Tracy Press

It's high time the county jail expanded, but columnist Jon Mendelson says it will take much more to keep a lid on local crime.

Local law enforcement officials got the news they were hoping for Thursday.

San Joaquin County has long needed an expansion to its overcrowded, undersized jail. And it looks like we’re finally going to get it.

The state Correction Standards Authority advised that the county receive the $80 million it requested through prison reform legislation, money that could be used to build a bigger prison if the recommendation is approved by a state board in September.

That’s good news for the county, which last year had to release 4,556 people from the jail in French Camp early because of too few beds and too many crooks.

The expansion can’t come a moment too soon — by 2012, the earliest timeline for the project’s completion, there will be an estimated 1,280 fewer beds there than arrested people to put in them. The shortfall is nearly 700 right now.

Nothing’s free, though, and there are several hurdles to jump before concrete is churned in French Camp. To get its money, the county must cut the locks on the old women’s prison off Highway 99 and use it as a re-entry facility for male inmates. It also must figure out how to pay the estimated $40 million-per-year cost of operating the bigger, better jail.

Even if county residents open their pocketbooks for more law (the order part is debatable), the expansion is doomed to obsolescence if current trends continue. It’s almost guaranteed to be overcrowded as soon as it’s built, especially with the county’s growth. We’ve also seen that enforcement alone is not the answer to combating crime.

Let’s not pretend that spending more on cops and prisons is the end-all answer. The city of Vallejo has declared bankruptcy, partially because it threw manpower and money at its growing crime problem. In Vallejo, 75 percent of the budget goes to the police and fire departments, meaning there wasn’t enough left over to keep the city solvent. (Yeah, the unions could help by agreeing to a benefits cut, and yeah, it’s the city’s fault for being bullied, and yeah, it’s a lesson to us.)

Tracy can’t end up like that. Heck, we don’t even want to end up like Stockton, where a five-year, 60 percent bump in police spending didn’t stop an increase in violent crime.

We’d rather see a return on our investment, as befits a city where crime stats have actually improved. Expect Tracy residents to pay their fair share of the new jail’s annual bills, but we expect more in return than a larger, shinier revolving door.

More police and more jail cells will not, in and of themselves, keep the city and county crime rates under control. We need to target the cause of the problem, not just punish it.
That takes more creativity, but it also yields better results.

Some folks are already working on the answers. The Mayor’s Youth Support Network is one effort that might have legs. Keeping the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tracy healthy and well-funded is another.

And don’t underestimate the value of education and workforce investment, especially in a county with traditionally high unemployment and poverty rates. Enticing a four-year school to the city’s college consortium would give locals, old and young, more opportunity to escape the shackles of poverty. It could even help bring more of those elusive, high-paying professional jobs to town.

While we’re at it, let’s give the good guys a fighting chance. What good is a bigger jail — or even a bigger police force — if the city’s growth in people and area outstrips the police department’s ability to patrol it? (Recall that Stockton’s police-to-people ratio worsened the past five years, even though the city added 50 officers to the force.)

Considering these factors is just as vital to stemming the flow of crime as a beefed-up jail. If we ignore them, we might soon wonder if we’re spending $80 million — and $40 million more each year — without addressing the real problem.

• Get a daily dose of Second Thoughts at Jon Mendelson's blog, or contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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written by Steve Reshakis , May 10, 2008

What Good is it Paying for more Cops, when We elect Democrats, who appoint leftist Judges who release the crooks with a slap on the Hand?
Vote out the Democrats, and Kick out the leftist Soft on crime Judges....

and tripple the jails, and stack them in like cord-wood.
get Sherrif Arpiajo. He does it right.

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written by amy , May 11, 2008

Got to rid the problem first, weak, soft hearted, liberal judges. Get tough judges to slap stiffer sentencing on the criminals to send the tough message home for other gang-wannabees.. nip it in the bud on fast track gang to criminal behavior.

Make the criminals pay their way by cleaning up the highways, cleaning up the city, do all the things the downsized city employers used to do! No luxury such as television, pool tables, they live better than many families in USA!

Heck, let them live like packed sardines, less comfort, less temptation to recommit the crime!

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written by commentator , May 11, 2008

Interesting that the majority of the judges in San Joaquin County are conservative Republicans. Maybe we ought to deal with proverty and drugs. Radical idea, I'd say. Look at the countries that have and their low crime rates. Maybe we could learn something. O yeah, they are not in a war that a conservative President started on false information.

