We have continued to ask the Justice Center Committee for their calculations they claim shows Camp Kitwen is not a viable option. Anton Pintar recently wrote a letter to the editor showing why the Justice Center Committee did not do a realistic analysis of Kitwen. The County Commissioners eliminated Kitwen as a option to consider!
The missing piece of the Commissioner's "back of the envolope" analysis is the income Kitwen could generate by renting beds for inmates from other Counties, the State, and the Feds. Lets say they remodel Kitwen into 110 bed County Jail (only part of Kitwen). Houghton County currently needs 50 beds to manage our historic inmate population (35 ADP times 1.25 ~ 44 say 50 beds) which leaves 60 beds available to rent out. If we again use the standard 1.25 factor to account for issues like inmate classification, peaking, and maintenance, this leaves 60/1.25 = 48 beds available. If we assume they maintain an 80% occupancy rate, this leaves 48 x 0.8 = 38 beds on average rented out. If we use the low end of $35 per inmate per day (plus other costs) this means Kitwen could generate 38 beds x $35/day x 365 days/yr = $500,000 per year. This income will pay for the additional workers needed to run Kitwen and transport inmates to court.
The commissioners ignore the important fact that Kitwen can generate income to help pay for itself. They also ignore that fact that Kitwen is a better location for a big expandable jail. It would be easier and much less costly to expand a jail located at Kitwen. They also try to hide the fact that the State of Michigan Department of Corrections would love to give us Camp Kitwen for $1!
So the truth finally comes out. The County Commissioners prevented the Justice Center Committee from doing a detailed analysis of Camp Kitwen.
I say OPEN KITWEN _ CREATE JOBS !!!!
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