Hutchinson Leader - Sheriff - Comments

They tried to do this a few

Canthelpbutlaugh — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 09:25:44 -0500

They tried to do this a few years ago and it was a complete disaster. It was switched back after only a short time.

Plato, Glencoe, Brownton,

TJ21 — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 02:05:19 -0500

Plato, Glencoe, Brownton, Winstead, Stewart, Lester Prairie, all the other towns and the Deputies all are dispatched out of the McLeod County dispatch center while Hutchinson has its own. I know there was some talk about doing away with Hutch's dispatch center and having Hutch PD dispatched through the County dispatch center with all the other towns. Do they think this is going to happen when they switch over to the narrow band?

The article stated these

justme — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:02:13 -0500

The article stated these changes were necessary to become compliant with state regulations. So that wouldn't be good enough for you? You need to hear that if it isn't fixed an inmate could run a sheet through the opening and make a noose? Again, you can explain the changes needed in detail w/out suggesting how inmates can take advantage of the problems needing to be fixed.

I think people would be up

hutchindaughter — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:52:56 -0500

I think people would be up in arms about having to pay for smaller vents without knowing why smaller vents were needed. It would seem silly to get new vents if the old vents were working well. I would question the other items on the list as well if I didn't have a proper explanation as to why these changes were needed.
If these changes weren't explained in detail, this thread would be filled with posts about how the county is wasting money on things that work just fine already.

Not sure when I said it was

justme — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:05:26 -0500

Not sure when I said it was a guidebook for assault/homicide/suicide and I didn't say you shouldn't report it. In my opinion responsible journalism would be reporting these problems needing upgrading w/out providing specific examples on what a person could do to take advantage of those problems.

If Hutchinson Leader

Aura_Lee — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:13:27 -0500

If Hutchinson Leader wouldn't have reported on what the county was spending the money on, they would have been accused of not getting all the facts.

There are plenty of ways for someone to hurt people. I hardly believe this article was a guidebook to assault/homicide/suicide.

Justme, the information you

Jorge Sosa — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:43:38 -0500

Justme, the information you refer to is public. It was discussed in public meetings and detailed in a letter from the Department of Corrections which was released to the press.

I believe if the McLeod County Sheriff's Office or the jail staff believed an inmate or potential inmate might be sitting there reading the newspaper and getting all kinds of bad ideas, they would not have given copies of this information to the press.

The Leader provides this information because $1.5 million is a lot of taxpayer money and our readers might want to know if it's being well spent. Some might argue that merely reporting that the county is spending $1.5 million on unspecified "stuff" would be irresponsible.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)

How incredibly responsible

justme — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:44:25 -0500

How incredibly responsible of this Leader staff writer (not to mention the editor that let it go through) to put specific examples for a possible future inmate to endanger him or her self, other inmates and possibly jail staff. Can't imagine what you all were thinking. And this is the SECOND time you've printed it. Good grief!

And the "old slammer" will

justme — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 06:46:51 -0600

And the "old slammer" will surely miss them!

Porkchop, to answer your

Jorge Sosa — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:05:28 -0500

Porkchop, to answer your question, the County Board has a 45-day window to accept the bids. I'm not sure exactly what date that starts from, but the County Board was officially presented with the bids on Sept. 18.

Your other question, regarding how much money has been spent on the project so far, should be answered next week. At the Oct. 2 board meeting, the County Auditor's office is expected to present figures on the jail's potential tax impact, along with a tally of the dollars invested up until now.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)

And speaking of

porkchop — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:54:03 -0500

And speaking of paying......
Now that the ever brilliant commissioners have put the jail plans on hold, one wonders where they have been the last months. Sleeping? Dreaming? Absent? Sound system in the Board room not working? You would hope that this group of elected leaders would be smart enough to ask questions about operating costs early on in the planning stages, not at the last minute. But, then again, that is very normal for this group. Most "leaders" who consume oxygen should be aware that building large will increase costs....shouldn't they ?!? Those figures should have been presented, requested or available during the planning process, not at the bid letting time. Just how much will this little delay cost US as taxpayers? If the project dies, how much money will be lost in design fees paid? Meetings attended? Tours of other facilities? Or nay other money spent on the planning. How long are the bids valid, or will they also need to be re-bid and cost more? One solution to the inability to make a decision would be to have the added costs or lost monies on this project come out of the Commissioners pay...attack their pocket as they do ours. One can only hope that the corrective surgery will be successful...the one where the commissioners have their heads removed from the current location and placed back on their shoulders so they can do the job they were elected to do.

I would rather pay for a new

kellyM — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 11:59:55 -0500

I would rather pay for a new jail than have prisoners taken out of the jail everyday to house out. It's when you take them out of a secure facility that things would go wrong. If this doesn't go through and something happens as a result of housing out(escape, accident, whatever) I hope to be there to point my finger at these commissioners because it would be on thier hands. We are going to end up paying for this eventually, why not now when it is cheaper!! I plan on living here in McLeod county for a long time and the price tag on this is just going to go up every year that we wait.

Hens love roosters, geese

ragnyb — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 22:10:00 -0500

Hens love roosters, geese love ganders;
everyone else loves Ned Flanders!

i wonder if the shooter was

Aura_Lee — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:21:05 -0500

i wonder if the shooter was from stewart and was shooting at someone from brownton.......or maybe the person getting shot at had an rv in their driveway and the person shooting lived next door and didn't like it

Regarding the search on

Jorge Sosa — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:05:01 -0500

Regarding the search on Friday (July 30): Doug Hanneman, the Leader's editor, spoke with Hutchinson Police Chief Dan Hatten Monday morning.

Speaking of the incident, Hatten said, "It's still under investigation in conjunction with the McLeod County Sheriff's Office. We're still investigating all aspects of this incident, including the validity of the call."

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)