Jay La Suer Blog

Last week I was contacted by a reporter to give my opinion of the Las Colinas prison expansion in Santee.  My first thought was that she really just wanted a local Santee resident to give a dreary, typical comment like “I don’t think I want to live next to a 45 acre jail”.  Instead this was my response:

Thank you for contacting me.  Let me start out by giving you a little background.  My wife and I moved to Santee a year ago and now own a home walking distance from the prison.  We were first time home buyers and liked that Santee had little crime, a fantastic history of managing their city finances, and a trolley stop.  The existing 14 acre prison was a concern when we moved in, but neighbors said it was no big deal.  We are both totally against the expansion because it will ruin the look and functionality of downtown Santee, it will negatively affect the price of our home, and it will bring a bad element into a very nice, low crime town.  But this issue is much bigger than just not wanting a bigger prison.
I have met with appointed Sheriff Bill Gore and talked to him about the expansion plans specifically.  He told me it is important to rehabilitate the women inmates and the only way to do this is with this planned $300 million facility that includes training in sewing and farming.  When I asked him why it was not a better idea to sell the county land to developers and use that money to build elsewhere, he laughed and told me he was tempted to dare Santee Mayor Vopel to come up with $45 million for that land. (Meaning $1 million dollar an acre)  He asked me if I knew how land prices were these days and I told him I had just purchased a house…a house whose worth would be negatively affected by a 45 acre prison within walking distance.  He said that the jail was there first and the people of Santee need to “deal with it”.
Keep in mind that this is a jail…not a prison.  This means the women he intends to rehabilitate by teaching how to farm and sew will not be in that facility for more than a year because if their sentence is longer than a year, they go to a state facility.  Also keep in mind that appointed Sheriff Bill Gore was an agent in charge at Ruby Ridge (#http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge ) and was one of the men who changed the FBI’s order to their snipers to a shoot-anything-that-moves policy.  This change resulted in the death of an unarmed woman who was holding her baby.  She was shot in the back of the head while standing inside her home behind a door.  When he was later questioned in court, he chose to use his 5th Amendment right to avoid incriminating himself.  It is not surprising he has little regard for the opinions or well-being of San Diego citizens let alone elected officials.
There is one candidate for Sheriff who has a history of listening to the needs of voters, of fighting for responsible government spending, and is totally against this expansion: Jay LaSuer.  I hosted an event in my home two weeks ago and had the city of Santee come give me neighbors some information on the expansion.  Jay LaSuer attended just to listen to what the city of Santee had to say.  His comment to me after the presentation was “this is even worse than I thought”.
Santee’s Vice Mayor Brian Jones also attended.  He told us he had a public debate with one of the assistant sheriffs scheduled about this expansion, but the County has placed a gag order on all employees when it comes to Las Colinas.
This story is much more than just a jail expansion.  This is a story on the proper use of tax dollars and an appointed Sheriff with no regard for the people he wants to vote for him.  This is a story about the arrogance of elected officials.  This is a story of government irresponsibly spending tax money.  It is a waste of tax dollars for everyone who pays taxes in San Diego County.  On the surface this issue seems like a Santee issue, but it is an issue with county wide implications.  If the County moves forwards with the recommendations from appointed Sheriff Bill Gore, the expansion will lower the value of surrounding County owned land and negatively affect the County’s assets.  It will cost hundreds of millions of tax payer money to build, and it will cause the County to miss out on tens of millions in proceeds from the sale of land to developers.
This is all in a report done by two independent parties:
1) The Reason Foundation:  http://www.nojailexpansion.com/8-3-09.html
2) London Group Realty: http://www.ci.santee.ca.us/index.aspx?recordid=40&page=9

San Diego County could easily upgrade the Las Colinas facility into a booking station and then ship the inmates by bus to a facility like the Otay Mesa facility that will be available in just a couple years.  There are a number of other solutions and all are better than putting a huge prison in the center of a developing town and spending hundreds of millions to do it.

To sum up…my opinion is that this stinks from top to bottom.  There is no bright side for anyone here.  It should be stopped.  JUST SAY NO!!!