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Danbury Mayor proposing renting out jail cells to generate revenue

Danbury officials are looking to increase revenue to the City through regionalization.  During his budget address, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton suggested leasing 10 jail cells a night. 

 

When asked who would rent the cells, he gave the example of Bethel.  The neighboring town is planning to build a new police station with a lock up and dispatch center.  Bethel residents rejected a $14 million proposed police station in December.  A slightly scaled back proposal is now being considered.

 

Boughton says the prisoners end up going to the Danbury Court house anyway, so Danbury could transport them there as well.  He claims by other municipalities contracting out those services to save money, Danbury could generate $700,000 a year in revenue.

 

He also suggested consolidating area police dispatchers into the new Center that's now up and running.

 

Last summer Newtown was considering the future of dispatching services for their police department.  A 2011 regionalization effort with Danbury and other towns was not successful, in part because Danbury had not yet consolidated its 911 call center operations.

 

A public hearing on the budget is being held Monday at 7pm at City Hall.

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