Burns, Bunks and Bunk

Jefferson County Sheriff John Burns campaigned in his last election that the county needed a larger jail. The ensuing discussion and rhetoric produced numbers for outboarding cost as reported by WWNY TV at $5000 per day, which should have cost the county around $1.8 million in total for the year. The bookish appearing Jude Seymour reporting for the Watertown Daily Times yesterday that the year end outboarding cost was $481,587, which is far far from $5000 a day that Sheriff Burns projected and WWNY keeps reporting.

Lets face reality here, the media needs the Sheriff for insider information and leaks when a particular situation is occurring on the law enforcement side, therefore, he gets special consideration on other issues and it appears WWNY has bought into his word on this $5000 a day figure without doing their homework.

Frankly, I do not care if Jefferson County builds a new or larger jail for the inmates or not as long as it is needed and it is in the best interest of the taxpayers.

Enough of the hype and sensationalism, be straight and tell the taxpayers of this county what is really needed and why, along with that, the State Commission of Correction needs to explain to taxpayers why county jails should be built with 20% more capacity, in other words why is maximum capacity 80% of the total capacity.

The election is over, you are now empowered with spending taxpayer's money, do it wisely.