Harris County voters barely support jail expansion, if you don't call it that

Harris County jail bonds barely passed in yesterday's election, garnering a slim 456 vote margin. or about .2% of the votes cast - almost close enough to justify a recount. According to the Houston Chronicle, the actual vote total was 112,289 in favor and 111,833 against. A pre-election poll showed that voters may have been swayed because of the (somewhat disingenuous) decision not to mention the word "jail" on the ballot but instead to refer to the measure as funding a "joint inmate processing center." With no organized opposition to the proposal and widespread establishment support, those figures tell me quite a few Harris County voters are tired of paying for endless jail expansion, by whatever name you want to call it, and would prefer for judges and the DA's office to get more serious about diversion programs.

See earlier Grits coverage: "Just don't call it a jail."

MORE: See Government Technology's coverage of computer upgrades that will be necessary for the new joint inmate processing center to function once it's built.

As one of Sheriff Adrian Garcia's chiefs put it during a recent meeting: If voters approve the bond "and we don't have that (jail management system) in place, it's not going to benefit us because it's still going to be paper driven and it's not going to accomplish the goal that we hope it will accomplish."

GT reported that the jail is expected to be built in three years and the new computer systems, which have just been put out to bid, must be functional before then. RELATED(?) Why do many big IT projects fail in government?

Harris County jail bonds barely passed in yesterday's election, garnering a slim 456 vote margin. or about .2% of the votes cast - almost close enough to justify a recount. According to the Houston Chronicle, the actual vote total was 112,289 in favor and 111,833 against. A pre-election poll showed that voters may have been swayed because of the (somewhat disingenuous) decision not to mention the word "jail" on the ballot but instead to refer to the measure as funding a "joint inmate processing center." With no organized opposition to the proposal and widespread establishment support, those figures tell me quite a few Harris County voters are tired of paying for endless jail expansion, by whatever name you want to call it, and would prefer for judges and the DA's office to get more serious about diversion programs.

See earlier Grits coverage: "Just don't call it a jail."

MORE: See Government Technology's coverage of computer upgrades that will be necessary for the new joint inmate processing center to function once it's built.

As one of Sheriff Adrian Garcia's chiefs put it during a recent meeting: If voters approve the bond "and we don't have that (jail management system) in place, it's not going to benefit us because it's still going to be paper driven and it's not going to accomplish the goal that we hope it will accomplish."

GT reported that the jail is expected to be built in three years and the new computer systems, which have just been put out to bid, must be functional before then. RELATED(?) Why do many big IT projects fail in government?