Yes, You Have to Pay for It

 

A few years ago, the Lauderdale County Commission used county inmates to dismantle most of a condemned bridge on a rural road. Over ten years ago, Franklin County used inmates to raze the old jail after the construction of the new detention center. It's financially a good move.

It seems Lawrence County, Alabama, isn't sure how inmate labor works. For years, it's been trying to find a grant or some other means of funding to tear down its abandoned county jail building. Apparently, the structure can't be even locked, and homeless use the building for sleeping in inclimate weather. Last December, a former inmate at the jail decided it would be a warm place to catch 40 winks. Sadly, Jeffrey Martin didn't wake up and was found some time later.

Now the Lawrence County Commission has announced the financial onus of the deconstruction project will fall to the cash-strapped county. This is how it usually works. If anyone thinks it's difficult to find funds for new construction, one should logically know it's even harder to find the free money to tear down a dilapidated edifice.

The skinny? The old jail location will become a parking lot...

Jeffrey Martin