To the editor:
I would like to thank Commissioner Hartman for encouraging people in his April 20 letter to the editor to attend the public meeting on April 26 at 6 p.m. in the county annex building at 215 E. 9th St. to hear about the planning for a new jail. I also encourage attendance by everyone.
Iâve been attending some of the meetings on this topic, including the recent public meeting about proposed changes to Community Corrections, which featured significant opposition to those changes. From what Iâve seen, this process is being rushed unnecessarily. Nuance and specifics seem to be missing from the Commissionersâ approach. Assuming there was thorough programming done prior to building Community Corrections, the 52-bed count was determined to be an appropriate number for DeKalb County. That it was âunder utilizedâ during its first year does not take into account the pandemic circumstances, nor that it is meant to be adequate for perhaps a 30-plus-year u