Hundreds Of Jobs Could Be Coming To Jenkins County

Millen, GA—It’s lunchtime at Cindy’s Cafe, in Millen, and what folks like Bobby Oglesby are talking about is the possibility that a private prison could be moving to town.

Bobby Oglesby, Millen, GA: “There used to be plenty of industry here for us for everybody and now there ain’t nothing. We zip now.”

Jenkins County is just one community that is in the running for the prison. Jenkins County officials say the project would bring 3-hundred jobs to the county.

Bobby Oglesby: “I’m for it. I’m for anything that will help Jenkins County. We are in bad shape labor wise.”

Correction Corporation of America, or CCA, wants to build a prison that would house up to at least 2,000 inmates. It would be built on 105 acres, on land that CCA has owned for years. The prison would only house minimum and medium security inmates such as repeat drug offenders.

Paula Herrington, Jenkins County Development Authority: “Since CCA owns a property in Jenkins County that makes it look alot more favorable.”

Jenkins County could really use the boost. In the past two years, three major companies have shut down. The Jockey Factory, Mi Windows and Doors and Cavalier Homes, those closures left half of the town’s population unemployed. Oglesby says some people here have to drive a hour just to find work.

Bobby Oglesby: “I know my neighbor he goes to Augusta and some folks go to parts of South Carolina for work.”

Just about everyone in the county welcomes the idea… but some are fearful.

Seth Benson, Millen, GA: “You mention the word prison and immediately you hear crime and that’s not what this is about.”

County officials say they should know if Jenkins County is approved for the bid at the beginning of November. County leaders say once approved it would take at least 15 months to build the prison.