Reasons to Vote No on 1A - New Jail

1. We already voted against this in 2001. 2. We don't really need a new jail, we need to rehab the old one. 3. We don't need to put more people in jail, we need to divert them to programs which will help solve their problems. 4. We don't even know who is currently in our jail, or why. 5. We don't need a tax increase, which 1A clearly states: "...AND SHALL CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER PROPERTY TAXES BE INCREASED BY AN ESTIMATED $17,328,000 FOR THE FIRST FULL FISCAL YEAR (2008)..." 6. Nor do we need to give the City a blank check "...INCREASED ... ANNUALLY WITHOUT LIMITATION...." 7. Using prime downtown property for a jail is not the "highest and best use" for which this real estate could used. 8. Moving non-court offices to the Webb Building would create more than enough space for the expansion of the courts in the current City and County Building. 9. The Webb Building is not fully occupied so there is plenty of room for these non-court offices, and moving them would take a lot of hall traffic out of the City and County Building, and put empty space which we already own to good use. 10. None of the "incidents" reported as safety issues involved threats by inmates in the halls. 11. The proponents of this boondoggle have not budgeted for operating this proposed center. How much would this cost? No one seems to know. 12. Using the population of Denver at 550,000, this proposal would cost $1300 for every man woman and child in Denver over the next 20 years. Denver currently cannot afford school supplies for its children. Let's get the priorities straight. 13. Building a jail that does not look like a jail defeats the purpose of a jail. 14. If Denver were to stop ticketing the homeless for meaningless infractions, there would be no overcrowding at the downtown jail. (More on this later.) To be continued ...