Eric Kusiak, Registered Nurse

Nathanial Davis Jr. died merely months ago in our county jail. He exhibited severe signs of alcohol withdrawal, for days, but given our current facility's medical inadequacies, he was left untreated. He wasn't a violent criminal. He was sick. He was sick and he died because he couldn't get the medical care he needed. 

Our community must do better. I know it aspires to. I know many jail proponents are no different. They're well meaning when they point to the new $124.7 million jail's shiny new medical wing as how we prevent future tragedies. But you see, as a nurse I strongly believe this logic is a mistake; a fatal one.

By expanding our jail to nearly double the size without any public discussion on how this new facility will meet its increased medical demands won't just continue our current inadequacies; it will actually make them worse. In fact, the county’s current official projection is that no additional personnel will be needed to operate the new facility. Imagine if a hospital doubled its patients without doubling its permanent full-time staff. Nurses would be picketing in the streets. In fact, hospitals have done this and nurses did.

Until our community can have more indepth conversations on how we are going to medically staff a facility nearly twice the size of the current one, this proposal doesn't just fail at being an improvement. It's actively more dangerous. This is one of many reasons I am voting 'no' in November.