GAMBLING: One way to fill jails

Reply to Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson’s Feb. 18 “Readers Write” comment about gambling in Idaho.

Many years ago, I lived in Iowa when they approved casino gambling. The county I lived in had decided to build a jail big enough to house their own prisoners, plus surrounding county prisoners. They would charge for other county’s prisoners.

The nearby Native American tribe allowed a casino to be built on their reservation. The jail and the casino were finished about the same time. A short time later, the jail was filled with our county’s prisoners. Gambling not only caused crime to increase, adding more expenses to law enforcement, but in this case it even meant that the county wasn’t getting the money from the other counties to house their prisoners.

JOHN DICKEY

Kellogg