Sciortino concerned about sheriff’s proposal for new jail

Sciortino concerned about sheriff’s proposal for new jail
By George P. Hassett

A preliminary plan to build a new Middlesex County jail in East Somerville is already prompting concerns from a local legislator.
    “The investment of almost a quarter of a billion dollars into our jail system at a time when we have yet to restore severe cuts in funding for mental health and substance abuse programs concerns me,” state Rep. Carl M. Sciortino, D-Somerville, said.

    Middlesex County Sheriff James V. DiPaola said he needs a new facility to house prisoners because of overcrowding conditions in the Middlesex County jail in East Cambridge. The jail houses 370 inmates, but was designed for only 160, he said. The jail occupies floors 17 through 22 of the Middlesex County Courthouse, which is targeted for closing by the end of 2007 to undergo asbestos removal and a $125 million rehabilitation.
   Officials have toured several sites in East Somerville as potential replacements but it is still very early in the process, Thomas P. Champion, spokesperson for Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, said. DiPaola said the jail could cost $250 million to build.   
  Sciortino said he agrees that the existing jail must be rehabbed.
  “Does that mean we have to supplement it with another jail costing $250 million? A better investment of that money would be to see if we could find a cheaper, more humane way to deal with people who may just be in need of basic services to deal with substance abuse or mental health issues,” he said.
   DiPaola said he agreed with Sciortino that building more prisons will not solve any crime problems and that prisoners are in need of improved services.
   “I agree philosophically with the people who oppose building more prisons,” he said. “We’re not going to incarcerate ourselves out of a crime problem and we need to do more to give prisoners the help and care they deserve. But I can’t do that in a crowded, aging facility. The conditions people are living under are unacceptable, the humane thing to do is build more jail space.”
   Sciortino said he is concerned that increased jail space will lead to increased incarceration for non-violent offenders in need of substance abuse and mental health treatment.
   “The more we increase bed capacity, the easier and faster it will be for those beds to fill up,” Sciortino said. “I would much rather invest our time and our resources to find out why we have these excessive incarceration rates.”
    The benefit for Somerville of a new jail would be DiPaola’s plan to include a new Somerville Police headquarters in the building. The current station is the subject of a lawsuit by over 60 city employees who say it is filled with molds that are causing their health problems.
    But the Patrolmen’s Union has voiced their opposition to the plan, maintaining it has more to do with politics and DiPaola’s ambition of creating his own police department than with helping the Somerville Police Department.
    Susan Mortimer, a 30 year Somerville resident and anti-prison activist, said a jail is not what the city needs.
   “Building a jail to cage 600 people is not a way to build a healthy community,” she said.

Comments

[Looney Tooney]

ohhhhh sweet jesus.....here we have two cents thrown in by a state rep who obviously knows nothing about the criminal justice system and fair treatment to inmates (it would be nice to wish crime away and not have to house criminals somewhere, wouldnt it?) and is it me or does the self-inflicted label of an "anti-prison activist" not reek of earthy crunchy ultra-fanatical, so far right that even nancy pelosi, teddy tipsy and our very own whacky cappy would ask "what the f**k is that crazy broad babling about?" i for one cant wait to see the city workers, i mean the commenters go wild here on this issue on monday maybe it will be a quiet commenting day here in la la land with most of the misfits, hacks and losers trying to shake their morning afters off and attempting to regain some of the "stupid" that probably festered in their brains while bingeing on tanqueray and tonics with joeycakes, the puppetmaster, herbie hack, sod and frankie two badge amongst others damn we all missed out on a veritable dumbass-fest maybe they should take the tour on the road

[Affordable Housing???...]

Is it true that jail cells are considered "affordable housing units" for the purpose of figuring out how much affordable housing a community has? Did I hear that from somebody at City Hall one time? If it is, then building a new jail to house 300 prisoners would be like building a bunch of affordable housing untis and let developers off the hook, no?

[Fred Sullivan Mahoney jr.]

You don't just ‘let developers off the hook’ you dumb-ass. We have to pay a lot of taxes here for almost no services. Developers need to pay their share too. In fact they should be paying our share for us.

Some of you may not know this; but, there other cities and towns that actually don't give the store away when it comes time to negotiate and allow businesses to serve their community. Some places do this so efficiently that the residents pay absolutely zero taxes on their homes. Their budgets are composed off of commercial and business taxes, licenses fees, and state and federal monies.

Here in Somerville, we are doing the polar opposite. We allow businesses to run for free and then collect our budget off of home taxes and parking tickets. You would think that since businesses can save so much in operational expenses that you would find a higher quality service than you would in Cambridge where businesses pay a whole more to operate. But what you find, for instance is that Somerville cabs brake down on you and Cambridge’s don't. Cambridge regulates and fines business that want to earn the privilege to serve the community. If you want a reliable Cab or some other service, do business in Cambridge not Somerville. This is probably because the business community here found our politicians to be very "user friendly” for so long that plenty of rouge businesses evolved into some symbiotic dysfunctional relationship with the city and its officials. Now, the residents pay for this lack of leadership in more than just dollars. We also suffer unregulated business practices and run away developments. We can not get simple orinances enforced in our own neighborhoods unless we get 30 people to complain about something. In Cambridge, a smelly nasty dumbster is just as smelly and nasty if one person calls or thirty.

This needs to change.

[Johnny M]

It took a while for someone to put those two together. That's funny.

[FieldofDreams]

Hey LooneyTooney, remember this: If you build it, they will come.

Every time a new prison or jail is built because of overcrowding, they get filled just as fast. Jailing more people does jack for actually dealing with crime!

Enlighten us, since you seem to be the expert on the criminal justice system... how do you plan to reduce crime and make us safer? Just lock em all up? Oh right, because that's working so well.

