Sheriff wants a new prison, patrolmen’s union wants their space
By George P. Hassett

   Sheriff James V. DiPaola is touting his plan to build a new prison in East Somerville as a way to also provide a new headquarters for city police. But the police DiPaola said he wants to help strongly oppose the idea.
   ‚ÄúWe don‚Äôt want anything to do with DiPaola. We do not want him to use us as an excuse to build his own police department and further his own goals,‚Äù Patrolmen‚Äôs Union President Jack Leutcher said this week. ‚ÄúOur feeling is DiPaola wants to establish his force as a police department. If he‚Äôs going after money to build a new facility, why can‚Äôt we? Who has more of a need? I think we do. Does the city have to sell its soul to Mr. DiPaola to get a new police station? I don‚Äôt think so.‚Äù

     In August, nearly 60 people who work at the police station sought legal action as an attempt to get to the bottom of alleged health problems plaguing employees of the building. The suit claims they ‚Äúwere subjected to pro-longed exposures, to chronic damp conditions, and the types of molds that produce toxins as well as other hazardous substances present in their workplace environment.‚Äù The Patrolmen‚Äôs Union has publicly supported the plaintiffs and helped pay for testing on the building.
      The case has yet to be resolved.
      DiPaola said he needs a new facility to house prisoners because of overcrowding conditions in the East Cambridge jail. The jail houses 370 inmates, but was designed for 160, he said. The Billerica House of Correction, which is undergoing renovations, was built in 1929 to house 300 inmates, but houses as many as 1,250, he said.
     The Middlesex County jail occupies floors 17 through 22 of the Middlesex County Courthouse in East Cambridge, which is targeted for closing by the end of 2007 to undergo asbestos removal and a $125 million rehabilitation.
      DiPaola said he is facing the same conditions in the Middlesex County Courthouse that police in Somerville face in their own building.
     ‚ÄúI‚Äôm surprised they‚Äôre against this,‚Äù DiPaola said. ‚ÄúI‚Äôm bringing something to the table that would solve their problem. What motivated me to bring this project to Somerville was their interest in a new police station. I‚Äôd like to sit down and discuss this with the union because I see myself as being on their side.‚Äù
      As for the union‚Äôs assertion that DiPaola is using the city to extend his empire and build his own power as sheriff, DiPaola said that is simply not the case.
     ‚ÄúSometimes when you have different departments working in the same building, there is a fear that one side will lose its identity,‚Äù he said. ‚ÄúBut that is not going to happen here. I haven‚Äôt taken over a police department yet and I don‚Äôt have any plans to.‚Äù 
      Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone‚Äôs spokesperson Thomas P. Champion said the mayor is interested in working with DiPaola to build a facility in the city that would serve as both a jail for inmates awaiting trial and a new station for the Police Department.   
     ‚ÄúThis is potentially a way to get a new police station at a time when everyone agrees we need one,‚Äù Champion said.
      For Leutcher, the need for a new station is not enough to share space with DiPaola and the Middlesex County Sheriff‚Äôs Department.
     ‚ÄúThere are a lot of politics being played here and they‚Äôre going to use the excuse of a new police station and that they‚Äôre doing this for us, but we‚Äôre not buying it,‚Äù he said.