By Samiha Khanna
The News & Observer
DURHAM, N.C. — County officials looked favorably at some short-term solutions to jail crowding Monday, but they are still estimating a $60 million bill to expand the jail over the next 10 years.
To shake loose some beds in the jail, commissioners could agree to fund more monitoring equipment and add a part-time employee for the county’s pretrial release program, they indicated at a work session.
If approved, the additional employee’s job would be to find inmates charged with misdemeanors for whom a house-arrest ankle bracelet would suffice, instead of an $88-a-night jail cell. More monitoring devices would mean more relatively low-risk defendants could vacate the jail’s 736 beds. As of Monday morning, 710 were occupied.
The proposal, given by Gudrun Parmer, director of the Criminal Justice Resource Center, came after a study in August showed the jail needs to grow by 664 beds to accommodate the county’s population growth over the next 20 years.
Commissioners have asked various agencies that work with criminal defendants to create strategies that could be paired with expansion to make the use of jail beds more efficient.
The District Attorney’s Office will look at cases of inmates at the jail more than 90 days to find ways to usher them through the courts more quickly. County numbers show most inmates at the jail are awaiting trials and other court dates, Parmer said.
The county board also heard about efforts to work with law enforcement and seek alternatives to arrest for the mentally ill.
With the $60 million estimated price of expansion — calculated by current costs — the work would likely come in two phases, said County Engineer Glen Whisler. If the county decides to pursue the project, the first $33 million phase could be complete by 2012, Whisler said.
In other business, commissioners heard from two northern Durham residents who are concerned about a proposal to bring a $450-million bio-defense laboratory to Butner. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has narrowed its search for a new facility to five sites across the country, including 195 acres of Umstead Research Farm in Granville County. Research there would include pathogens that could be used as biological weapons against the U.S., diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans and some viruses for which there is no known cure.
Rougemont resident Kathryn Spann said she worries about the property’s proximity to the Durham County line and the possible consequences of an emergency.
“If something happens there, who has the biggest emergency response team?” Spann said. “Not Butner, not Creedmoor. It’s going to be Durham County.”
Hundreds of residents, politicians and lobbyists had the opportunity in September to speak at a public hearing. At the time, U.S. Rep. David Price, a Democrat from Chapel Hill, supported the idea, saying it would bring good things to the state, which could include as many as 1,500 construction jobs and 500 permanent positions.
The four other sites the government is considering are in Georgia, Kansas, Texas and Mississippi. Officials are scheduled to select a site in the fall of 2008, and construction could begin in 2009.
Copyright 2007 The News & Observer