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written by SteveO , May 12, 2008

Yeah it's pretty funny to hear people talk about we need more "Republican Conservative" judges who slap hefty penalties to reduce crime rates when most of them (look it up yourselves before you make assertions!) were the "Republican Conservative" judges in Sa Joaquin County in the first place! You aren't proving anything by saying what the judges political affiliation is and if you are ging to make those assertions, look your information up before you make them! Look up the crime rates in countries like Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland! They are soialist as they come but they have low crime rates. Does that have to do with the fact they have Republican or Democrat judges in their criminal justice system? What a ridiculous assertion! What about quality education for kids that become responsible adults? What about quality job training and college education for teens and aults? What about local availability of jobs that pay a "living wage" so people can support themselves? If we are tired of people dependent on welfare or entering the prison system we have to address these issues so we have higher employment and more people in skilled labor or white collar jobs so they can give back more rather than repeating the same old cycle we have been running on. The point is to have more people working and paying taxes and we should stiffen penalties and close loop holes but we also have to have better education and jobs that offer "living wages" so people are productive!

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written by Steve Reshakis , May 14, 2008

Sorry "Steveo" but those Socialist countrys have a low crime rate because they dont call most crimes, "crimes" If Prostitution is not a crime, then no crime rate, if peadophiles get away with it in denmark...No crime...drugs legal??...No crime...etc. etc. etc.

Just typical Moron Blogging once again.

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written by SteveO , May 14, 2008

Sorry SteveR looks like you haven't done your homework again... You see you rely too much on junk e-mails and biased corporate media garbage. Look up the INTERPOL webpage, Denmark is a member of INTERPOL and Danish laws prohibiting unlawful sexual acts with minors. Also look up the report by PHD Viebke Asmussen at the ISSDP conference that Denmark has adopted a zero tolerence of control and treatment of drug abusers. They have lower levels of repeated drug abuse offenders recycling in the system than the US because there is adequate medical treatment for the offenders. So again you didn't do your homework and came up with ridiculous assertions that crime rate is superficiously reduced by "definining" what are crimes. Denmark does have crime, and criminals as the US and have laws against it. The difference is how do they prevent it and how do they treat it. I don't know how much you know about the association of unemployment rates, education rates and crime rates but as we can see in underdeveloped third world countries, everytime there is a 1% decrease in employment, there is an increase in crime rates and alcohol and drug abuse. Therefore, if we are tired of the same people going in and out of the system, we need more jobs with living wages, higher standards of education and job training and adequate "medical treatment" of drug abusers and stiffer sentences. The system that we have been running on is not adequate because it has loop holes in laws, and insufficient "medical treatment" for repeat drug offenders, insufficient "living wage" jobs that provide adequate employment. In fact, the prison building business had become so lucrative, it is being privatized by "for profit" corporations (look up prison building business Halliburton) and it doesn't look like the corporations actually want to have less inmates if they're making money off of it!

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written by commentator , May 14, 2008

Yeah, Steve Rashikis what about you're moronic comments about how we need to elect more Republican judges... when most of San Joaquin county has a majority of Republican judges. You mean to tell me that things are better with Republican judges , we had a majority of supreme court judges who were Republican why don't we see less drug abusers and gangbangers that you complain about all the time? We had a Republican President, a Republican Congress, Republican Supreme Court, a Republican Govrenor in (California) Republcan Congressmen, Republcan judges in San Joaquin and we still see the same ol drug abusers, gangbangers, teenage delinquents, homeless (it's gone up!) You mean to tell us that it's because they were all Republican right! I think that moron blogger was U!

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written by But Tracys crime is low , May 15, 2008

what? Tracy crime is lower than other cities. Looks like the Republican judges are doing a good job after all. Elect more.

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written by ButSteveRcomplainsaboutit , May 15, 2008

SteveR seems to complain about how there's a lot of gangbangers and drug users and teen delinquents on the Police Blog page. He deosn't seem to share your bright Rosy outlook of the crime rate in Tracy! Tracy just hit about 47,000 in population and most residents and homeowners are commuters right? San Joaquin County as a whole is not doing too well in crime rates with the majority of republican judges. But you know what? It's not about the judges political affiliation because there are other dynamic social and economic factors that affect crime rates beyond the simple "judges political affiliation" like, unemployment ,job training availability, quality of public education, affordability of college education. If you use that same logic of judges political affiliation, then you would say that the "increase in crime rates in San Joaquin" are do to most judges being "republican"! Which is absolutely ridiculous!

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written by B-dub , May 15, 2008

You all have it wrong. Here's a way to get that new jail built for free. Surland/ATK only have to offer to build it for free in exchange for home building permits....lots of them.

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written by Silly Me , May 15, 2008

What is it with all you people?
Where is Jimbo, when we need him? Ba Ha Ha Haaaaaaaaaa!