News (Media Awareness Project) - US VA: New Prisons Bring Much-Needed Jobs To Rural Areas |
| Title: | US VA: New Prisons Bring Much-Needed Jobs To Rural Areas |
| Published On: | 2000-03-07 |
| Source: | Virginian-Pilot (VA) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-05 01:17:54 |
NEW PRISONS BRING MUCH-NEEDED JOBS TO RURAL AREAS
Increasingly, Virginia's prison system has become a state jobs program for
economically distressed communities.
Most crime occurs where most of the people are: the thickly settled ``urban
crescent'' that extends from Hampton Roads through Richmond to Northern
Virginia.
Yet most of the prisons where criminal offenders do their time are far
removed from the cities, tucked away in hamlets with names like Capron,
Burkeville, Jarratt and Pound. In many cases, the population of the prison
is bigger than that of the town.
Why don't they put prisons where the criminals are?
To find out, follow the money.
To induce a community to accept a prison in its midst, an economic
incentive can go a long way. Many prisons in Virginia have been built in
places that actively lobbied for them because they needed the jobs.
Places like faraway Wise County in the rugged Cumberland Mountains, an
eight-hour drive from Hampton Roads, where the unemployment rate is three
to four times the state average.
Reeling from cutbacks in the coal industry that was its economic backbone
for 100 years, Wise County landed not one but two plums from the wave of
prison building launched by Gov. George Allen in the mid-1990s: Red Onion
and Wallens Ridge, the state's two new ``supermax'' prisons.
``The unemployment situation was so bad, we were almost desperate,'' said
Scott Davis, the county administrator.
As the state began planning its new prisons, local leaders mounted an
aggressive campaign to woo them and came up with some juicy inducements.
In the case of Red Onion, Pittston Coal Co. donated the land for the prison
to the county, which in turn gave it to the state.
The Wallens Ridge prison is owned by the Big Stone Gap Redevelopment and
Housing Authority, which financed the project with tax-exempt bonds and
leased it to the state. Construction was a mammoth undertaking: The
builders literally flattened a mountaintop, scraping off 3.2 million cubic
yards of rock and soil and clearing more than 6,000 trees.
It was all worth it, said Chuck Miller, executive director of the Big Stone
Gap redevelopment authority.
``We can see a real difference in our economy,'' he said. ``We lost 750
jobs when Westmoreland Coal Co. shut down about six years ago. . . . When
they left, we thought we were going to be devastated. But these prisons
have filled the gap.''
Community support for the prisons was widespread, said Del. Clarence E.
``Bud'' Phillips, D-Wise County, who helped pave the way for the projects
in Richmond.
``We did a lot of community involvement, including a major study of the
pros and cons of locating a prison in our community,'' Phillips said. ``The
overwhelming majority said yes.
``The support is probably even higher now. Each prison contributes over $13
million a year into the economy in direct wages. And that's not counting
the indirect spinoffs.''
The two prisons together employ 900 people, most of them correctional
officers at annual salaries ranging from $21,657 to $36,962, complete with
full state benefits including retirement at age 50 with 25 years of service.
His constituents are ``very, very grateful to have the jobs,'' Phillips said.
Neighboring Lee County, meanwhile, landed a new $125 million federal
prison, now under construction, that will hire another 500 employees.
``I know prisons sometimes have a negative connotation, but we're proud of
our prison,'' Miller said. ``When people are hungry and need jobs, things
look different than if we had a robust economy.''
The local prison boosters and the state are all pleased with the outcome,
Miller said.
``They're happy, we're happy,'' he said. ``The people inside are the only
ones who are unhappy.''
In Southside Virginia, where tobacco farming is in decline as an economic
engine, local authorities made a deal with the state similar to the one in
Big Stone Gap, but with a twist: The new prison is privately operated.
The Brunswick County Industrial Development Authority floated $55 million
in bonds to build the Lawrenceville Correctional Center, Virginia's only
private prison, next door to Brunswick Correctional Center, a public
facility. The new prison opened in 1998.
``The IDA viewed this as an economic development issue,'' said Len Ponder,
executive director of the Brunswick authority. ``The job creation was
tremendous. You're talking 300-plus jobs in an area that was distressed.''
The Lawrenceville prison is operated by Nashville-based Corrections Corp.
of America, the largest player in the burgeoning private corrections
industry, which now manages 6 percent of the U.S. prison and jail
population. One of CCA's co-founders in 1983 was Don Hutto, Virginia's
corrections director from 1977 to 1982.
The company reported revenues of $462 million in 1997, up 58 percent from
the year before, and net income of $54 million.
Sometimes, though, the economic incentive isn't enough to sell a prison --
even to a distressed community.
One of Allen's new prisons, an $85 million maximum-security facility, was
originally proposed to be built in Northampton County on the Eastern Shore,
another pocket of relatively high unemployment.
But in 1995, following heated grassroots opposition, the county Board of
Supervisors unanimously rejected the plan.
Below is the index for this series of articles:
US VA: Virginia Is Paying The Price For Prison Boom
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n326/a09.html
US VA: Overbuilt Prisons Must Import Criminals
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a01.html
US VA: Virginia's Incarceration Rate Far Exceeds Crime Rate
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a02.html
US VA: Department Of Corrections Denies Information Requests
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a03.html
US VA: Drugs, Not Violence, Are The Fuel For Prison Growth
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a04.html
US VA: Expert And Inmates Find Faults In Prison Drug-Treatment
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n331/a13.html
US VA: Poll Shows Little Support For Gilmore's Get-Tough Drug
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a05.html
US VA: Blacks Imprisoned At Rate Out Of Proportion To Drug Use
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a06.html
US VA: Cost Of Housing Older Inmates Goes Up As Risk Goes Down
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n328/a01.html
US VA: New Prisons Bring Much-Needed Jobs To Rural Areas
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n328/a02.html
US VA: Party And Racial Lines Divide Lawmakers On Prison Reform
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n332/a01.html
Increasingly, Virginia's prison system has become a state jobs program for
economically distressed communities.
