County Curious About Jail Funding

Sonora, CA — Tuolumne County officials are awaiting the details of the next round of state grant funding that will be available for jail projects.

County Administrator Craig Pedro gave an update to the Board of Supervisors at this week’s meeting. Tuolumne County was not selected to receive funding during the last go-around, and at the time the maximum that a county this size could receive was $33 million.

“We’ve heard that the guidelines for the phase three funding are coming out, and what they are proposing is to reduce the maximum allocation for jails,” said Pedro. “It is still a proposal, but they are talking about reducing it to $20 million. That is not good news.”

The state will make its final decision sometime down the road. Actually receiving money is a competitive process, and Tuolumne County would have to submit an application. The last estimate was that Tuolumne County’s Jail project will cost around $48 million. The infrastructure is in place along Old Wards Ferry Road.