Boone County’s sheriff says we’re in a crisis situation now with the current jail due to overcrowding and he hopes voters will approve Proposition L in November.
Voters in Columbia and throughout Boone County will cast ballots in November on L, which calls for adding three-eighths-of a cent to the county’s current one-eighth cent law enforcement sales tax to fund a new county jail.
Sheriff Dwayne Carey spoke on 939 the Eagle’s “Sunday Morning with Ken and Brian”, telling listeners that the county will spend about $5 million this year housing 230 inmates in 14 other county jails, including Greene County in Springfield and Carter County in southeast Missouri.
Sheriff Carey says Proposition L is not permanent and has a 15-year sunset clause. The current jail was built in 1991 and Sheriff Carey says it is at capacity. About 200 inmates are at the Boone County jail.
Sheriff Carey says there are now 30 inmates charged with murder in Boone County, some of them gang members and some have co-defendants. He works to keep rival gang members away from each other. He also says another 28 have mental health issues and are waiting on a bed from the state Department of Mental Health (DMH). He says those 28 are housed alone in a two-person cell.
Proposition L requires a simple majority for passage. Click here to listen to Sunday’s full interview that hosts Ken Rice and Brian Carl had with Sheriff Carey.