on November 2.
