{"id":2258,"date":"2011-03-29T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-29T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/georgia-is-ccas-model-partner.html"},"modified":"2011-03-29T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T12:00:00","slug":"georgia-is-ccas-model-partner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/03\/georgia-is-ccas-model-partner.html","title":{"rendered":"Georgia is CCA’s model partner"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Primary site?” Really?<\/p>\n

\nThe
\n
\ninitial writeup in the VDT<\/a> quoted CCA as being all coy
\nabout if a need arose from the state they would be ready
\nto deploy the private prison in Lowndes County:<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\n“This is (for) a future need that we don\u2019t even know what it\u2019ll
\nbe yet,” Frank Betancourt, CCA\u2019s vice president of real estate
\ndevelopment said. “There\u2019s no ground breaking to announce. When the
\nneed (for a facility) does arrive, we can be the first ones to offer
\n(our services).”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yet if you look on
\n
\nCCA’s own website under partnering:<\/a><\/p>\n

\nCCA has been a great partner with us for nearly a decade now. Coffee
\nCorrectional Facility and Wheeler Correctional Facility certainly meet
\nthe standards of the Georgia Department of Corrections. I particularly
\n
\n<\/a>
\nappreciate CCA maintaining exemplary accreditation status with both
\nthe American Correctional Association and the National Commission on
\nCorrectional Healthcare. I look forward to a continued long relationship
\nwith them.\u201d
\n
\n—Commissioner James E. Donald, Georgia Department of Corrections\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And over in Decatur County people actually asked about this, and were
\ntold<\/p>\n


\nby “Jay Hollis, project manager of site acquisition for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA)” that:<\/p>\n


\n<\/a>
\n“This is a project that came about because we knew, and we continue to
\nknow, that there will be demand at the state and federal level,”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This same Jay Hollis was also quoted in
\n
\nthe VDT’s initial writeup:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt\u2019s a very calculated process (deciding) where to put one of these
\nlocations,\u201d Hollis said. \u201cWe do a lot of analysis before putting
\nour foot on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nFollowing the completion of engineering and feasibility reports,
\nValdosta\/Lowndes County was chosen.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOur Valdosta\/Lowndes County site quickly became our primary due to its
\nlocal and regional workforce, collaboration of local leadership, site
\ncharacteristics, proximity to necessary services and infrastructure,
\nand accessibility to name a few,\u201d Hollis said. \u201cThis site also
\nprovides the potential for the creation of hundreds of jobs, significant
\ntax revenues that go toward local schools and infrastructure, and the
\npurchasing of local goods and services in the community.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Heh, “primary site,” he said, while telling Decatur County they were
\ngetting one, too.
\nFlattery will get you everywhere, at least apparently with the
\nValdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority,
\nwhich appears to have swallowed that “primary site” guff
\n
\nhook, line, and sinker!<\/a><\/p>\n

\nBack to Hollis of CCA:<\/p>\n

\nBy going ahead and completing this phase in the process, CCA will be
\nable to focus solely on the construction phase of the project when the
\ntime comes to build a site.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhat this partnership does is take a year off of the development
\nprocess,\u201d Hollis said. \u201cWe believe we\u2019ll have a leg up when (a)
\ndevelopment (opportunity) arrives.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Notice Hollis wasn’t even saying “if”, he said “when the time comes”.
\nSo when Betancourt said, “we don\u2019t even know what it\u2019ll
\nbe yet,” he meant he didn’t know whether it would be a private prison
\nfor a state or federal customer.<\/p>\n

\nOK, so how can CCA know that, at both the state and federal level?
\nStay tuned.<\/p>\n

\n-jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Primary site?” Really? The initial writeup in the VDT quoted CCA as being all coy about if a need arose from the state they would be ready to deploy the private prison in Lowndes County: “This is (for) a future need that we don\u2019t even know what it\u2019ll be yet,” Frank Betancourt, CCA\u2019s vice president […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1113,14,2,72,178],"tags":[193,1115,1747,8817,2858,1114,300,969,4833,1246,793,189,4835,4832,186,847,548,8702,12,4804,1169,185,181,4834,3027,183,182,6,8726,180,8749],"class_list":["post-2258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cca","category-economy","category-government","category-incarceration","category-vlcia","tag-allan-ricketts","tag-bainbridge","tag-brad-lofton","tag-cca","tag-corrections-corporation-of-america","tag-decatur-county","tag-development","tag-economics","tag-frank-betancourt","tag-gary-minchew","tag-industry","tag-j-stephen-gupton","tag-james-e-donald","tag-jay-p-hollis","tag-jerry-jennett","tag-jobs","tag-john-s-quarterman","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-mark-george","tag-marketing","tag-mary-gooding","tag-norman-bennett","tag-primary-site","tag-project-excel","tag-roy-copeland","tag-tom-call","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-city-council","tag-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-vlcia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}