Put Less People in Jail to Save Money?

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Story Published: Sep 9, 2009 at 11:18 PM PDT

By Stacy Lilienthal

With a tight budget and rising jail costs, the city met to brainstorm how they can cut bills and still hold criminals accountable.

It's getting more expensive to house inmates in Yakima. Police Chief, Sam Granato said when they built the jail they had about 65 thousand inmates. Now they have 85 thousand and are paying extra for outside jail costs. The bills are getting bigger; it's up to 4 million dollars a year.

"If we continue to see these jail costs go up, there's no other answer," Police Chief, Sam Granato sighed. So the Public Safety Committee is brainstorming ways to cut costs. All of the ideas revolve around putting fewer people in jail.

"Those chases make up 20 percent of our case loads, it's huge," Senior Assistant City Attorney, Cynthia Martinez said, talking about people driving with a suspended license alone. For smaller first time crimes they may urge a judge to dole out fines, instead of a jail sentence. Crimes of less than $50 may soon have community service instead. They're also thinking about asking judges to put more people under electronic home monitoring or treatment.

Mayor Dave Edler had concerns. "I'm troubled quite honestly that we're making the kind of decisions, from my perspective, that have the potential to make our citizens less safe." It's a big decision for a big problem, and an increasingly big bill.

These ideas are preliminary. They will still go before the council and chamber before any changes are made.

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