By George P. Hassett

A week after Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said bringing a jail to the city is not a high priority, Middlesex County Sheriff James V. DiPaola, who proposed the idea, said he is still hopeful a deal can be made.

“A lot of partnerships can be built, and there are mutual benefits to be gained” by building a new Middlesex County jail in Somerville, DiPaola said.

He said if he is allowed to build a jail, the city could get funding from the state to construct a new police building to replace its current dilapidated facility. State Rep. Carl M. Sciortino, D-Somerville, has questioned if the state would be willing to pay for a city building, but DiPaola said there is a precedent. In Hampden County, a new public safety building was built for the town of Chicopee when the town agreed to host a new jail, he said.

The Public Safety building at 220 Washington St. is currently the subject of a lawsuit, which claims employees of the building “were subjected to prolonged exposures, to chronic damp conditions and the types of molds that produce toxins as well as other hazardous substances present in their workplace environment.”

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 tagged for closing by the end of 2007 to undergo asbestos removal and a $125 million rehabilitation.

DiPaola said he saw an opportunity for two departments with allegedly sick buildings to get new facilities. Somerville, he said, is currently only 800 yards away from the East Cambridge jail yet sees no benefits for its proximity. If the jail was within Somerville’s borders, the city could benefit by receiving a new public safety building expected to cost $30 million, he said.

When DiPaola first presented the possibility of bringing a jail to Somerville, Curtatone said it was a case of two public officials working together to solve similar problems. However, last week, Curtatone said bringing a jail to Somerville is low on the city’s to-do list. He said development in Assembly Square and Union Square take a higher precedent than a new jail.

“We don’t want to take up a valuable development site with a jail,” he said.

A state study evaluating four potential jail sites in Somerville was released last week by the Department of Conservation and Asset Management. It concluded that the parcels of land at 10 Poplar St., 32 Linwood St. and 181 McGrath Highway is the best possible site for a jail in the city. The only sites evaluated for a new jail thus far have been in Somerville, although, DiPaola said he is not confined to the city for his project.

‚ÄúI‚Äôm not stuck on Somerville, but it‚Äôs logical that the jail be close to the courthouse (in East Cambridge),‚Äù he said.