Countdown Continues For Calaveras County Jail Funding

San Andreas, CA — Two weeks from today Calaveras County Sheriff Dennis Downum will be attending a Corrections Standards Authority meeting in Berkeley to hopefully acquire full funding for the new jail complex.

The county has already been awarded $10 million … Downum sought $26 million to go along with the $31 million provided by the passage of Measure J in November.

Presently Yolo, Kings and Madera counties remain ahead of Calaveras County in the running for full funding. If any of the three fall by the wayside by not meeting C.S.A. criteria, Calaveras County would receive the additional $16 million it needs for full state funding.

Even if Calaveras County does not receive that funding Downum maintains a new scaled down jail complex will be constructed with the available funds simply because the current jail, with only 65 beds, is destroying the criminal justice system in the county.

Downum adds that the repeat offender rate now stands at 54 percent due to the lack of adequate jail beds.

Written by Bill Johnson