NIMBYs dealing with the building of prisons

[Jenni Tanner]

Hi. My name is Jenni Tanner. As a political science major, my professor has isntructed me to research and give a presentation on the NIMBY phenomenon.

My group and I have discussed several avenues to travel down in our research path, but one th at struck us as interesting, is the idea of more people wanting more prisons, yet these people would not want to live near them - nor would anyone else. Because things like prisons and government housing dramatically decreases property value and safety of the people, I feel this is an issue not new to the advocates of NIMBY. How would you respond to such a proposal of a prison being built near you? Please write me back and help me understand how NIMBY approaches thier issues and their thinking and reasoning behind them.

Thank you,
Jenni Tanner
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

[Jennifer Caddick]

Hi. I have not researched NIMBY directly but I have observed an interesting form of it in Upstate New York. New York State has been building prisons at a rapid rate with the past decade or so to house all the inmates convicted of crimes in New york City. The spin on NIMBY is that many communities Upstate of the City are extremely economically depressed and are desperate for development. There are cases of towns fighting over the chance to have a prison built in their community because of the good state jobs they would create.

I have always though this was an interesting spin. It's really very sad that areas are so depressed they WANT prisons to be built.

Hope this is helpful. Good luck.

Jennifer