Earlier this month, Tulsa County leadership concluded six town hall meetings on a major, countywide sales tax proposal to raise more than $50 million. The money would be spent on two separate proposals: creating a new juvenile facility and increasing the capacity for the consistently overcrowded Tulsa Jail.

At the end of the day, the decision lies in the hands of the citizens of Tulsa County. The proposals will be on an April 1 ballot.

I had the privilege of attending more than half the meetings, which always proceeded in the same manner. The proposal would be explained, a heart-warming movie would play, and each representative would speak on why Tulsa County needed the new facilities. Their conclusions rang in a unison-like faction: It is for the kids.

One aspect is clear from the speeches and interactions with our leaders: They have a deep desire to improve the community. We are blessed to have leaders with such genuine sincerity and concern for the community. Their hopeful vision radiated throughout the sparsely filled venues.

As the meetings commenced, I couldn't help but become awestruck by the unanimity in favor of the proposal. It appeared there was no opposition that taxes would increase slightly to erect larger jails for our fellow citizens. This worrisome development intrigued me as I sat there in silence and listened as not one person mentioned that we were, in fact, increasing our jailed population.

As our jailed population increases, we continue to disrupt families to an even greater extent in already broken communities. The minority population is disproportionally institutionalized in our community and that practice is far from acceptable. There is very little doubt that the population of the Tulsa Jail has little education or job skills.

We are draining our limited financial resources in an unconstructive manner. Why not use the $52 a day it costs to jail someone in our county and offer (those eligible) life skills or addiction treatment? Why not focus our resources to fight the root causes of criminality and addiction? Why not focus on decreasing our jailed population as a community and investing in economic infrastructure and economic opportunities?

Why continue policies that have been shown to fail rather than practices that are proven to succeed? Why not be innovative enough to try new criminal justice strategies?

These are questions we must ask ourselves if we truly are concerned about the next generation. We must forge together as a community and become proactive in our policies rather than retroactive. The kids in our community who end up institutionalized come from a pipeline broken community to a broken home to a broken educational system to a broken criminal justice system. This fractured and cyclical system is passed down to the next generation. If we were to be pre-emptive in our approach, then we would implement literacy classes and focus on early childhood development to ensure that no child is simply passed through school without the ability to read at grade level.

We would invest in economic opportunities within the impoverished communities where crime is rampant, and offer alternatives to the financial benefits that lure citizens into criminal activity. We would investigate alternatives to the failed war on drugs, and implement harm-reduction strategies rather than incarceration.

We must increase funding for mental illness. And, if the true object of incarceration is to reform the criminal to a citizen, then steps must be taken to facilitate such a transition while those people are behind bars in order to reduce recidivism. We must shift our budgetary priorities.

Please don't misconstrue my point. The necessity of erecting larger and newer facilities is imperative. I am in favor of the proposals. But, the measures are only necessary because of the failed community policies of the past. If we don't invest some money on the front-end of our children's lives, we will be building larger detention facilitates forever.

Reggie Pulliam recently completed a public policy internship in Washington, D.C., with the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, and is seeking to continue the practices of community improvement at a local level.

‍