News-Record.com

Skip Alston and BJ Barnes traveled familiar territory during a budget meeting last week.

Alston, the Democratic Guilford County commissioner, doesn't want a big new jail. Barnes, the Republican sheriff, does. And round and round they went.

But something new happened when Barnes told county commissioners that he didn't want $300,000 for an electronic house-arrest program in his budget. Commissioners have given prelminary approval to the program, in which low-risk offenders could be released from jail and monitored with an ankle bracelet as they await trial.

The idea is to clear space in the crowded jails for the people who really need to be there.

But Barnes said that since the program was in the preliminary stages, didn't have a formal commitment from the courts, and lacked policies as to who would qualify for it, he didn't want the burden of running it. Just the two deputy sheriffs, equipment, and cruisers needed to run the program would cost $250,000, he said.

"Knowing that I'm doomed for failure is not something that I want to have happen," he said.

Manager David McNeill said he put the $300,000 in the budget just to get the program off the ground.

But Alston wondered what harm there was in trying it. He has said Barnes doesn't want jail-alternative programs to work because they would help get people out of jail and, therefore, erase the need for a new one.

"If you don't believe in it," Alston said, "then it's not going to work."