Casa Grande Dispatch
(Editor’s note: Opinion pieces are posted only for purposes of discussion.)
The Pinal County Board of Supervisors has issued an ultimatum to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about a contract to house federal prisoners. Pinal taxpay- ers have been subsidizing the cost of that service, and the board said the contract would be terminated if the federal agency does not start paying more.
ICE has had a very good deal under the contract while the county has lost millions of dollars. An arrangement that began years ago, supposedly to subsidize expansion of the county’s jail in Florence, has not worked out so well. Nearly a year of negotiations have not been fruitful so far. Of course, ending the contract would mean keeping part of the jail empty and cutting county detention staff, not an easy decision to make. However, issuing the 100-day cancellation notice next week would be the correct decision if no response is heard on the county’s demand.
