The Hamilton County Commission has two major functions – overseeing the taxpayers’ money spent for education and overseeing the taxpayers’ funding for public safety and the county jail.
Commissioners recently raised county property taxes to improve both school facilities and the jail.
On Wednesday, Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond brought commissioners a plan to save money in the jail and a request for $25,000 in matching money to flesh out that plan.
Commissioners are expected to vote next Wednesday on the sheriff’s request, and we think they should approve it.
Hammond, who has been sheriff since August 2008, has often rightly said the county jail is as much mental health hospital and homeless shelter as it is a place of correction. As many as 40 percent of inmates there are on psychotropic drugs, and a large share are mentally ill or addicted.