Four small counties in North Gyeongsang Province have each stepped forward to take in a correctional facility. As of the 18th, the counties that have joined the competition are Yeongdeok, Yeongyang, Uiseong and Cheongsong. The competition began as each county announced its intention to host the facility. For a long time few places welcomed such a facility, and now the counties are raising their hands for it against one another.
Correctional facilities have long been regarded as unwanted facilities.
The four counties have come forward despite knowing that label because of the people who would work at the facility. A correctional facility has staff who work there, and the staff have families. Each county expects that if they find homes and settle within the county, it will help stem population decline. The situation of counties where every single person and every single household counts has changed the way they view unwanted facilities.
The staff size that has been mentioned is 250. It has not been disclosed which facility the figure is based on, or whether it includes families. No one can guarantee that all staff members will move in with their families. Whether to find a home near the workplace or commute from farther away is decided by each household separately.
The competition among the four counties to host a correctional facility shows what stage the response to regional depopulation has now reached. The counties' desperation can be read in their attempt to entrust the region's future to a single correctional facility, and its limits are exposed to the same degree. The effect the counties expected will appear only if the number of staff families who stay and live in the county actually grows after the facility opens.
Yeongdeok, Yeongyang, Uiseong and Cheongsong have set out to attract the correctional facility, once regarded as an unwanted facility, seeing it as a population measure.
