In an effort to ease overcrowding in the Redwood City jail, local authorities have proposed building a new jail. However, some aren't convinced a new facility will address the problems with the county correctional system or offer much-needed rehabilitation services to inmates.

Local jails fail to provide inmates, especially those with drug or mental health issues, with the proper treatment they require. This argument was made by Manuel La Fontaine, a staff member with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, and Sharifa Wilson, former mayor of East Palo Alto, in a recent op-ed published in the Daily Journal. The county needs to "move toward initiatives that heal and restore dignity" in the local jails, they wrote.

"People who are incarcerated are treated in a way that is meant to take away their dignity - and that is not a problem that can be solved by a new jail design," La Fontaine and Wilson wrote.

Inmates will not be able to correct their behavior if they are locked up in a violent environment, the article stated. Jails are not places for "transformation," the op-ed stated, but are places where people are locked away from society and not offered proper treatment.

In their piece, the authors quoted a former inmate who spoke at a recent San Mateo County Board of Supervisors meeting. The man said jail did not offer him rehabilitation services for his drug addiction or mental health issues, and his time spent locked up made his condition worse.

Some 22 percent of those arrested in San Mateo have mental health issues. A county health official said people with mental illness do not get better in jails, and current treatment programs are ineffective, the op-ed stated.

Hundreds of people have voiced opposition to building a new jail in the county. Dorsey Nunn, executive director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, told the county Board of Supervisors that by building a new jail at a time when funding is not available for drug treatment and mental health services, the county is sending a "clear message" that a healthy future for local communities is not a priority, a recent San Francisco BayView article stated.

The county has started to prep a site in Redwood City where the new jail would be built, the Wall Street Journal reported. The facility, which could cost $165 million, would accommodate 576 inmates, the article stated. The facility would allow the county to have a total of 1,264 inmates between its two jails.

The county has included funding in its 2012-13 budget for the new jail. It is expected to be completed by 2015.