Jail Cuts Decided in Yakima

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Story Published: Oct 7, 2009 at 12:55 AM PDT

By Stacy Lilienthal

YAKIMA -- Jail costs are a bulge Yakima hopes to lean out of its budget in 2010. Now they have steps to get there.

Action news told you about the Public Safety Committees idea to cut costs by sending fewer people to jail. That idea: to not take some of the smallest crimes to court, and to send more people to treatment, community service, or put them on electronic home monitoring instead.

Tuesday night, the council voted to urge those changes immediately, but with some hesitations.

"My concern about that is maybe they should be in jail. And if they're not in jail, what potential do they have to do more harm," Mayor Dave Edler said.

There are a few parts of the plan still in the works. The council plans to talk to area businesses before implementing lower shoplifting thresholds and is still trying to work out a sliding scale arrangement to help people pay for their electronic home monitoring.

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