Category Archives: Incarceration

A jail death at Pelham Pre-Release Center

Megan Matteucci wrote in the AJC Sunday South Ga. jail under scrutiny after Fulton inmate found dead:
Investigators from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office and Georgia Bureau of Investigation will travel to southwest Georgia Monday to survey jail conditions after the death of a local inmate.

Fabian Avery III, 17, was found dead Friday in his cell at the Pelham Pre-Release Center, located about an hour north of Tallahassee, Fla.

An autopsy is scheduled for Monday, GBI spokesman John Bankhead told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Avery was one of several Fulton County inmates being held in Pelham to alleviate overcrowding in the Rice Street jail. Inmates from Gwinnett, Johns Creek and Sandy Springs are also housed there.

Agents from the Thomasville regional office of the GBI are investigating the death, Bankhead said.

Hm, so GBI can investigate jail deaths!

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Competition for CCA’s private prison? –Roy Copeland

Roy Copeland had a question about Project Excel, the private prison that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) wants to build in Lowndes County, at the 15 March 2011 VLCIA board meeting.

Q: He wanted to know if there are other communities competing for the project, and whether they had also paid a second extension.

A: Col. Ricketts answered that there is another community competing, but he did not know whether they had made that payment: Continue reading →

CCA has made second payment towards private prison –Col. Ricketts

Regarding the private prison that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) wants to build in Lowndes County, at the 15 March 2011 VLCIA board meeting, Col. Ricketts gave an update, saying CCA had made a second payment as stipulated in the purchase and development agreement:


Regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, VLCIA,
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director, Allan Ricketts Program Manager,
15 March 2011
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

The story continues in later posts.

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Private prison “a major impact on the community” –Brad Lofton

Previously we asked if public objections caused VLCIA to change its tune about letting CCA build a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. OK, that was a rhetorical question: of course not!

Speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner, 28 January 2011, Brad Lofton praised the private prison project:

“…we hope will be under construction in the next 18 months. It will be about $150 million dollar project; anywhere from 4 to 600 new jobs. A lot of communities in Georgia are built around state prisons. A hundred of those 400 will be post-secondary, nutritionalists, physicians, nurses, vocational rehab, so we’re proud of that project. You’ll start to hear a little bit more about that. There will be about 300 construction jobs over about a 24 month period, which will have a major impact on the community.”


Brad Lofton, Executive Director,
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
speaking at the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce annual dinner,
Lake Park, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 January 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

That was part of Lofton’s famous “jobs, jobs, jobs” speech. Lofton is gone now, but apparently VLCIA still plans the prison.

The story continues in later posts.

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CCA private prison in Lowndes County?

What’s Project Excel? A private prison for Lowndes County, proposed by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

Back in August 2010 when the VDT first brought this story to light, I pointed out that CCA is the same company that lobbied heavily for Arizona’s new immigration law so CCA could get more customers. And I wondered what VLCIA thought about this? Silly question: of course they’re all for it! It’s “jobs, jobs, jobs” with them.

As of 21 December 2010, apparently things were still pretty tentative when Brad Lofton gave an update to the VLCIA board, claiming the CCA private prison would bring 600 jobs to Lowndes County, Georgia:


Regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, VLCIA,
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Gary Minchew, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director, Allan Ricketts Program Manager,
21 December 2010
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Some public objection had surfaced by 20 January 2010, when Dr. Mark George remarked to the Valdosta City Council:

“I think we can do better than a generator that burns human waste. I think we can do better than a private prison and those are two things that we seem to be excited about as a community.”
Next, we’ll see if objections had any effect on the Industrial Authority.

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The owl in Hahira: March 2011 LAKE meeting

The owl in Hahira:
Monthly LAKE Meeting
When: 5:30-6:45 PM, Tuesday 1 March 2011
Updated meeting location
Where: home of Thomas Ieracitano
414 East Main Street, Hahira
229-251-2462
That’s on US 122, just east of the Masonic Lodge.
Thomas says:
“Bring a lawn chair, laptop (I will have Mediacom wireless) and your own food and drink.”
If it rains or there are too many bugs or something, we will move to:
Down Home Pizza
103 South Webb Street, Hahira
229-794-1888

Help cover food, water, transportation, incarceration, solar energy, biomass, and regular local government meetings: you never know when news will be made!

