In the past few weeks there have been so many comments against the prison coming to Natchez.

This facility, as I understand, will be a guarded institution. Yes, sometimes the inmates do get out and most of the times they try to escape to another town or city as fast as they can. It is far and in between do we hear of an inmate killing someone.

By far, we should be more concerned or afraid of the thugs and satanic individuals that we live next to or pass by each day.

The house burglars, robbers and purse snatchers, parent killers, sexual abusers, school shooters, wife/husband killers and other wrong doers, to name a few — these are the people who live in the house, or in the dormitories, or work with or pass by on the streets each day. These are the ones who are most likely to kill you quicker. Look at Columbine, or Cho, neither one was an inmate. There are many more just like those men in our town that have killed or might kill and they were or are not convicts.

These unguarded individuals we see or pass by daily are the ones we need to be most afraid of.

The prison will provide a few needed jobs and a few more tax dollars for our community.

Thelma Hill-Smith

Natchez resident