Newport News-Times Policies
Media hypes crime - an old story

Still Selling That Jail

To: NT_Letters
From: reynolds@teleport.com
Subject: fill the jail
1/22/98 - Unpublished

The News-Times editorial cry to fill the jail (1/21/98) would be laughable in any other context than that which now obtains in the US - where we just learned this week that 1 in every 155 citizens was in prison or in jail in 1997.

In the 1980's the News-Times led the charge in promoting the bond/levy measure which still has taxpayers paying for the Lincoln County Jail building ($15 million including interest). During the 80's, bond measures were turned down by the public three times in six years. Those proposals would have created a jail with a capacity of around 75 inmates. At the time, this number would have almost tripled the average number of inmates held in the old jail.

The News-Times campaign kept coming back, and finally, in 1989, amid a burst of "crime wave" propaganda, the proposed size was doubled to a whopping 151 - and the bond measure passed! Go figure! The successful rhetoric included projections that the capacity of 151 beds would provide ample space on into the 21 Century, until 2010 or beyond.

So what is the News-Times' hurry to fill it early? The "fill the jail" editorial doesn't include any suggestions of who should be locked up. The paper's plan to strip other county budgets to pay for the expense of more prisoners should be based on some hard facts about quite a few dangerous people who are out there running loose.

Many readers will remember the shock we all felt in 1991 when the new jail was about to open and it was revealed that operating funds for the new facility had not been adequately planned for. Not even close! Numerous cuts in many county department budgets were necessary just to open the big new jail at half capacity. N-T readers need to know exactly why county services should now be cut even more. We cannot jail 75 people a day simply to cover up for the mistake we made by taking the News-Times' advice and building a jail over twice too big!

___Carl Reynolds

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