You Might be Forced to Build in Increments, but Build, You Can

   I do not buy, at all, the premise a new prison cannot be built on the existing site in Draper. Of course it can. You simply decide where you want to position the new prison, and build it in phases. You take the first, say, 20 percent of the project, and tear down any existing buildings on that bit of the land, and then you build that part of the project and move prisoners into it before starting on phase two. 

   You might be forced to build in increments, but build, you can.

   To have the prison-moving folk telling us that this cannot be done does, indeed, indicate the decisions they are making are tainted. Of course it can be done. Of course we can rebuild on the same site. To say otherwise unveils the decision-maker as already having made a decision and now stretching to justify that decision, giving an excuse and not a real reason.

   I should perhaps draw in my ire and criticism just a little. If a consultant is, indeed, telling them that it cannot be done, it is normal to see that advice as fact, since it is coming from a trained and professional consultant. I still must wonder, though, if the desire to move is tainting how quickly they are accepting the consultant's advice. If a person wants to believe something, they can -- and usually do -- snap to accept it, not wanting to give it second thought and not giving it second thought. That is normal operating procedure for a human being. Lack of objectivity can be something we all are guilty of, so I do not fault them too much. 

   The consultant? We must also wonder whether the dollar he is getting paid -- knowing the payer of the dollar wants the prison elsewhere -- is tainting his advice.  Is his judgement being clouded by the desire to tell the people paying him, what they want to hear?

   Building on the same site is done all the time. Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker points out that it is being done right here in Salt Lake with the Salt Lake International Airport. If someone tells us it cannot be done, of course we should question them.
   Now, after writing this, I read how the Draper site sprawls across hundreds of acres. I don't know if that is true. If it is, where comes the argument, to begin with, that the Draper site cannot accommodate a brand-new prison? 

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