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Dear Editor;
The Iowa County Board has some very difficult and important decisions to make regarding 2 facilities in our county: the IC Jail, and Bloomfield Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center. We want to commend the employees at both facilities as they work hard to care for the people living there.
We are thankful for improvements noted at the jail in the most recent Jail Inspection Report from January, 2018. It shows important changes that were made to improve that facility and how it operates and serves its purpose. Also, in a report from the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services, corrective action was taken at the jail, on the existing HVAC system as well as on the exterior so stale air is no longer circulating through the building and the basement water issue was fixed (problems noted in the 2016 Law Enforcement Center Study). It is difficult to maintain buildings, especially ones that have a number of federal and state regulations that must be followed in the operation of them. There continue to be some significant limitations with these aging facilities.
The county has said there is up to 22 million dollars for building a new jail (and for whatever other offices the facility would have). Board members and staff at the Sheriff's Dept. have expressed concern about the jail population, many of whom suffer from mental illness, addictions, and a variety of health and social issues. Imagine if we took 1 or 2 million dollars of that 22 million and put it toward treatment and programming for those in jail! Building concrete cells and giving people nothing to do sounds like a sure way to keep the jail full. Do we want to build a much larger jail and hope the inmate population grows, or do we want to build something that will show we want people to be healed, to be more productive, and thereby we all would have a safer community?
Jails "feed" our prisons. Imagine if we cut off the flow of people going to prison by improving the effectiveness of our jails, treating and educating and rehabilitating our neighbors. We all would "win"!
Nancy & Pete Tews
Dodgeville