I’m always amazed at the number of people in Adams County that always complain about the lack of jobs available and that our elected officials are doing nothing to correct the problem.

Now that we have the chance of getting a correctional facility in the county, some of those same people complain that the jobs might be low pay, someone might escape, Natchez will be known as “a prison town,” the people coming to visit the prisoners might be criminals themselves, and on and on.

Of course these are very weak excuses and I’m sure there were people who said similar things when International Paper Company or Armstrong Tire Company was planning to locate in Natchez/Adams County. No one knew how much jobs at these plants were paying prior to their coming or what type of people would be moving to this area to apply for these jobs.

I don’t remember Natchez ever being referred to as the “paper mill town” or “the tire town” but when they closed everyone was devastated. These naysayers were then saying “what are our elected officials going to do about it?”

Most of the people that end up in prison start out in our city, county or juvenile facilities that already exist in our town. The people that come to see these people are usually our neighbors visiting some of their kin that have been arrested. The people who operate these facilities are more of our neighbors that have good jobs and spend their money in our town and pay their taxes. I also believe that our county jail is now housing state and federal inmates waiting for transfer to correctional facilities.

When someone asks you to sign a petition or vote against the prison, ask them why and listen to the poor excuses they offer — then ask them how they know these things or where they got their information. There are a lot of people looking for jobs in this area and other than this correctional facility, what do we have in the hopper at this time? Most of the people against the facility are either working or retired — not unemployed.

Forest Persons

Natchez resident