Punishment

Read today's Bakersfield Californian?
See this little item on new jail facility?

http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/439388.html

Kern County has been tentatively awarded a $100 million state grant to construct 790 beds in a new jail building at Lerdo Jail.
.....
Kern County, Youngblood said, will have to come up with $37 million to match the state’s money.

“This is a great opportunity to leverage its dollars with a huge contribution from the state,” said Supervisor Mike Maggard. “And it will help us solve a problem we’ve been fighting for decades. Older parts of our current jail are falling apart. If they are condemned by the state then this jail population will explode on us.”
.....
In a March presentation to supervisors, during which they blessed the Sheriff’s Department’s plan to ask the state for the AB 900 money, Kern County Undersheriff Marty Williamson said the new jail building would cost about $143.5 million.

Annual operating costs for the new jail building, Williamson said, is estimated to cost the county $20 million in annual operating expenses once the facility is fully open.

Is someone kidding? $286,000 a bed to build. $25,000 a year per bed to run? This is absurd! Where the hell do these guys get the chutzpah to keep running this by the taxpayers? Every bit of that comes from your pocket. This is a county jail. Sure the sheriff thinks it's cool along with the prevailing wage contractors and the labor unions.

Bureaucracies eventually exist only to employ and give raises to themselves. Schools are another example but I damn well would rather spend that kind of money on students then criminals. Maybe there would be less of the latter if we did.

The only real punishment here goes to the taxpayer.