Dear Editor: Dane County residents were promised that the new jail would finally allow the county to close the City-County Building jail — a facility Sheriff Kalvin Barrett has repeatedly described as “borderline unconstitutional.”
If that promise is abandoned, taxpayers deserve to ask what changed. Constitutional conditions should never be optional or dependent on bed space.
Even more alarming was the suggestion that Dane County should ideally have a jail bed available for every person on community supervision. That statement is shocking on its own. It reflects a philosophy that plans for people’s failure instead of their success. Community supervision is intended to help people remain safely in the community, not to justify expanding the jail footprint…