...And Speaking Of Spinning...

Scott Kernan and J. Clark Kelso dropped in to the editorial offices of the Stockton RECORD yesterday. They had a nice chat with those folks and, if headlines could be believed, PRISON OFFICIALS VOW TO WORK WITH LOCAL LEADERS.

However, once you actually get into the article, it makes it pretty clear that isn't going to happen unless the courts force it to happen.

Kelso said, "I understand they were shocked because there were no meetings."

Kernan said, "It's only really until the boss makes the final decision that you do the outreach."

It sounds to me that the big boys up in Sacramento make up their mind what they are going to do and who they are going to do it to, then they come down to talk to the local yokels and tell them how bad they are going to get screwed.

There is a difference between "working with" local leaders and telling local leaders that they are going to get reamed in advance of actually doing it. An open dialog and meaningful discussion are not the same thing. They SHOULD BE, but they are not.

The state has to have the hospital. They have to put it somewhere. The state already owns the property and there is a certain amount of infrastructure already in place. It's close enough to Sacramento the movers and shakers can visit, but they don't have to look at it on a daily basis. For them, that's ideal.

The conversion of DeWitt Nelson isn't nearly so much of a done deal, but the state does need the prison space. You either need more cells or less criminals locked up. The idea that the presence of the prisons is, in and of itself, damaging to Stockton is idiotic. Stockton has a reputation of being a crime-ridden cesspool because of crime on the streets, not because of criminals in prison.

Mitigation is a valid concern. The state should pay for things like road improvements. They should help the locals out with increased costs to local operations. Increasing the local tax base through bringing in lots of high paying jobs will help that.

I admit I am bothered by the cavalier attitude towards what this prison hospital will do to the local and even regional pool of available medical staff. The new facility will have more hospital beds in it than exist in the entire county right now. I have been told by people who study such things that it will have an impact on the national medical labor market. If the feds are stuffing it down the throat of the local people that needs to be addressed in a meaningful way. So far it hasn't been. That's why the locals are going to court.