To the editor:

No one, pro-jail or no-jail, should vote for the financially indefensible plan to double the size of the jail. According to the sheriff, we spent $1.3 million in 2016 to rent on average 53 out-of-county cells per day to house mostly misdemeanor offenders — people who could, and should, be under simple house arrest. In lieu of this $1.3 million payment our common-sense-challenged commissioners propose to spend $10 million a year — an astounding 750-plus percent increase.

In 2016 to rent one jail bed, when needed, cost about $53 per day or $19,000-plus per year. To build one jail bed plus staffing will cost about $153 per day or $55,000 a year. The county proposes to build 179 of these — two-thirds of which will sit empty. That’s $10 million a year for roughly the next 20 years.

As articles have explained, we can fund a needed crisis center and still vote against this fiscal insanity.

Anyone with a lick of common sense would not squander his or her own money in such a profligate way. Our commissioners are spending other people’s money. They get their names on a brass plaque, we get a never-ending sales and property tax.

Anyone who thinks locking more people up for misdemeanors to rehabilitate them hasn’t been paying attention. The real crime is to spend tens of millions on bricks and mortar when there are so many better ways to reduce crime.

If that’s the best they can do, it’s time for these commissioners to step aside.