Maketa makes his case for expansion

The toilets alone will cost more than $1,500 apiece.

El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa, whose office runs the county jail, said he winces at the estimated $75.5 million cost of adding 864 beds for inmates. The expansion is the largest single cost in a possible 1 percent sales tax increase that is likely to be on the November ballot to raise funding for law enforcement and health agencies.

Half the new beds would be for maximum-security inmates, and that's where the $1,500 toilets come in. The price doesn't mean they'll be gold-plated with heated seats, Maketa said.

The toilets would be made of stainless steel and have wider pipes to prevent intentional plugging that can flood a jail ward. They'd have built-in timers to prevent rapid-fire flushes, among other features. A porcelain toilet isn't an option, Maketa said. Inmates could break a cheaper toilet and use the shards to hurt themselves or others.

"Everything in a building can be used as a weapon, and they have to be designed to not be used as a weapon," he said.

There are other requirements, too. The jail must have a minimum amount of living space, sleeping space and air space for each inmate. Showers automatically mix the water temperature to prevent burns. Windows made of unbreakable glass. Protective covers for fire sprinkler heads. Steel doors.

It adds up to the largest cost for an El Paso County government building and would amount to 12.5 percent of the new sales tax revenues. The jail expansion is No. 1 on a list of nine building projects tied to the tax totaling an estimated $153 million. A citizens group pushing for the tax increase estimates the first year's income for building projects at $8.6 million. Maketa said that's optimistic, but even if it's accurate it means the county would have to save for nearly nine years to pay for the jail expansion without going into debt even if there's no inflation on construction materials and labor.

Maketa has been lobbying for a new jail for years, reporting regularly that the inmate population is near or at capacity.

Not everyone is convinced, though, that the county has done everything it can before considering going to the voters for a costly solution to a problem that won't go away even if the jail is expanded.

"This is a challenge that a lot of communities are facing, but what people are finding is that building more jails just doesn't solve the problem," said Christie Donner, executive director of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition.

A range of options can keep people out of jail, Donner said, including programs that help judges decide if suspects can be released without posting bail.

"That's where you get penny-wise and pound-foolish," Donner said. "We don't have a notion of a debtor's prison in this country, but the reality is if you can't afford to pay the bond, then you sit in jail until your case is resolved."

Maketa said he's taken several steps to keep the population manageable: the jail quit accepting inmates accused of misdemeanors in July 2006, and Maketa said he's working with federal officials to get illegal immigrants moved out of the jail quicker.

Maketa said the expansion is badly needed to cope with a rapidly growing jail population. The average daily population of El Paso County's jails increased 71 percent from 1996 to 2006, while the county population rose 21 percent.

Wednesday, the jail housed 1,473 inmates, 92 percent of the 1,599 inmate capacity. Experts recommend keeping a jail at 80 percent of capacity to allow for separating rival inmates or other considerations.

Because the state constitution prohibits borrowing the money without voter approval, Maketa has urged using a financing tool that sidesteps that rule called certificates of participation. COPs don't require voter approval because a separate, nonprofit company set up by the county holds the debt.

If voters approve the tax increase, the expansion would go on the south end of the Criminal Justice Center on East Las Vegas Street. It would include the jail, a 200-unit parking garage to accommodate additional visitors and employees, and an expansion to the electronic visitation building. The earliest the expansion could open would be 2011, assuming up to two and a half years for construction.

Voters in 2002 rejected a plan to increase property tax rates to pay for a $38 million expansion to the Criminal Justice Center. The county commissioners instead paid for the project by borrowing the money using COPs. The expansion opened in 2005, but the same year the sheriff shut the downtown jail, citing safety concerns, leading to a renewed crowding problem.