Adams County Supervisors are in the unenviable position of having handcuffed themselves by their own greed.

The greed in question, however, isn’t of money, necessarily, but of adoration and political credit, apparently.

That’s the only logical explanation of the prison pickle the supervisors will find themselves in come Monday morning.

The board is expected to hear from representatives of two groups, each with eyes on bringing a new federal prison to Adams County.

The companies, Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group are national organizations that are both highly competitive with one another.

In North American private prison providers, CCA is No. 1 and GEO is No. 2. They are, essentially, the Coke and Pepsi of prisons.

Yet, one group will come to Monday’s supervisors meeting with an apparent advantage.

You see, the county has been actively working to sell GEO a piece of county owned property near the Natchez-Adams County Airport.

Given the competitive nature of the two companies, that seems like a conflict of interest. The problem is that city and county government shouldn’t be in the business of courting potential development prospects.

That’s why we have the Natchez-Adams Economic Development Authority. And, perhaps more important, that’s why the EDA is funded by Adams County and the City of Natchez.

While the GEO folks are playing footsy with the county’s leadership, it seems a bit unusual that CCA is dealing directly with private landowners.

Normally, these kinds of deals go through the EDA, which leads to the conclusion that the EDA may have been told not to get involved with CCA.

No one will say for sure, but if that happened, such a request would almost certainly have come from the county leadership, the very ones working with CCA’s competition.

So why is the county board so interested in selling the land at the airport to GEO?

That’s still a bit of a mystery.

Apparently, no one at the county level approached the airport board about the possibility, so obviously the airport board members are a bit miffed over the potential deal.

And the GEO Group has been pretty mum publicly about its plans, too. Perhaps they’re taking a lesson in public relations from the supervisors.

CCA, interestingly, has expressed publicly its interest in an Adams County site and also one in Pike County. The public flap over the location near McComb, however, may have nixed its feasibility.

Figuring out which company is better suited to run a facility is a bit like the decades-old Coke vs. Pepsi battle. Ultimately, they might taste a bit different, but they’re largely the same thing: carbonated sugar water.

Any debate, however, should be over whether or not we want a prison here first, and then location.

The law states that the intentions of the companies must be published. Then, if enough members of the public cry foul over the prison’s location, the issue will go to a vote.

But if the supervisors aren’t careful, their negligence could nix both plans. If they opt to publish the two notices simultaneously, the potential for raising enough concerned citizens is higher.

Now, the supervisors are sort of stuck. If supervisors delay CCA’s request for publication that was sent late last week, it will look like they are favoring the GEO deal in which the county directly profits.

If they try and get away from the look of favoring GEO and try to step back now by saying they’ll treat them exactly the same, supervisors could damage either potential deal.

Their only hope in saving face is to admit that CCA’s location (well east of Natchez on U.S. 84) is a better one than the airport and support that plan.

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it’s greed that may foil the supervisors and their plans to take on economic development single-handedly.

The self-provided handcuffs make that a difficult task.

Kevin Cooper is associate publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539.

or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.