Activists call for end to new jail construction
By George P. Hassett

  The Union Square Plaza was one stop on a six city tour Monday for a group of anti-prison activists opposed to a possible new jail in east Somerville. The group, the Statewide Harm Reduction Coalition (SHaRC), called for a moratorium on jail expansion in Middlesex County.

   Green Rainbow Party candidate for governor Grace Ross attended the stand out and pledged her support for the group‚Äôs cause. Ross said the cost of incarcerating one prisoner is $43,000 per year and that many prisoners would be better served by expanded medical care to treat drug and alcohol addictions.
“Neither Democrats or Republicans are being fiscally responsible when it comes to incarceration,” Ross said. “We’re throwing $43,000 away to put a person in a box and leave them there.”
  Ross said $43,000 could buy housing subsidies for eight homeless families and six hospital beds for people in need of urgent medical care.
  SHaRC volunteers began the day at the construction site of the Chicopee women‚Äôs jail then traveled to Worcester, Lowell, Somerville, Cambridge and Boston meeting with citizens and community leaders.
  The group stopped in Somerville to voice their opposition to Middlesex County Sheriff James V. DiPaola‚Äôs proposal for a new jail in the eastern section of the city, said SHaRC leader and Somerville resident Susan Mortimer.
  DiPaola said in June that 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 at the time. 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 in June. DiPaola said the jail could cost $250 million to build.   
  State Rep. Carl M. Sciortino, D-Somerville, who attended Monday‚Äôs event, has voiced his concerns about a new jail in the city.
  ‚ÄúWe need to take a serious look at how we use our resources,‚Äù Sciortino said. ‚ÄúAnd before we talk about building more jail space, we need to fully restore the substance abuse and mental health programs that have been cut.‚Äù
  Sciortino said he would support a moratorium on new jail construction in Massachusetts.
  Robin Yearwood, a Malden woman, took the wrong bus Monday and found herself in Union Square speaking with the anti-prison activists. Yearwood‚Äôs boyfriend is incarcerated at the Nashua Street Jail in Boston, awaiting trial. She planned to pay $600 to bail him out.
  ‚ÄúIt‚Äôs a continuous thing. He gets out of jail, can‚Äôt get a job because of his record and soon enough, he does something stupid to get himself locked up again,‚Äù Yearwood said. ‚ÄúIt‚Äôs his own fault for making bad decisions, but what do you do when you have no options? There has to be a better solution than to just keep locking him up.‚Äù