Popular topics lately on the LAKE blog, On the LAKE Front, include Continue reading →

Biomass plant a done deal? –Floyd Rose

This LTE appeared in the VDT Sunday 13 February 2011. -jsq
Abraham Lincoln said, “The probability that we shall fail in this struggle should not deter us from the support of a cause that we believe is just.” Such a cause for us is opposition to the biomass plant.

Given its support from city and county officials more concerned about doing the bidding of the rich and powerful than they are about the health of children, it is likely a “done deal.” Done by those who will profit from the deal.

None of the national health organizations endorse biomass plants as safe for children. The American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, and the World Health Organization have concluded that biomass plants pose serious threats to children.

None of the deal makers, investors, or politicians who signed off on their deal live in the community which will most be affected by the poisonous toxins that will fill the air. Their children don’t attend the schools, nor do they attend any of the seven area churches.

Meetings have been held on the biomass project. Some by the Industrial Authority, WACE, the NAACP, and SCLC. And not a single citizen has spoken in favor of it. When I asked a council member about this, he said, “They are afraid of you.”

It is not the proponents who have anything to fear.

Continue reading →

Principles for which I live –Floyd Rose

Floyd Rose spoke to the Valdosta City Council, 10 February 2011. First he told the bus story, which is about how he became an activist many years ago. Then he said this part, transcribed by George Rhynes:
“I came home to Valdosta in 1995, and I found just outside of these walls; a plaque that read; the mayor and council shall make all appropriate and necessary laws; for the control of slaves; and free men of color.

That plaque was removed reluctantly; at the urging of Mr. George Rhynes; while the plaque; has been removed! I have discovered; that the policy that gave birth to that plaque are still in place; and one of the policies is the one that I told you about two weeks ago; or perhaps three weeks ago now. That would not; and could not abide by; because it was designed only for the purpose of controlling the citizens of this city and that I would never be bought and I would never be bossed as a matter of conscience.

Now it was suggested; at the end of the last meeting; that some of us come before you; ah making a grand stand; and somehow creating theater. It was suggested that Floyd Rose just wants to be arrested. I have been arrested before; I spent twenty-five long hours in solitary confinement in the Lowndes County Jail; because of you; and anybody with any common sense; would never want to go to the Lowndes County Jail to spend any time. That is foolishness and it’s crazy!


Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 20 February 2011
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Rev. Rose continued: Continue reading →

Brad Lofton asks for your ideas

In a generally congenial and well-received speech to the Lake Park Chamber of Commerce (LPCoC), Industrial Authority (VLCIA) executive director Brad Lofton gave an update on various projects and concluded by asking for input. “Economic development is a team sport,” he said, and “Give us ideas” and “There’s one of us and hundreds of you.”

Lofton was introduced by LPCoC chairman Dan Bremer who said that Lofton and VLCIA brought a plant to Lake Park with 400 workers.

In his speech, Lofton lauded the LPCoC as a great incubator of local businesses.

It’s going to come from all of you.
He talked about expanding local industries, especially PCA at length, asking David Carmon of PCA to stand up, saying PCA made a $230 million expansion in 2010, and noting “We had to compete for the PCA project.” Continue reading →

Serpico for legalization of drugs

Connie Littlefield remarks that Legalizing marijuana makes pot smoking uncool:
I was in Amsterdam because my documentary, Damage Done: The Drug War Odyssey, was being screened as part of a Cannabis Tribunal. Former NYPD detective Frank Serpico, who is in my film, travelled with me.

We were invited to speak because Damage Done is about a group of cops, including Frank, and Canadian Senator Larry Campbell, who believe that the War on Drugs does more harm than the drugs themselves.

We presented a copy of our film to the chief of the Amsterdam-Amstelland Police, who told me that he became a cop because of Frank.

Her film is DAMAGE DONE: The Drug War Odyssey, here describe on the LEAP site: Continue reading →