THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 11, 1994 TAG: 9412090019
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
The Virginia Department of Corrections has been working for the past 18 months, without adequate public debate, to build a maximum-security prison in Northampton County on the Eastern Shore.
It is sad when government acts with an arrogance of immunity. A higher standard of public disclosure and fair, accountable decision-making are demanded. Right-to-know and Freedom of Information laws were meant more to promote cooperative information exchange than to settle artificial minimum standards of conduct.
Northampton County is a sparsely populated, rural area of agriculture and seafood industries. It is rich in natural resources, heritage, history, culture and lifestyle. It is in this environment that the state proposes to build a prison with an initial inmate population of up to 25 percent of the county's current population. There is no promise that the prison will not expand over time.
It is unimaginable that the state would consider such a location before exhausting all other, better-suited locations. Furthermore, just last year the state acquired and developed land for the first new state park in more than 20 years just 5 miles from the proposed prison site. And all of this at a time when the Eastern Shore is in the early stages of implementing strategies to encourage tourism and sustainable development.
The Eastern Shore is a precious asset of Virginia and of our nation. It needs special attention and protection.
Locating a maximum-security prison on the Eastern Shore is wrong. Such a move will forever shadow the Eastern Shore and its people, creating an environment of uncertainty, limiting the area's potential to attract higher-quality economic opportunities, and limiting its potential to offer the quality of life and experience to its people and its many visitors for which it is well-known worldwide.
I hope that Governor Allen, the General Assembly and the Northampton County Board of Supervisors will show wisdom and exercise the necessary leadership to correct this pending injustice.
STEWART BUCKLE
Norfolk, Dec. 1, 1994 by CNB