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| Prison-Building Boom in Appalachia |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/26/2001 |
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The $100 million federal penitentiary at Lee County, which opened this month, is part of a major prison-building boom under way in Appalachia. Four more federal prisons are under construction in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. Officials here see the new prison as a godsend, a recession-proof industry that will create 432 jobs and pump $25 million a year into one of the state's poorest areas. Don Williams, former chairman of the Lee County Board of Supervisors, is one of many local officials who initially opposed the prison but now embrace it. 'In the beginning, I was going to fight it,'' Williams said. 'I thought: 'If we have to rely on a prison, what in the world are we into?' But since then my eyes have been opened. We need the money.'' But not everyone is convinced about the prison's benefits at a time when the nation's inmate population is rising and crime is declining. 'We don't want to neglect legitimate economic problems,'' said Marc Mauer, assistant director of the Sentencing Project. 'But to use them as a justification for locking up more prisoners is an extremely shortsighted policy.'' While expensive for the federal government, the crowding problem is great news for rural communities such as Lee County, a community of 23,589 with 17 percent of its work force unemployed or on disability. Before it agreed to build the prison, Lee County had attracted only one company to its 5-year-old industrial park. The prison soon filled the park as well as 238 more acres around it. Because of the 1,888-bed prison, Lee County received $13 million from the government to build sewer lines and revamp its waste water treatment plant. And an airport is under development with the help of $6 million in federal funds. Larry Garrett, a 53-year-old insurance agent who owns a small ranch house down the hill from the prison, hopes the facility will attract more businesses and raise property values. 'We've got four acres here and if someone comes by with the right amount of money, we'll take it,'' Garrett said. 'My wife says she can be ready to leave in 36 hours.'' |
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