Adelanto: Unlimited jail possibilities

By Desert Dispatch Editorial Board

Posted Nov. 3, 2015 at 10:29 AM
Updated at 10:32 AM 

The Adelanto City Council voted 3-2 last week to approve another jail in the city.

If constructed by the GEO Group, the 1,000-bed facility would bring to four the number of facilities that house inmates in the city. If you consider that the three-prison federal penitentiary complex in Victorville really is closer to Adelanto, that would put seven prisons or jails in the general vicinity of Adelanto.

And remember, the Doctor Crants and Buck Johns jail proposal isn’t dead yet, either, though it appears unlikely that Los Angeles County will contract with Crants and Johns to house its overflow inmate population in Adelanto.

In a very real sense, Adelanto is making jails its main industry. Maybe it’s time to change the city slogan from “city with unlimited possibilities” to “city with unlimited jail possibilities.”

The Planning Commission had voted against the jail proposal, primarily because of its location — about a halfmile from a residential neighborhood and just a mile and a half from Adelanto High School.

But in siding with the GEO Group in its appeal, Councilmen Jermaine Wright, Ed Camargo and John Woodard went for the easy money and extra deputies that would come with the jail. GEO’s annual payment to the cash-starved city immediately jumps from $400,000 to $963,000 and the company will pay for an extra deputy to patrol the city. And if the jail is built, GEO’s annual payment will increase to about $1.33 million and it would pay for four deputies in Adelanto.

Facing a considerable deficit and apparently unable to attract any other industry except marijuana, Wright, Camargo and Woodard jumped at the cash. (Wright says the infusion of GEO cash will erase Adelanto’s deficit.) Isn’t that indicative of the problems facing Adelanto? What’s the benefit to residents of actually having a city if its leaders only serve to roll out the red carpet to jails and marijuana advocates?

Wouldn’t Adelanto residents be better off under San Bernardino County jurisdiction? It seems you certainly could make that argument.

Worse yet is the spillover effect Adelanto has on the entire region. Though its leaders have been known to bemoan Adelanto’s bad reputation, what have they done to actually improve it? By saying yes to drugs and more inmates, they only serve to sully the Victor Valley’s collective reputation.

We haven’t heard much about Adelanto residents’ recall efforts lately, but maybe they should just switch gears and mount an effort to disincorporate the city. They, and we, might be better off