We were pleased to hear that State Rep. Carl M. Sciortino Jr., D, Somerville plans to propose a five-year moratorium on prison construction funding throughout Massachusetts.

This legislation would effectively put an end to the ill-conceived, ill-fated and unanimously unwanted proposition for a new jail in southeast Somerville put forth earlier this year by Mayor Joseph A Curatone and Middlesex Sheriff James V. Diapola.

The overcrowded, antiquated jail at the Middlesex County courthouse certainly requires attention, and the recently initiated renovations are long overdue.

However, a new, larger jail will not provide an effective solution to a greater problem, a problem that will not abate with the construction of new
facilities alone.

In addition, the plan disparagingly singles out Somerville, as alternative sites have yet to be suggested, and further underscores the distressing disconnect which continues to surface between Mayor Curatone and the Beacon Hill delegation.

Regardless of the outcome, we welcome this debate as an opportunity to finally put the real issue on the table, the continually rising rate of incarceration within Middlesex County.

Moreover, even with increasing construction delays, we doubt that the suspension of funding will stymie the plan long enough that neighboring communities such as Cambridge and Bedford might threaten to appropriate the prize.