Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Most places have a local or county jail, but then some places have state prisons or "correctional facalities". I do not really know what the criteria is for being placed in one jail versus another?
Does anyone have any experience in living in a place that had one of these state prisons or correctional facilities, and did it have a big impact on that city as far as safety or crime rates go.
I lived in Missouri for a while, and once made a comment to a co-worker that it seemed like the city had more than its fair share of people who "just weren't totally there". They said it was due to the state prison in town. They said that when the convicts were released, they gave them $5 and that was it. This forced them into a life of poverty, often not being able to get out of town. So even if they commited their crimes somewhere else, they were now stuck here.
Was this an isolated example, or is this common in all state prison towns?
I've not lived in a state prison town, but last I heard in FL they get a bus ticket and a $100 cash. There is really no incentive to stick around since most of the prison towns are small and remote and the jobs are mostly created by the prison itself, and the released inmates aren't eligible for them anyhow.
Why stick around in some podunk town of 1000 when one can get back to Miami or Tampa and get their hustle going again and end up back in the slammer all over again.
North Carolina's Central Prison is located in the heart of Raleigh, the state capital. I once lived on a street in a beautiful historic neighborhood there which dead-ended into the barbed-wire surrounding the prison, could see the prison from my front porch and could hear them call for "lights out, lockdown" at night when the windows were open. The prison's presence seems to have done little to hurt the surrounding areas, as the neighborhood I lived in has seen a lot of improvement and other areas nearby are booming. There were a couple of halfway houses nearby and we'd have the occassional guy come down the street looking for odd jobs to earn a few bucks, but I don't think that was any different than most other neighborhoods near the downtown of a mid or large-sized city. I'm not sure what the inmates were released with as far as money or transportation, but we certainly didn't see too many folks just lingering around because they didn't have the means to go anyplace else.
There's a couple not too far from Syracuse in Auburn and Elmira. Both have prisons in the city limits, but the crime rate for those cities are not that high. Both cities have about 30,000 people too. Check out the crime rates here:
We live in the next town over from Florida state Pen. (Raiford)
And no, it does not impact the level of crime in our area. Most not all state pen. are outside the larger areas and employ mainly locals.
The people being released do not for the most part stay around the "big house" when they are released.
But that is my 2 cent.
In the civilised world, almost no country has such a high percentage of inmates as the US do. With the offender, repeat offender, 3 strikes and you're out rules it becomes logic. But is it really safer now?
If you place a new prison in a sort of "dead" city with high unemployment, drug abuse and crime, it will be easy to fill the prison (with prisoners and jailers). It's only a matter product placement.
And if the prisoners are finally out (sometimes after 50 years or something), they live in poverty. Looks like almost normal that they return to that prison anyhow.
I lived in Sugar Land, TX in the mid to late '90s (remember the old '70's movie Sugarland Express) which is home of 3 state prison facilities. A large prison farm (now most if not all the land has been sold off), a maximum security prison and a psychiatric unit. The town is an upscale suburb of Houston. When the prisons were originally built, it was way out in the country, and Sugar Land was a sleepy little farming community with nothing much but a huge sugar mill. Then as Houston grew, it just got sucked up by the city. There are very nice, expensive homes that were built bordering the prison farm land. As land prices increased the state sold off much (if not all) of the land so mores housing developments could be built. It always kind of creeped me out to see the prisoners out on the tractors or working in the fields and to see guards on horseback with big guns laying across their laps. The really creepy thing though was when you would be sitting at a traffic light and you would look over and see a prison truck pull up next to you and the only two passengers in it was 2 prison trustees. Regularly you would see them transporting things for the state department of corrections from one prison to another.
But that said, no they did not stick around after they got out. Really there wasn't anywhere they could stay. It was a very upscale area. They couldn't have afforded it. It is an extremely nice area, and there is no crime related to the prison.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
