Stimulus money to build three new jails

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The Navajo Nation will be getting federal stimulus money for new jails after all.

In the initial round of stimulus funding, $125 million was appropriated for tribal jails but Navajo officials said that all went to other tribes.

Last week, new appropriations were made and the Navajo Nation was successful this time, getting $74 million to build jails in Tuba City, Kayenta and Ramah.

This time the tribe received more than one-third of the total - $224 million - allocated for jail construction in Indian Country.

The bulk of the money - $38 million - will go to build the new jail in Tuba City. Kayenta and Ramah will get smaller allocations.

Tribal officials were thrilled at the news.

"The Public Safety Committee is elated that stimulus funds will help make our community safer by constructing modern jails that will provide a realistic deterrent to crime on the Navajo Reservation," said Rex Lee Jim (Rock Point), chairman of the Public Safety Committee.

The new jails will more than double the number of beds available to house long-term prisoners on the reservation.

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The reservation has been suffering from severe shortages in jail beds for more than 20 years, even since a lawsuit filed by DNA Legal Services Inc. ended with a settlement in which the tribe promised not to overcrowd jail facilities.

As a result, prosecutors have to meet almost on a daily basis with court officials to determine who should be released early in order to make room for incoming offenders.

With only 59 total beds currently, many inmates serve only a portion of their sentences before being released.

Police and prosecutors say this undercuts the safety of victims and the communities to which the offenders return.

Hope MacDonald LoneTree (Coalmine Canyon/Tó Nanees Dizí), a member of the Public Safety Committee, said the new jails would do a lot to "provide peace of mind to those who live within our borders.

"Now, the victims of crime and our innocent children can feel safe and protected from violent individuals who have wreaked havoc on our neighborhoods and our communities," she said.

New jails will also save the tribe some money since for the past couple of years the Corrections Department has been spending a lot of money shuttling prisoners around.

This should also end the practice of incarcerating some prisoners off reservation, which also costs the tribe money.

Under the rules of the stimulus grants, construction will have to begin next spring and be completed no later than early 2011.

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