Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 25, 1995 TAG: 9502270032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLAND LENGTH: Medium
Eighty people turned out for a public meeting on the issue Thursday night at Bland High School. A show of hands indicated most, but not all, opposed a private prison even though the county already is home to the state's 600-inmate Bland Correctional Center.
The main reasons for the opposition seemed to be concern over property values if the private prison were built in a populated area. Others, like Bill Aikey, a retiree who helped set up the meeting, are upset that the county Board of Supervisors has not said more to the public about what is going on between the governing body and the prison corporation.
Neighboring Wythe County was chosen by another company, Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville, Tenn., for a 1,500-bed private prison. Opposition there led to the organization of Citizens Against the Prison and a Feb. 15 bus convoy to Richmond to seek the help of state officials in heading off the project.
But state Public Safety Director Jerry Kilgore told members of the Wythe group that he would have to weigh the 4-3 vote of the Wythe County Board of Supervisors in favor of the prison, and several legislators said they had no power to interfere in what was seen as a local issue. The opponents argued that it was not local, because the state would have to approve a contract with CCA for the prison to operate.
At the Bland meeting, there was some debate between prison opponents and others - including some Bland Correctional Center employees - who saw nothing wrong with prisons as a provider of jobs.
One Bland human resources employee said he had seen 118 unsolicited job applications in the past three months, which indicates people are interested in such jobs.
``This has nothing to do with the Bland Correctional Center,'' Aikey said. ``When I moved here three years ago, I knew about the Bland Correctional Center.''
``What would a prison do for Bland County?'' he asked. ``I think it's going to make it a laughingstock. We would be known as the county with two prisons.''
Arlene Bridges, a lifelong county resident, said the county's industrial commission is not doing its job of going out and seeking positive industry. She pointed out several other industries that expressed interest in a county site in recent years but drew protests from county residents.
``That is why you get the medical incinerator. That is why you get the nuclear waste dump,'' she said. ``We're getting everything that everybody else doesn't want.''
One man said the prison might help the tax base. ``You want the pig,'' he said, ``but you don't want to go to the fuss of feeding it.''
by CNB