Roseville Considers Permanently Closing Popular 18-Year-Old Jail
ROSEVILLE (CBS13) — Roseville city leaders will be asked on Wednesday to permanently close the police department's jail, even though a grand jury recommends keeping it open.
The facility inside Roseville Police headquarters opened in 1997 and can house up to 69 inmates. It was originally designed to be a timesaver for officers on the streets.
"anytime an officer arrests or books someone in our city they have to drive to Auburn, go through the booking process, and then drive back," said Chief Daniel Hahn.
Now the Placer County Sheriff is opening an additional jail in Roseville.
Closing Roseville's jail means a program praised by the Placer County Grand Jury and popular with prisoners will likely end. Some nonviolent inmates actually ask to be locked up in Roseville's jail, and pay $60 a day to sign up.
"The purpose of it is to allow people to do their time but still keep their job so typically people would check in after work or spend the weekend and that allows them to keep working," Hahn said.
having their own jail also allows officers to arrest and book misdemeanor offenders, something not done by some other agencies.
But Hahn says public safety won't be compromised, and it comes down to cost.
"Closing our jail will not result in criminals running wild in our streets," he said. "The jail costs us over a million dollars to operate and now that there's a county jail right down the street is it worth paying a million dollars for something that exists half a mile away."
The sheriff's department says it has no plans to continue the popular after-hours inmate program. If approved by the City Council, the Roseville jail may close as soon as the end of the year.
