When Santee’s Brian Jones mulled Calif. building state prisons in foreign nations

Santee Patch editor Steven Bartholow quizzes Assemblyman Jones left in October Photo by Ken Stone A politician proffers his wild idea of building state prisons in foreign countries a way to reduce inmate overcrowding and remove immigrant convicts A Huffington Post account draws around comments greater part mocking the concept But it wasn t from Donald Trump The pol was Brian Jones of Santee Fourteen years before President Trump drew Supreme Court scrutiny and national outrage for sending immigrants to an El Salvador prison without due process rookie Assemblyman Jones notified me and a fellow reporter Let s build prisons in their home countries and send them to those prisons Jones a former Santee councilman met me and Santee Patch editor Steven Bartholow in October outside the Starbucks at Santee Trolley Square He revealed such state-built prisons would operate at a lot lower expense than being here in California And let their home country take care of them Jones was responding to a question about prison realignment the move under Gov Jerry Brown to shift state prisoners to county jails Jones a Republican stated that solely deporting immigrants convicted of state crimes would end up with them coming back A year after Brian Jones was elected to the state Assembly he spoke to Patch editors in Santee Photo by Ken Stone So we ve got to secure our borders so that we can stop the transfer back and forth of illegal immigration and then send those people home Forty-three at the time he conceded he hadn t done any math on this foreign-prisons concept But it might be cheaper to pay for the prisons in other countries if the other country will run it and keep them genuinely in prison he disclosed Two weeks after our Santee chat Jones seemed to double down This idea was more hyperbole but to my surprise it s caught on and gotten national attention Jones informed San Diego s Fox TV station I presented it as a wild idea and then detected out maybe it s not so wild Fox San Diego reporter James Koh wrote The assemblyman disclosed that while his idea is intriguing and a conversation starter he admitted he hasn t fleshed out the details to his plan quite yet But Jones commented The next step is to answer those questions Is it more cost-effective is it legal and is it manageable Answers became apparent In Sacramento nothing came of the concept But given the new attention to sending illegal alien criminals or even U S citizens to foreign prisons Times of San Diego sent Jones press secretary specific questions Does Sen Jones agree with Trump on sending both U S citizen and immigrant convicts to El Salvador Would Sen Jones backing a bill in Sacramento to send state convicts citizen or noncitizen to foreign prisons Would Sen Jones assistance a bill in Sacramento to build prisons in foreign countries to house state convicts citizen or noncitizen Jones didn t address specific questions but commented in a declaration Tuesday My off-the-cuff remarks from years ago were meant to spark discussion around a complex federal issue not outline actual approach As Senate minority leader in contemporary times my focus is on real actionable solutions within California s jurisdiction to keep our communities safe and uphold the rule of law As noted in my November follow-up story Jones wasn t even the first to float the foreign-prisons idea Then-Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger was a booster in January We can do so much better in the prison system alone if we can go and take inmates for instance the inmates that are illegal immigrants that are here and get them to Mexico Schwarzenegger was quoted by the Sacramento Bee We pay them to build a prison down in Mexico and then we have those undocumented immigrants be down there in the prison he added Half the cost to build the prisons and half the cost to run the prisons That is money again a billion dollars right there that can go into higher learning That is an example of one of the things we do that is unnecessary spending Aaron McLear the governor s press secretary later explained recounted San Francisco-based ABC We don t have any proposal put together nothing set in stone But like any other creative remedy to spending less on prisons the governor thinks we ought to talk about that Last week I sought comment from Schwarzenegger No response Even earlier in April The New York Times released that Arizona Republican Gov Fife Symington proposed a twist to the North American Free Exchange Agreement a plan to build a private -inmate prison in Mexico to house the bulk of Arizona s Mexican prisoners Transcript of October Patch interview with Brian Jones PDF It would mean big dollars to the operator and to the Mexican financial system disclosed Terry Stewart the Arizona prisons director On April Mr Stewart received two responses to a request for feasibility studies one from a prison company based in Florida and the other from a group in Mexico Nothing came of that either And no wonder State-built prisons in Mexico could run afoul of the Eighth Amendment s prohibition of cruel and unique punishment among other laws Not to mention fierce opposition from Democratic lawmakers The New York Times in its story noted that such prisons would require a treaty between the United States and Mexico States can t conduct their own foreign approach noted a State Department spokesman Any kind of international agreement of that kind would have to be between two national governments stated the spokesman I don t know how two states could effect that legally Luis Cabrera who would become the Mexican Consul General in San Diego pointed to jurisdictional problems without a treaty Prisons in Mexico cannot be managed by foreign officers Cabrera stated The New York Times If state-built prisons in Mexico or elsewhere are such a nonstarter why wouldn t Brian Jones now a state senator and leader of Senate Republicans only say that Before Jones report arrived I required veteran San Diego political scientist Carl Luna why Jones wouldn t reply The Mesa College and University of San Diego professor offered several reasons First given mounting backlash to the Trump administration at the grass-roots level Republicans in general seem to be going out of their way not to speak to the press about anything he commented Second to speak out in favor of this blatantly unconstitutional initiative runs the danger of alienating the more moderate base of the Republican Party and independents But by saying nothing Luna revealed via email Jones passively endorses the president until such time he s forced to pick which side of the constitutional fence he has decided to come down on which for now is perhaps enough to keep his MAGA supporters satisfied I wrote to James Koh the former Fox San Diego reporter who covered Jones and his conversation starter Koh now an NBCLA sportscaster and adjunct professor at Mount San Antonio College described me he doesn t recall that interview My reaction would be that it s preposterous though Koh disclosed via email My former Patch colleague Bartholow explained Not surprised Jones isn t stepping into that landmine-ridden field But it does seem it s prime time for wild ideas