I am dumbfounded at the lack of knowledge Mr. Ratcliff has regarding a prison proposed to be built in the Natchez area. His article struck me as being long on opinions and short on knowledge of the subject of prisons, and how they operate.

I spent eight years as a volunteer chaplain at the CCA prison located just outside Woodville, and saw none of the scary things Mr. Ratcliff spoke of. I found this prison to be extremely safe and secure and this would seem to be backed up by the fact that no one has ever escaped from down there. It is built to the highest standards, and design, when it comes to making a prison secure, and houses prisoners in a very secure facility. Security was never an issue with me and I was allowed to go anywhere at anytime in the entire facility. I found the guards to be well trained, and the same could be said of the administrative staff.

Mr. Ratcliff stated that the only jobs he could see that would be provided would be “low paying jobs, such as housekeepers, some maintenance, grass cutters and untrained guards.” This tells me that Mr. Ratcliff knows absolutely nothing about how a prison functions, or operates. Mr. Ratcliff, all of those functions you listed are all performed by the prison inmates. They have prisoners who do all of the above jobs, in addition to all the carpentry, electrical work, plumbing and any other job of this nature.

Correction Corporation of America is a very responsible corporate citizen in a community. The staff does a lot of volunteer work in the schools and other areas of the community where they are located. CCA pays competitive wages and benefits to its employees, including savings and 401K plans. The addition of a Federal CCA prison located in Adams County would add a substantial amount of revenue to this county just through payroll taxes, in addition to property taxes. Employees with health insurance would be a great savings to the two local hospitals because many people would have health insurance that would pay for hospital visits, as well as pay for office visits to the local doctors.

I want to also say that I saw local doctors, dentists and nurses serving on staff at the CCA facility in Woodville. There were also teachers that were teaching the men at that facility to obtain their GED. These people lived in Woodville and the surrounding area.

So, Mr. Ratcliff, if you do not want prisoners in a new state of the art prison facility, what do you want to do with Natchez City Jail, and the Adams County Jail in our city? These have prisoners. Do you want to get rid of all of these and all the support people, and the payroll they represent? For your information a proposed new state of the art CCA facility would be much more able to house prisoners in a secure environment than our local facilities. The new CCA facility would have both electronic and physical systems to make this a safe and non-polluting industry.

Now I don’t know what your problem is with how the land is to be sold (or has an option to buy). As a private citizen, no one is breaking the law by consummating a sale of their property, if the sale will result in the land being used for legal purposes. I don’t see what you saw that was so sinister in how the land was sold. If one has a clear title to land, cannot they sell it to whomever they choose, again if it is to be used for a legal purpose?

I would recommend all persons who would support a clean, non-polluting industry, that will bring three hundred competitive paying jobs, with benefits and substantially add to our tax base, to let yourselves be heard on this issue. It is time for you to speak up against the nay sayers who seem to know little about such a facility.

Kirk Bartley

Natchez resident