tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post7142153029659898765..comments2024-03-25T20:06:39.794-05:00Comments on Grits for Breakfast: Economy may doom Smith County's jail building aspirationsGritsforbreakfasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-90336620202686843992008-11-06T12:36:00.000-06:002008-11-06T12:36:00.000-06:00The citizens of Galveston are suffering under a br...The citizens of Galveston are suffering under a brutal and corrupt police force. The Galveston Police Department makes approximately 8000 arrests a year, for a population of 57,000 plus <BR/><BR/>Harmful officers are retained and continue their patterns of abuse.<BR/><BR/>I implore anyone involved in civil rights advocacy, et cetera who is reading this excellent blog to help stop these terrible civil rights abuses.<BR/><BR/>The situation is really dire. Although only 50 miles from Houston Galveston is in a time warp and procedures there seem to have come from the pre-Civil Rights era.<BR/><BR/>The Galveston arrest rate is nearly 5 times the arrest rate for New York City even after factoring in tourists and commuters. Galveston arrest rate per capita: 11.7%, NYC's arrest rate per capita: 2.5%.<BR/><BR/>So Galveston's arrest rate is nearly 5 times that of NYC.<BR/><BR/>Here's the math to support the data:<BR/><BR/>Galveston PD data shows between approximately 8000 arrests per year.<BR/><BR/>Galveston population if 57,000 (pre-Ike)<BR/><BR/>To get the percentage rate take number of arrests (8000) and divide by population of 57000.<BR/><BR/>Galveston's arrest rate is thus:<BR/>14.3% compared to a national urban arrest rate of 5%<BR/><BR/>Now let's factor in tourists, commuters<BR/><BR/>Let's take Galveston's average number of tourists of 4.1 million (generally acknowledged by islanders to be a significant overestimate) and divide it by 365 - to get how much greater the population is due to tourists on a daily basis<BR/><BR/>4,100,000 divided by 365 equals 11,232 - so taking into account the tourist population we have an extra 11,232 people on the island daily<BR/><BR/>Now let's add that number 11,232 to number of Galveston residents, for a total of 68,233<BR/><BR/>Now we'll divide the number of arrests annually, 8000, by our new population & tourists number of 68,233 to get the arrest rate per capita<BR/>2<BR/>We get .117 so even factoring in the tourist numbers, Galveston has an arrest rate of 11.7%<BR/><BR/>Now let's compare to NYC stats when we factor in tourists and commuters?<BR/><BR/>NYC has approximately 46,000,000 visitors staying in hotel rooms each year. (source NYC tourism)<BR/><BR/>Divide by 365 and we get an extra population of 127,000 per day. Additionally, 3.8 million people per day commute to the borough of Manhattan.<BR/><BR/>Sum these and we get 3,927,000 more people daily than are included in the census population numbers<BR/><BR/>We'll add this number to our NYC U.S. census population number of 8,214,426 to get the total daily population of<BR/>12,141,497 people<BR/><BR/>Now we'll divide the total number of arrests in NYC annually by the total daily population<BR/><BR/>314,424 annual arrests (source NY division of criminal justice) divided by 12,141,497 equals .025 or an arrest rate of 2.5 percent per capita of daily population<BR/><BR/>WHAT IS GOING ON IN GALVESTON AND WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-54848866461804122612008-11-03T19:56:00.000-06:002008-11-03T19:56:00.000-06:00The jail was doomed whether the economy was good o...The jail was doomed whether the economy was good or bad. I think we will see 75 to 85 percent against it this time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-1550891507414109742008-11-02T19:57:00.000-06:002008-11-02T19:57:00.000-06:00The sheriff says it has cost 12 million over the 5...The sheriff says it has cost 12 million over the 5 years to house and transport these prisoners.<BR/><BR/>Over that same time period, how much would it have cost taxpayers in personnel expenses (Salary, retirement, insurance, workers comp, overtime, holiday pay, etc.)if Smith County were in a new jail and had to hire more jailers to guard these prisoners?<BR/><BR/>When he said 12 million, did he deduct the revenue Smith County is making from the federal prisoners they house?<BR/><BR/>People in jail charged with DWI can be housed with murderers. It depends on an inmate's classification. Max's cannot be housed with a minimum. He knows that. It is possible for someone charged with murder to be classified as medium. Even if someone charged with murder is classified as a maximum, someone charged with DWI may have a classification of medium. Max's and mediums can be housed together. He knows that too.<BR/><BR/>Or maybe I'm giving him too much credit and he really doesn't know the first thing about classifying inmates!<BR/><BR/>Most DWI offenders bail out the next day anyway, unless of course bail is set so high as to purposely cause an overcrowding situation or a jp is in cahoots with a bail bondsman. An arrestee can remain in holding for 72 hours before going to general population anyway.<BR/><BR/>Custody reassessments are supposed to be conducted within 30-90 days of the initial classification. The inmate's classification may go up, may go down.<BR/><BR/>Bottom line here, Sheriff Smith is the consumate politician and charmer and is misleading folks with these kinds of statements. That's what politicians, or I should say long tenured politicians do.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com