Most crime occurs where most of the people are: the thickly settled ``urban
crescent'' that extends from Hampton Roads through Richmond to Northern
Virginia.
Yet most of the prisons where criminal offenders do their time are far
removed from the cities, tucked away in hamlets with names like Capron,
Burkeville, Jarratt and Pound. In many cases, the population of the prison
is bigger than that of the town.
Why don't they put prisons where the criminals are?
To find out, follow the money.
To induce a community to accept a prison in its midst, an economic
incentive can go a long way. Many prisons in Virginia have been built in
places that actively lobbied for them because they needed the jobs.
Places like faraway Wise County in the rugged Cumberland Mountains, an
eight-hour drive from Hampton Roads, where the unemployment rate is three
to four times the state average.
Reeling from cutbacks in the coal industry that was its economic backbone
for 100 years, Wise County landed not one but two plums from the wave of
prison building launched by Gov. George Allen in the mid-1990s: Red Onion
and Wallens Ridge, the state's two new ``supermax'' prisons.
``The unemployment situation was so bad, we were almost desperate,'' said
Scott Davis, the county administrator.
As the state began planning its new prisons, local leaders mounted an
aggressive campaign to woo them and came up with some juicy inducements.
In the case of Red Onion, Pittston Coal Co. donated the land for the prison
to the county, which in turn gave it to the state.
The Wallens Ridge prison is owned by the Big Stone Gap Redevelopment and
Housing Authority, which financed the project with tax-exempt bonds and
leased it to the state. Construction was a mammoth undertaking: The
builders literally flattened a mountaintop, scraping off 3.2 million cubic
yards of rock and soil and clearing more than 6,000 trees.
It was all worth it, said Chuck Miller, executive director of the Big Stone
Gap redevelopment authority.
``We can see a real difference in our economy,'' he said. ``We lost 750
jobs when Westmoreland Coal Co. shut down about six years ago. . . . When
they left, we thought we were going to be devastated. But these prisons
have filled the gap.''
Community support for the prisons was widespread, said Del. Clarence E.
``Bud'' Phillips, D-Wise County, who helped pave the way for the projects
in Richmond.
``We did a lot of community involvement, including a major study of the
pros and cons of locating a prison in our community,'' Phillips said. ``The
overwhelming majority said yes.
``The support is probably even higher now. Each prison contributes over $13
million a year into the economy in direct wages. And that's not counting
the indirect spinoffs.''
The two prisons together employ 900 people, most of them correctional
officers at annual salaries ranging from $21,657 to $36,962, complete with
full state benefits including retirement at age 50 with 25 years of service.
His constituents are ``very, very grateful to have the jobs,'' Phillips said.
Neighboring Lee County, meanwhile, landed a new $125 million federal
prison, now under construction, that will hire another 500 employees.
``I know prisons sometimes have a negative connotation, but we're proud of
our prison,'' Miller said. ``When people are hungry and need jobs, things
look different than if we had a robust economy.''
The local prison boosters and the state are all pleased with the outcome,
Miller said.
``They're happy, we're happy,'' he said. ``The people inside are the only
ones who are unhappy.''
In Southside Virginia, where tobacco farming is in decline as an economic
engine, local authorities made a deal with the state similar to the one in
Big Stone Gap, but with a twist: The new prison is privately operated.
The Brunswick County Industrial Development Authority floated $55 million
in bonds to build the Lawrenceville Correctional Center, Virginia's only
private prison, next door to Brunswick Correctional Center, a public
facility. The new prison opened in 1998.
``The IDA viewed this as an economic development issue,'' said Len Ponder,
executive director of the Brunswick authority. ``The job creation was
tremendous. You're talking 300-plus jobs in an area that was distressed.''
The Lawrenceville prison is operated by Nashville-based Corrections Corp.
of America, the largest player in the burgeoning private corrections
industry, which now manages 6 percent of the U.S. prison and jail
population. One of CCA's co-founders in 1983 was Don Hutto, Virginia's
corrections director from 1977 to 1982.
The company reported revenues of $462 million in 1997, up 58 percent from
the year before, and net income of $54 million.
Sometimes, though, the economic incentive isn't enough to sell a prison --
even to a distressed community.
One of Allen's new prisons, an $85 million maximum-security facility, was
originally proposed to be built in Northampton County on the Eastern Shore,
another pocket of relatively high unemployment.
But in 1995, following heated grassroots opposition, the county Board of
Supervisors unanimously rejected the plan.
Below is the index for this series of articles:
US VA: Virginia Is Paying The Price For Prison Boom
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n326/a09.html
US VA: Overbuilt Prisons Must Import Criminals
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a01.html
US VA: Virginia's Incarceration Rate Far Exceeds Crime Rate
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a02.html
US VA: Department Of Corrections Denies Information Requests
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a03.html
US VA: Drugs, Not Violence, Are The Fuel For Prison Growth
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a04.html
US VA: Expert And Inmates Find Faults In Prison Drug-Treatment
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n331/a13.html
US VA: Poll Shows Little Support For Gilmore's Get-Tough Drug
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a05.html
US VA: Blacks Imprisoned At Rate Out Of Proportion To Drug Use
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a06.html
US VA: Cost Of Housing Older Inmates Goes Up As Risk Goes Down
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n328/a01.html
US VA: New Prisons Bring Much-Needed Jobs To Rural Areas
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n328/a02.html
US VA: Party And Racial Lines Divide Lawmakers On Prison Reform
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n332/a01.html
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