November 13, 2009
Stockton: “We can do much to control city’s image if more prisons come”
Much of the angst over the huge prison projects planned here by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation can be boiled to one word: reputation.
There are those who believe that bringing an additional 3,300 prison convicts into the county will be just one more image problem Stockton must face. Deserved or not, the city already has a reputation for poor schools. For a high crime rate. For a high rate of home foreclosures. For a high unemployment rate. For a low level of educational attainment. And for a high rate of those without health insurance.
Do we really need more prisons, something else outsiders can point to when the subject of Stockton comes up? Do we really want to take a chance of Stockton becoming to the Central Valley what Oakland is to the Bay Area?…
LINK - RecordNet.com Opinion Section
