A new jail is needed. It was needed twenty years ago. But it will be expensive, especially if built on the postage stamp campus in Easton.
It makes most sense in Nazareth, where the County already owns the land. It will be cheaper, and the people who work there will get out from under Sal Panto's onerous commuter tax. There is one isolated area north of Gracedale, almost quarry like, that is already used by police for training. No housing development is nearby. That would be the ideal spot, but would need infrastructure.
It will be unpopular in the Nazareth community. Every few years, "No Jail" signs sprout like dandelions. But Nazareth Borough residents have already demonstrated they're happy with an admitted thief as Mayor. Council member Larry Stoudt works at a club that was and still may be loaded with illegal poker machines. So I'd just tell Nazareth complainers that those inmates are all Mayors in training.
Maybe Jaindl can build it for the county on the former racetrack land. That should be closer to public water and sewer.
ReplyDeleteThere will never be a jail anywhere but where it is now. People were fooled once with the Stoffa/Atiyah jail in West Easton. I doubt anyone can pull that off again.
ReplyDeleteMight as well plan on site.
The jail will go on gracedale land. It is zoned and allowed to be built there
ReplyDeleteAbe Atiyeh will build it.
ReplyDeleteJust won't happen. They should go the route of Lehigh County and raise the old jail and build on that site. Send the prisoners elsewhere as part of the budget. However they did it in Lehigh.
ReplyDelete3:47 troll, Why would you build something very expensive there when it can be done cheaper elsewhere? If the county gets it out of Easton, that frees up all kinds of room for other departments. However, if the cost of transporting inmates back and forth becomes prohibitive, I could see staying in Easton.
ReplyDeleteThis has to be done, but i wonder whether the political will exists. Reassessment needs to take place, too.
One has to look where the most crimes are being committed. Then where the arrested criminals are from.
ReplyDeleteThen put the jail in the worst neighborhood of the center of the cesspool of crime. They deserve to have it there, not in a decent neighborhood.
12:10 then it is already in the right place
ReplyDelete12:44 they'll feel like home in it, because that's where it is
ReplyDelete"One has to look where the most crimes are being committed. "
ReplyDeleteWhy? I think that would be an irrelevant consideration. I think the county should be guided by cost, and not just the cost of construction, but operational costs thereafter. If things would run more smoothly by keeping inmates in Easton, the additional construction cost might make it worth it. But if Nazareth is cheaper, that's where it should go. In fact, all county operations should be gradually shifted there. It is the geographic center of the county.
The notion of sticking the jail in a crime-plagued neighborhood as some form of punishment is un-American. Most of the people in any crime-infested neighborhood are law-abiding citizens, and you want to deprive them of an opportunity to make their lives better. It is a mean-spirited suggestion.
I'd like to see most county functions removed from Easton because its campus is too small and county employees are being shackled with an onerous commuter tax.
I know it would be unpopular in Nazareth, and has been bitterly opposed in the past. But Nazareth, with a crooked Mayor and a Council that helps fund the gambling operrations at the Legion, has no moral high ground.
A jailhouse in a rock quarry? I think I'll write a song about it - as soon as I get off my shift at 7-11.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely not something folks want built in their back yard or within a couple miles of it...
ReplyDeleteWhat about on some of the waste lands along 78? Near the landfill by Morgan Hill? Or the brownfields by the Hellertown exit?
Scott of Nazareth
Unpopular in Nazereth is an understatement.
ReplyDeleteKeep the criminals in Easton where they're from and don't put them here.
@3:33 South of I-78 below Easton near the river. Away from civilized people.
ReplyDelete3:42, Nazareth's criminals are in government.
ReplyDelete"If things would run more smoothly by keeping inmates in Easton, the additional construction cost might make it worth it."
ReplyDeletekeep the new wing reibman built for the pre-sentenced population. demolish the rest and move it to nazareth
The loss of the prison would have a devastating effect on my commuter tax revenue. Any expansion should happen in Easton.
ReplyDeleteThe previous poster is absolutely right. The next thing you know, those greedy out-of-towners who work at McDonald's on 3rd Street will pack up and leave. It's time to stop hating on the greatest city on planet Earth.
ReplyDeleteBernie, I'm maybe breaking my embargo of this bottom feeding blog to note the broad support shown here for prison expansion in Easton. I'm making Easton great again. I'll build a prison and make Nazareth pay for it.
ReplyDeleteHaha - good one.
Delete