ARE WE LUCKY OR WHAT?
Submitted to Shelton Blog by Tom Davis Mason County Progressive
Have you heard the good news? Mason County is on the short list for a brand new 1,024 bed “Prison Reception Center” just a crime spree away from the existing prison. If this goose decides to lay its golden egg, the old “Reception Center” will move to the new facility and the Corrections Center can accommodate 300 more prisoners. Are we lucky, or what?
What’s a “Prison Reception Center” you say? Well, it’s kind of like boot camp for new prisoners. Yeah, I know, but it sounds a lot better than an “Indoctrination Center,” and makes everybody feel a little better about what goes on inside.
Didn’t get the memo? Well, the hearing was held this past Friday evening at the new Public Works building. It wasn’t really the best time for most citizens to attend but, no matter, all the heavy hitters were there trying to get the Dept. of Corrections to pick Mason County over the Bremerton or Thurston County sites.
One thing you have to say about our local officials is that when it comes to government handouts they’re right up there at the front of the line. Of course, with a little initiative it may have been possible to persuade a more suitable business to relocate to our community, but I guess there’s no point in going hunting when there’s a dead deer right there on the side of the road.
I did a little research before attending the hearing, and even tried to ask the DOC guy a question about jobs. As it turns out, less than 20% of the jobs created from building a new prison in a rural area will go to local residents. He wasn’t too excited about getting into that, or even how the rest of the positions would be filled. Fact is, he punted the question to the EIS guy who cocked his head and shot me a one-eyed turkey-look that said, where you going with this, son? Never did get my question answered.
Of course, not too many people ever dreamed of becoming a prison guard, and even less parents dreamed of such a future for their kids. The good news is that those responsible for bringing jobs to Mason County have finally snagged a real “growth industry,” the bad news is that there are now more prisoners in our country than there are farmers. No, I’m not whining about the poor state of our socio-economic condition; I’m merely trying to explain why you can’t find a good tomato anymore, unless you grow one yourself.
All this should make you wonder why we’re paying so much money to people who think the key to our future lies in another prison. Prisons don’t really fill me with community pride. And even if they did, maybe two of them is a little too much pride for one community.
I guess some of us will never be happy with what the cat dragged in.
Interesting follow-up report.
ReplyDeletePick us, pick us, pick Mason County because we are so desparate for a few jobs we were willing to hazard an adage for the mere possibility of 24 jobs, and as far as some of our well-heeled citizens are concerned Solomon can go forward with its promise of 3 jobs (all of the construction jobs for Solomon will be performed by outside firms; so don't line up for those); and now, we can have another prison, yippppeee, with the "not quite" promise that 20% of the jobs it generates will actually be given to local yokels...
Things can hardly get better for Shelton and Mason County.
And in addition, some NOT local logger (cause we don't have many of our own loggers here in Mason County), is going to get to clear-cut the former adage site... for what you ask? Who knows; it's one of our Port's dirty little secrets.