The economic impact of building a new jail--Part I | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    So by the slim majority of one vote (4-3) the Beaufort County Board of Commissioner has voted to award design and construction management contracts of up to two million dollars for a new jail at the Chocowinity Industrial Park six miles from the county courthouse. The proposal is to also move the Sheriff's Office there.

    Most, if not all, of the debate to this point has been about whether a new jail is needed, where it will be built and its design (how many beds). Almost nothing has been said about the economic impact of moving the jail/Sheriff's Office out of downtown Washington. But that impact will be significant. Indeed, it has the potential of being the most devastating thing that has happened to downtown Washington in decades. Here's why.

    When the jail and Sheriff's Office are moved that will mean the immediate and direct loss of approximately 80 jobs from the downtown. In other counties (ex. Pitt) when the jail has been moved to a remote location they have found the need to also build a courtroom(s) to handle proceedings related to prisoners. Some have pointed out that "it just makes sense" if you're going to build a courtroom at the new complex that you also address the issue of relieving space needs at the existing courthouse. So it is a short step to argue that "more" should be added to the new facility. And of course, over time there will certainly be those who come up with the idea that these services should not be split seven miles apart so we need to have "everything" in one place. In fact, in his February 24, 2014 "newsletter" Al Klemm is already talking about "building a new courthouse." So then the courtrooms are consolidated, the court staff offices, the Clerk of Court's Office, probation/parole offices, District Attorney's and Public Defender's offices etc. should also be located in one place. Once that's set in motion the attorneys who do trial work will want to move their office closer to the complex. And then the Register of Deeds will need to be moved because that's where to lawyers are.

    Regardless of who says what about this scenario, it is inevitable. Why? Simply because it will make economic sense to consolidate these activities in one place. There is a reason all of these facilities and services are now in one location. What caused that will cause the relocation going forward.

    The end result is that the largest single economic engine in downtown Washington is gone. And then the domino effect sets in and the economic decay of Washington is inevitable.

    But we are hearing nothing from the Washington leadership, save one (Doug Mercer). We've heard not one peep out of the Chamber of Commerce or Downtown Washington groups.

    And coincidentally, the economic impact of building a jail/Sheriff's Office south of Chocowinity will be exacerbated by the construction of a "Welcome Center" by the Department of Transportation across U. S. 17 from that complex. The welcome center will attract travelers on U. S. 17 to stop there rather than get off 17 in Washington. Just think of what might have been had that welcome center been put at the U. S. 17/264 interchange. Can you see a "trolley" running from the Welcome Center there to the Estaurium, with stops along the way, during the summer months?

    But as significant as these impacts are they pale in comparison to the impact of spending 20-30 million dollars on a new jail and thereby sucking two million a year of debt service out of the local economy. We'll examine that issue in the next article in this series.

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