http://66.225.205.104/JR20110621.mp3
A big drop in the number of inmates in Mecklenburg County jails has county officials reconsidering plans to build a $240 million expansion. The County Commission tonight may vote to delay the facility. At its bursting-at-the-seams peak in August 2007, Mecklenburg County's jail system had about 2,900 inmates. At the time, Mecklenburg County Sheriff Chipp Bailey says the county's projections showed that number going beyond 4,000 by 2030. "We knew we wouldn't have enough jail space," says Bailey. So the Mecklenburg County Commission authorized a new jail in north Charlotte that would house 1,700 additional inmates and cost $240 million. Construction was to have been underway by now, but during the spring of 2010 Sheriff Bailey realized the jail population was steadily going down, not up. Today there are 1,980 in the county jail. Bailey says some credit goes to a focus on capturing repeat offenders. "If they got out of jail, they'd go out and reoffend right away and be back in jail and it kept the jail population up," says Bailey. "It was less than 200 people doing this. A lot of those have been addressed in the courts." For example, Mecklenburg County Courts have worked to speed up those cases and prosecutors are pursuing stiffer sentences that move those offenders to state prisons when they're convicted. New bail policies aim to keep dangerous criminals in jail awaiting trial while letting those who don't pose a threat post bond more easily. Bailey says court and jail substance abuse treatment programs for addicted offenders have also cut down on the population behind bars. Sheriff Bailey hopes Mecklenburg County Commissioners will call off plans for a new jail at their meeting tonight. If there's a sudden spike in jail inmates down the line, Bailey says the county's 3,000, or so, existing beds will do, while plans for a new jail are brought back to life.