Dear Editor:

I was honored to recently speak to 350 Jenkins County residents about the many benefits of a new partnership prison coming to Millen, should Georgia award CCA a contract to design, build and manage the facility.

During our public meeting, the community highly supported what a CCA prison would bring to the County: 200 well-paying, stable jobs; needed taxes to improve schools, roads and hospitals; and active community participation by our staff. Citizens heard me talk about our accountability to government and taxpayers in operating very safe, very cost-efficient prisons that are held to the strictest correctional standards.

I shared with the crowd that opposition groups often enter into communities that are considering hosting a CCA-operated prison, trying to create fear and uncertainty.

Well, to no surprise, one such group has come to Millen - the labor-funded Private Corrections Institute (PCI), which is run out of Florida and led by a paid union organizer. Union activists don't like public-private partnerships, because most prisons operated by corrections management providers aren't unionized. One of this group's head activists actually posted an online message encouraging their national supporters to vote NO on The Millen News' recent poll about a prison coming to Jenkins. These outsiders - who don't live in Jenkins or Georgia - skewed the poll results so that it made it appear that the people of Jenkins don't support the prison.

This group also ran an ad in this paper to raise false fears about a prison in your community.

To the hundreds of residents I've already met and the others reading this letter, I want you to know that CCA is a trusted government partner. If we weren't, then Georgia and the Federal Bureau of Prisons and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wouldn't do business with us in this state, and we wouldn't be employing 1,500 Georgians state-wide.

If we are fortunate to be awarded a Georgia contract, CCA will be a long-term partner to Jenkins County. Our jobs, our taxes, our community support will benefit you - the local community. We'll be here - to stay - in your community. PCI, on the other hand, will go back home and simply seek to stir up another community.

I'm proud of the early partnership you in Jenkins County have created with CCA. We won't disappoint you.
Sincerely,
Louise Grant,
Vice President of Communications

Corrections Corporation
of America