Why Do SOME Jails Cost So Much Taxpayer Money??? - L.A. Jail Built For $74 MILLION ONLY Houses 600 Inmates

I wrote about this 20 years ago down here in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, when the now deceased Sheriff Harry Lee spent $40 MILLION on a 400 bed facility... $100,000.00 per bed... but it seems the City Of Los Angeles has outdone Harry Lee's ridiculous spending record by spending $74 MILLION on a 600 bed facility.  I'm being generous here since one short news article said it was a 500 bed facility but a much longer L.A. Times article said that the jail was composed of four pods, each capable of holding 125 inmates, which would be 600 beds.

Now, this calculates out to $123,000.00 per bed, not $123,000.00 per cell, which would be bad enough... but it's $123,000.00 per bed!!!!!  Of course, if it's only 500 beds, then the cost to taxpayers would be $148,000.00 per bed!!!!!

I haven't mentioned yet, that this new $74 MILLION jail sits empty because of the City of L.A.'s other wasteful government spending that leaves it with nearly a HALF BILLION DOLLAR budget deficit so they can't afford to hire more deputies to staff the new jail. NOW THAT IS BEYOND STUPID THAT THEY ARE LETTING PRISONERS OUT OF THE OLD JAIL EVERY DAY, DUE TO SO-CALLED OVERCROWDING, WHILE A BIG NEW JAIL SITS EMPTY.

THE TAXPAYERS OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA SHOULD BE STORMING CITY HALL TO TAR AND FEATHER (OR HANG) THEIR POLITICIANS FOR THESE KINDS OF IGNORANT DECISIONS!!!  OR... MAYBE THEY COULD JUST THROW ALL THEIR POLITICIANS INTO THE NEW JAIL... OR BETTER YET, THE OLD JAIL AND USE THE NEW JAIL FOR THE REST OF THE CRIMINALS!  NOW THAT WOULD MAKE IT WORTH THE COST!!!!!

HEY L.A.... THIS AIN'T ROCKET SCIENCE!  LET ME OFFER A SOLUTION TO YOUR PROBLEM!  Take some cops off the streets to man the new jail. For every criminal you all release, it results in dozens of new crimes every month by these released inmates. If they are locked up, they won't be committing crimes and you won't need as many cops out on the streets. The majority of crimes, especially violent crimes, are committed by criminals with long RAP sheets. Very few criminals start off burglarizing homes, robbing people, raping women, murdering people, etc. as their first crimes. They usually have a lengthy juvenile and adult arrest record long before they commit their most serious crimes.

Compare this kind of utterly ridiculous and outrageous figure of $74,000,000.00 ($74 MILLION) to house 600 inmates to what Sheriff Joe Arpaio spent for his MASSIVE Tent City jail in Maricopa County, Arizona, which cost ONLY $100,000.00 (ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS) and holds over 2,400 inmates... ONLY $41.00 per bed!!!!!  Sheriff Arpaio made the decision to build this BIG Tent City after a study showed it would cost over $70 MILLION to build a *normal* jail in Maricopa County.

WHY DON'T POLITICIANS UNDERSTAND THAT THE MONEY THEY ARE SPENDING DOES NOT GROW ON TREES AND FOR EVERY DOLLAR THEY WASTE, THE TASK COULD PROBABLY HAVE BEEN DONE FOR A FRACTION OF THE COST IF THEY HAD DONE THEIR JOBS AND BEEN MORE FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE WITH THE TAXPAYER'S MONEY!!!

I welcome your comments... especially if you can give me a logical answer to the question in the title of this blog.

Lenny Vasbinder

References:
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/20/local/la-me-empty-jail-20100620
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent_city#Maricopa_County_Jail_Modification
http://www.mcso.org/index.php?a=GetModule&mn=sheriff_bio
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_15340419

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