Jail spending doesn’t solve problems
To the Editor:
Budgets, it has been said, are moral documents. This is because how a community chooses to spend and invest its money demonstrates the priorities of that community and, ultimately, our values. More than just a dry process of bureaucracy, budgets shape our future and impact who we, together, will become.
Building a $16.5 million dollar jail in Haywood County is a moral failure, as well as a strategic one. During the worst economic crisis that many of our local residents will ever live through, this egregious expenditure feels like a slap in the face to local working folks. The jail is one of the biggest lines in our county’s current budget proposal, stealing funds from public hospitals, schools, social services, roads and other essential services that all of us badly need.