Downum Headed For Sacramento

San Andreas, CA — Calaveras County Sheriff Dennis Downum will be spending his Friday in Sacramento meeting with the Correction Standard Authority and officials from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The purpose of the meeting is to obtain a clear idea of the process and the criteria for applying for state funding for a new jail-justice administration center.

Downum is estimating the cost of such a facility at a little more than $40 million. He is hopeful the state would pick up between twenty-five and thirty million dollars of that amount.

The Calaveras County supervisors have already approved of placing a jail bond issue on the November ballot which, according to Downum, would cost a resident between $18-20 per $100,000 of assessed valuation.

Downum is hopful of a facility that would house no fewer than 240 prisioners as compared to the current jail which has but 65 beds.

Written by Bill Johnson