The Pilot gets a birdie for questioning our county’s need for a huge jail. Planning jail space needs to be guided by data, and such principles as cost benefits, need and jail effectiveness. Let’s start by putting the relevant data on the table and analyzing them.

Many factors contribute to jail overcrowding, and it may be possible to reduce the need for more jail beds by addressing these rather than the costly addition of jail cells, which can easily exceed $100,000 per cell, plus accrued interest and daily operational costs.

It may be possible to avoid such enormous costs by making system changes, such as reducing the court docket backlog by providing sufficient public defenders and judges, sensibly reducing jail time for minor offenders, and so on.

Let’s look at all the options before Moore County joins the unnecessary jail and prison building binge that continues across the state.

Buddy Howell