Who the hell wants a new jail being built (what happened to economic development!), first of all, and who wants all that money (and that's OUR money, by the way, taxpayer dollars), being wasted like that?

This is the stupidest proposal I've heard in a long time. Even the police are against it, what does that tell you!

[dream Weaver]

What are the police against exactly? Having a new jail all together or sharing one with someone else? Are we talking about an option to just not build a new Jail at all now? If it is just sharing as apposed to letting them build it in Cambridge then I would at least see what they have to offer us. What can we get out of this deal? How will it benefit us as a city? (sure poloticians make more friends in deals like this but how does it help us) Since we don’t have metro area municipal tax base sharing here, then the way I see it is, Cambridge owes us a lot for supporting the big box and chain stores so all their wealthy residents and people going to Biotech and Internet firms can have convenient shopping on their commutes. And all this while they make tons of cash for their budgets off of these industries and developments that we half support (all of their employees are buying condos and shopping here). They owe us a lot!

Now I believe everyone agrees we need a new police station. Is that right?
Well how much that would cost us to build and support and run on our own? So how much can we save in initial costs and then yearly operational fees if we share one? I think we can save a lot of money. Don’t we have budget problems?? Or do we just throw money out the window when the union or the cops decide to throw a big enough backlash?

Also, if the police are against it, for what reasons are they against it? I have not heard any good reasons for this argument yet.

We need a stronger long term vision!

[Looney Tooney]

hey field i was an expert nor did i say i had all the answers but crime just doesnt disappear. you have to house criminals somewhere. want to eliminate jail time for non-violent criminals and whatnot im with you on that, the problem is that kind of change happens over a long long time. in the meantime, theres still crime going on. it wouldnt pose a personal safety problem for the community would it? i dont think so. and the benefit of having a new police faciility (even if it was a separate building on the same site) would be a huge benefit to the community, that and the increased patronage to local businesses, including restaurants, stores and other end-user related retail in the area. dont get me wrong, im sure it wont be a completely rosy process, but in the long run it wont hurt the community thats for sure. im sure the police will come around if some kind of middle ground can be found. thats just my opinion im sure others have theirs.

[Looney Tooney]

isnt this long term vision what JN and others on here have been pounding into everyones brains as something we as a community need to come together on and find ways of finding that middle ground where everyone is satified and it helps the community in the long run?

[dream Weaver]

So lets start by defining community. community are the people who live, sleep, and wake up here each day.

I believe our long term vision's main goal should be to improve the quality of life for our community. That means residents firsts and then business earn the right to serve our community. They either provide services to us like our local bakery who we all patronage or they provide a a lot of taxes. The more out town cars in their parking lots the more taxes they pay. A lot more.

[dream Weaver]

The more trash they put in our streets the more taxes or fines they pay. A lot more.
The more noise they make in residential zones the more taxes and or fines they pay. A lot more. From now on businesses pay us, not poloticians!

[Affordable Housing???...]

F.S.Mahoney Jr.

You're quick to call me a dumb ass, then go on this rant about how developers should pay our taxes or some such BS ("Some places do this so efficiently that the residents pay absolutely zero taxes on their homes"), but you still didn't answer my question...

Are jail cells considered affordable housing units??? That's all I wanted to know.

For the record, I own the two-family that my wife and kids and I live in. I pay property taxes, through bank escrow, to Somerville, and they have gone up about 75% (from $2000 yr. to $3400 yr.)over the past 6 years. You don't need to preach to me about developers getting a free pass or any kind of special tax treatment.

[FieldofDreams]

"benefit to the community, that and the increased patronage to local businesses, including restaurants, stores and other end-user related retail in the area"

Are you serious? Building a jail is NOT the way to do economic development!

If we have a quarter billion to play with (which I doubt!), lets use it for real investment in our communities.

[dream Weaver]

Hey I am not preaching to you... You simply gave me and yourself an opportunity to make a point that has been falling on deaf ears. I don't know if jails are considered affordable housing. But I know cities like Brookline keep its jails empty and police free to serve the community by putting in old folks homes as their quota for affordable housing instead of risking trying to support high maintance poor people.
One good difference between the newcomers and the longtime residents is this. Half the houses on my street are oldtimers, of those one house has so many cats and animals inside you can smell it four houses down and across the street on a hot day, others have gangs of kids that the police spend a lot of time visiting between their vacations in some state penn, etc. etc.. As for the other half, the newcomers, well, they are fixing up their houses and cleaning up the place. don't get me wrong, I think we should have some affordable housing. But I think some of these folks should just go ahead and move to New Hampshire too. Let's turn their houses into condos or let the good, church-going, hard-working imigrants have their affordable housing...

[dream Weaver]

Oh and if you get a chance to spend a 1/4 billion on a jail in your community you should consider if you pass it up you don't get the 1/4 billion. some other community does.

[filipeandjorge]

All the irony from our gay legislators:

One says he's against funding for keeping bad men in chains and uniforms with bondage and discipline imposed and being guarded by beefy other men wearing helmets and jackboots and marching in formation. Ooohhh...Filipe and Jorge are reminded of the old Sporters on Cambridge Street in Boston and that old leather bar on Merrimac Street that's now some yuppie hotel. Carl, bring back the good old days. Why should those bitches at Toast get to have their own place?

The other legislator says he hates sticky white gelatinous substances going down our throats. Oh the humanity, Jarret! I thought you were on our side. Why aren't you urging Carl to support a new jail with that strapping young sheriff? Also, the City would benefit by ridding us of that clammy police station that has all the ambiance of the Boston Public Library mens room. Give our boys in blue a little more dignity to practice their craft!

Filipe and Jorge