Monticello and Jefferson County, Florida, have become
dependent on a prison that opened in 1990.
Why?
According to

Rick Stone of WUSF 1 Feb 2012,

Late in the 80s, with crime rising and prisons filling up, Florida
needed new prison sites but few counties wanted to be one. Jefferson

because of the state’s declining inmate population.

County, just east of Tallahassee, was different. Then, as now,
underpopulated and desperately poor, it saw an opportunity and it
did something unusual.

“We welcomed them with open arms,” said Kirk Reams,
Jefferson County’s court clerk and chief financial officer.

That’s not our situation.
Crime is as low as it has been since the 1960s,
prison populations have peaked,
and we do have other sources of employment.
Or are we really that desperate?

Jefferson County thinks it has lucked out again, but only at the expense
of Florida taxpayers, and against the prison population trend.

John Kennedy wrote for the Palm Beach Post 8 February 2012,

Condemned Florida prison gets second chance at life in House,

After hearing pleas from residents and workers and getting some
last-minute lobbying from the widow of a former Florida Republican
chairman, the House added $10.2 million to its budget Wednesday to
spare a North Florida prison targeted for shutdown.

Jefferson Correctional Institution near rural Monticello, was marked
for closure by the Florida Corrections Department, one of 11 prisons
and work camps targeted because of the state’s declining inmate
population.

But in agreeing to reverse that decision, lawmakers said it was
wrong to close Jefferson’s largest employer — a move local
officials said would cost close to 200 prison jobs and also send
shockwaves through the 14,000-person county.

Is that the state we want to be in?
Depending on a prison for most of our jobs?
Requiring the state to cough up extra tax dollars
that could be going to education?

And did you catch the most significant phrase?

because of the state’s declining inmate population.

Georgia’s prison population also has peaked.
We don’t need any more prisons.
And we really don’t need a new private prison in Lowndes County,
Georgia, which would

risk closing like others have elsewhere.

And JFI is a public prison.
Ours would be a private prison, with your tax dollars supporting

Damon Hininger’s
$3 million CCA CEO salary.

If you don’t want a private prison,
here’s a
petition you can sign.

-jsq