Don't sink more funds into jails for women

Published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, MA) April 27, 2006

To the editor:

Hampden County Sheriff Michael Ashe says his new women's jail will be full when it opens next year, so he wants another $6 million to add 56 more cells. Our local leaders should say no. The new women's jail will hold women from all four counties of western Massachusetts.

Building bigger jail after bigger jail is not the solution to crime and it might even make things worse. Adding extra capacity to a jail should be a last resort, because those empty cells will reduce the pressure for judges and legislators to consider cost-effective and rehabilitative alternative sentences for people who pose no threat to the community.

Rather than build now, the prudent thing to do is to force Sheriff Ashe to ''make do'' for a few years with the 240 cells already under construction.

Before lawmakers grant Ashe's request, they should remember that 56 cells will cost $2.4 million a year to operate. That money will no longer be available to fund schools, drug treatment or other far more beneficial programs.

Bringing more state investment to western Massachusetts is a good goal, but dumping it into jails is the last thing we can afford.

Peter Wagner
Northampton