The View From Prospect Hill for the week of Aug. 30

Could a jail help us? Could it be the solution to one of the city’s most intimidating dilemmas? Could it spur commercial activity in the moribund sections of East Somerville? Is this a way to let the taxpayer off the hook for building a new police headquarters? Is this a way to begin the development of Inner Belt?

  No it is not. Building a new jail here is just another way get Somerville to take it on the chin. For too long, Somerville has been a man leaning face first into punches from outside interests.
  Train tracks crisscross the city, yet we have but one stop. The Commonwealth owns 60% of city land and treats us as an absentee landlord treats their undesirable tenants. And this is nothing new, beginning in the 19th century, development in Somerville often  was privately directed by outside interests before the city had any chance to form its own civic identity, structure and institutions.
  Believe it — a jail in East Somerville is no different. Sheriff James V. DiPaola‚Äôs need for a new facility to house inmates is real, but it doesn‚Äôt belong in Somerville. DiPaola may do his absolute best to work with us, but a building of incarceration is never good for a community.
   A building in which hundreds of people are caged, lacking freedom, inevitably brings an undesirable criminal element to visit. The areas immediately surrounding jails in Massachusetts have some of the highest rates of car theft in the Commonwealth. And if you want evidence that the anger of the incarcerated goes beyond the walls that close in on them and into the surrounding community, visit the back of the Nashua Street Jail in Boston to listen to the screams of truly confused people.
  Is that what we need in Somerville?
  No, Somerville needs to attract bio-tech industries, increase its affordable housing stock and hold major developers accountable to stir its economic growth. We need more than a deli and convenience store for the friends and loved ones of accused criminals.
  We‚Äôre being told the jail would benefit the police. They would be released from a dilapidated, mold-infested building and be able to work in a new, state of the art headquarters. Yet, the Patrolmen‚Äôs Union is one of the jail‚Äôs most vocal opponents. What does that tell you?
  We do not need a jail in Somerville. We must lean away from what will be another blow to our reputation from outside interests and demand that no jail be built here.