County needs elbowroom

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Portage County officials are caught in the midst of an inmate population that’s on the rise, a courthouse that’s squeezed for space and voters who don’t want to pay to solve the problems.

“We can ship inmates,” said Sheriff John Charewicz. “It’s inconvenient and costly, but we can continue to do it.

“The courthouse can’t come soon enough, though. That needs to be done as soon as politically possible.”

By a count of nearly 3 to 1, county voters Tuesday rejected an advisory referendum for a $72 million justice center that would include a new courtroom building and expanded county jail. County Executive Mark Maslowski said asking for $72 million in a faltering economy presented obvious challenges, but the voter’s decision not to spend money doesn’t solve the problems.

Portage County has three judges, but only two courtrooms. Charewicz said there is no courthouse security, and the halls in the courtroom building often are filled with criminals, victims, prosecutors, defendants and juries waiting for their turn in court.

Additionally, the county jail is crowded to the point where up to 40 inmates are being shipped every day to other county prisons. Maslowski said the shipping will cost the county about $900,000 this year.

“People said the referendum was too expensive,” he said. “It’s not going to get any better.”

Charewicz said as soon as he heard there was going to be a referendum for the project, he lost faith that the project would succeed.

“Jails don’t pass on referendums,” he said. “As soon as a referendum was discussed, this project was doomed.”

While counties such as Eau Claire decided to build a new jail without going to referendum, Maslowski said Portage will not follow suit. Nor will the county ignore the advisory referendum’s results and proceed with construction.

“It was a strong vote against the project,” Maslowski said. “If we were to move forward against that, it’d just be politically impossible. The County Board isn’t going to go for it.”

Marion Flood, a county supervisor, said many County Board members did not support the referendum because it asked for too much.

“Certainly the court situation has to be addressed,” he said. “But if we have to ship prisoners for a few more years, so be it.”

Flood said the County Board wants a scaled-back proposal that doesn’t include the jail expansion.

Maslowski said county officials will discuss that possibility in the next few weeks, but he cautioned moving ahead with only a new courtroom building would delay the jail expansion and run up its price tag.

“The minute we go that route,” he said, “we’re not talking $72 million anymore. We’re talking $100 million and up. I don’t know if people realize that.”

Flood said people do.

“It will be more expensive in the long run,” he said. “But sometimes you have to do that.”

Continuing to ship prisoners in lieu of building a larger jail will eventually cost too much, Charewicz said. But he said he also doesn’t see the day when a jail project will be a popular prospect.

“I think Portage could still be shipping prisoners long after I retire,” he said.