NATCHEZ — The new Adams County Correctional facility was said to open 410 new jobs, but not in the way some thought.

Warden Vance Laughlin said, as a ballpark figure, 70 percent of the people he has hired already had jobs, which they are now leaving to work at Corrections Corporation of America.

“There is this perception that we will come to town, and we’re going to hire everybody that’s unemployed, but that’s not true,” he said. “I came here to hire the best and the brightest.

“Those folks who have been unemployed for eight months probably aren’t going to come work for me.”

Laughlin said that’s the way any business should be run.

“Four hundred and ten positions were created in Adams County. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to hire the ones that nobody wants,” he said. “I’ve hired some people who are unemployed but very few.”

And CCA is pulling from all businesses — convenience stores, hospitals and local correctional centers, Laughlin said.

“I’ve got probably 15 people from Angola,” he said.

Laughlin said CCA does not necessarily require prior experience in the workforce.

“There are few of my jobs that require prior experience, less than 25 percent,” he said.

What’s attracting those who are already gainfully employed includes better pay, benefits and opportunity to climb the corporate ladder.

“I started as a clerk in 1988, and now I’m the warden running one of (CCA’s) largest facilities,” Laughlin said.

He said surprisingly he has not hired many people from local law enforcement agencies.

“I’m not really dragging a whole bunch from there,” he said.

Natchez Police Chief Mike Mullins said one Natchez police officer, detention officer and dispatcher was hired by CCA.

However, the correctional facility did take another of Mullins’ officers indirectly.

Adams County Sheriff Angie Brown said she lost a deputy to CCA, but she has already filled that position — by hiring a Natchez police officer.

Due to budgetary constraints, Mullins put his supply officer, who typically did a lot of clerical work, back on patrol.

“As long as (CCA doesn’t take) several employees at a time. If it were several it would put a lot of pressure on us,” Mullins said.

The detention officer who went to CCA has already been replaced.

Brown said a few other employees are seeking work at CCA.

“There may be a possibility of one or two more, but I don’t know yet,” she said. “(Employees) have put in applications and done some interviewing, but they haven’t been officially hired.”

Neither the Vidalia Police Department of the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office report any turnover due to CCA.

Construction of the facility was completed in December, and in late March of this year, CCA won its contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The prison had a job fair, at which 3,000 people applied, in late April.

The prison will have its dedication ceremony July 14.