Dade jail costs rising, jail building doesn't

Seven years ago, Miami-Dade County earmarked $90 million to build a state-of-the-art corrections facility that would house 2,000 inmates and replace the aging and dangerously overcrowded main jail.

But the plan to build the Krome Avenue jail, bandied about for decades, today remains stuck in bureaucratic muck despite the expenditure of more than $26 million in taxpayer funds.

Estimated costs have ballooned to $330 million, a figure so great that administrators are hoping a private corrections company can bridge the funding gap. One more thing: Miami-Dade’s jail population, while still well over capacity, has fallen by 20 percent over the past two years — sapping the project’s urgency at a County Hall beset by political and economic turmoil.

Meanwhile, the county official whose clients would be housed at the jail says Krome Avenue is a dumb place to build it.

It is far from the first Miami-Dade government construction project to end up behind schedule or over budget or both. Recent examples have included the North Terminal at Miami International Airport and the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center.

Still, “we need to do it, however we get there,” said Miami-Dade Corrections Director Tim Ryan, an advocate of the project. “This is not going away. Our jails are really falling apart. We have been spending lots of money to continue to maintain them.”

On paper, the new jail would feature enough beds to replace or at least allow for massive renovation of the decrepit, 50-year-old main jail. The West Miami-Dade facility would also provide a central kitchen to service meals for all county jails.

Ryan envisions the facility having inmate video conferencing for families and lawyers, and courtrooms for defendants to appear before a judge for their mandated “first appearance’’ within a day of arrest.

The need for an upgrade has been pressing for years but was recently highlighted by two power outages that stalled operations at the jail. There were no security risks because emergency generators kicked in, Ryan said, but the circuit breakers are so outdated that workers had to fashion makeshift parts for them because replacements are no longer available.

However, while most observers agree the main jail needs to be replaced, the Krome site is not welcomed by all.

Miami-Dade Public Defender Carlos Martinez and other defense lawyers say the site is too far west of the county’s criminal courthouse in Central Miami to be practical for visitors or lawyers. Even with video conferencing, lawyers still need to meet clients face-to-face in many cases, Martinez said.

Miami Construction Crane Accident Could Also Be Due To Laws ...

New York, NY (PRWEB) March 28, 2008

March 25, 2008 — David H. Perecman, a veteran New York City construction accident lawyer and co-founder of New York construction accident attorneys law firm Perecman &amp Fanning, expressed even much more sadness as Miami experiences a crane construction accident like New York only a few weeks ago.

“Now the men and women of Miami have to feel the same discomfort New Yorkers experienced as tragedy hit’s their backyard with construction workers dead resulting from questionable construction practices,” said Mr. Perecman. “Although too early to tell, Miami’s crane collapse could be one more preventable construction web site misfortune in an endless string of accidents where construction web site workers die or are injured in related accidents. Due to unsafe working conditions, New York City has seen a rise in deaths and accidents and some of the reasoning is since laws do not always protect the workers and people who live around those areas.”

The most recent Miami crane construction accidents left two workers dead and five injured compared to the 6 deceased New York City construction workers and 17 other people injured on March 15, 2008 when a significant construction crane broke apart at New York’s 51st street. The New York Times recently reported that construction injuries have almost doubled from 23 in November of 2006 to 42 the same time 1 year previous, while building code violations increased from 38 to 58 in the exact same period.

“In New York Construction laws regarding accidents like this crane’s collapse can be complicated. Construction workers normally have to rely on 2 statutes, Labor Law 240 or 241. Depending on the facts the 1st statute could not apply. The second one calls for that a worker to prove the violation of a specific particular kind of regulation contained in New York’s “Industrial Code” (NYCRR rule 23). The dilemma is that, even though the technology has changed, the Industrial Code has not been updated or revised in over 30 years,” said David Perecman.”

Worse yet most, if not all, contractors have no notion what the “Industrial Code” is and only comply, if they comply at all with the rules written by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Even so, an OSHA violation does not enable a worker to sue the owner and contractor under Labor Law 241(6) This is not a minor issue, or just a modest technicality It leaves the workers without having a case and potentially no way to support their loved ones.

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