Good government requires certain responsibilities of those who earn their pay from taxpayers’ wallets.

Take the case of incarcerating bad guys. Curry County, N.M., has had difficulty in recent years retaining jail administrators. The county recently fired its latest jail administrator. The job has been a revolving door the past five years. It seems the county keeps picking losers to run its lockup.

The two newest members of the Curry County commission, though, now say they want the county to consider seriously privatizing the jail. Put the operation in the hands of a private security company and let it handle the headaches associated with running the place. That’s the issue the county should discuss, the commissioners say.

Bad idea, commissioners.

Texas has privatized its own prison system at several locations. There have been no widespread cases of abuse, mismanagement or malfeasance at these lockups. But the privatized nature of these institutions doesn’t deserve the credit by itself.

I’ve always felt that state and local governments have a responsibility that accompanies the roles they embrace openly. Counties and municipalities hire police officers to arrest suspected criminals; taxpayers foot the bill for those salaries. Counties also pay judges – handsomely in many cases – for the work they do in administering justice; that money, too, comes from the public trough. Taxpayers pay for courtrooms. Moreover, they pay jurors a small stipend to listen to evidence and to deliver verdicts. The public also pays for prosecutors who seek jail or prison time for offenders.

Why, then, should the public responsibility end when the criminals are locked up?

Whatever problems Curry County is having with jail administrators probably has far less to do with the public nature of the job than with incompetent hiring practices.

Putting jail operations in the hands of private contractors is the same thing as waving a white flag of surrender, that the county cannot do anything to fix an internal problem.