Rotarians hear update on plans for new Kings County Jail expansion to ease burden

With a groundbreaking ceremony, construction will begin July 28 on a $41 million project, with $33 million from state funding, to expand the Kings County Jail, adding 252 beds to the jail's current 361 beds.

The expansion also will have a medical wing. Now, inmates are treated in other settings.

Later this year, design will begin on an adjacent $20 million complex that will add a 24-bed mental health facility, four classrooms, a full-service kitchen where inmates can learn job skills, and a vocational warehouse. Inmates also will be able to acquire landscaping and irrigation skills while building a grass exercise yard at the complex on Lacey Boulevard in central Hanford.

The sheriff emphasized that the latter project will help inmates more successfully pursue employment and education after completing their sentences.

 "Sometimes you close the door and want to throw away the key," the sheriff said. "But you would be amazed at the number of inmates we have a chance with."

The projects are, in many ways, the result of the state's realignment of housing for inmates, part of a budget cut that shifted countless burdens to counties. While about a year was once the maximum time served in a county jail, instead of state prison, sentences are becoming longer and the severity of crimes is increasing.

 As a result, low-level offenders are being released to make room. In 2012-2013, the sheriff said, 1,135 inmates were released early from the jail.

The sheriff worked to find temporary housing by reopening the branch jail with the support of the Kings County Board of Supervisors are some portable beds from Avenal State Prison. But unless more money for staffing is found, the branch jail will have to close again once the forthcoming expansion is complete.

On other topics, the sheriff said the 9-1-1 dispatch center run by his department handles an average of about 75,000 calls per year; the department has purchased an airplane to enhance its patrol capabilities, special enforcement, fire support and local emergencies; and the department is soon to begin work on a tunnel linking the jail with courtrooms, eliminating the need to take inmates by van to the courts at the same complex.

Introducing the sheriff, Lemoore City Manager Jeff Laws called him "the hardest working sheriff in the state."

Robinson said: "It's a great job; I am passionate about it. ... Kings County is still a very safe place to live. We're trying to keep our community safe."