Prison to boost local economy
After a decade-long effort, local and state officials, aided by West Florida Electric Cooperative, have gained the governor’s approval for the location of a prison in the Graceville Industrial Park. Expected to house approximately 1,280 inmates, the $54 million facility will become the state’s sixth privately-run prison, the last of which opened in 1997. An existing privatized Florida facility slightly larger than the one planned for Graceville employs around 360 personnel.
In a process begun in the mid-1990s, WFEC has played a key role in providing a site for a prison in Graceville. Around 1994, WFEC Vice President of Finance and Administration Russell Dunaway and former WFEC General Manager Jerry Wayne Smith, along with economic development representative Norwood Jackson, approached Graceville city officials with the idea of promoting the area’s economic growth by requesting a Florida Dept. of Corrections facility be built there. Current WFEC Executive Vice President and CEO Bill Rimes was Graceville’s city manager at the time.
With funding from its power supplier, Alabama Electric Cooperative, WFEC applied to the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture for a $300,000 zero-interest loan with which to purchase a 300-acre tract in Graceville in 1995. WFEC then turned the land over to the Jackson County Board of Commissioners and City of Graceville, who jointly agreed to repay the loan, over a ten-year period, into a revolving loan fund, or RLF.
While local officials maintained hopes of acquiring a major prison at the site, a DOC work camp opened there in 1998, followed by a privately-operated juvenile justice facility in 2001. WFEC staff continued working with State Sen. Al Lawson, Rep. Don Brown, Rep. Bev Kilmer, Graceville City Manager Eugene Adams, the late Graceville Mayor Guyton Williams and present Mayor Charles Holman to ensure the facility would make its way into the state budget. The proposed prison eventually received legislative approval for last year’s state budget, but was vetoed by Gov. Jeb Bush.
"What has made the process easier this time than in the past is the extreme need for prison beds in Florida now," said WFEC Vice President of Marketing Gary Clark, who worked with lawmakers to secure state funding for the prison. "The passage of legislation requiring that inmates serve at least 85 percent of their sentences and the adoption of the 10-20-Life bill have increased the state’s inmate population significantly over the last few years. When Florida got tougher on crime, crime got tougher on the state’s prison system."
Approximately 300 additional corrections jobs with an $11 million payroll are coming to another location in the area, as well. A 1,300-bed expansion of the Washington Correctional Institute received legislative approval in a special session late last year. WFEC’s neighboring Touchstone Energy cooperative, Gulf Coast Electric, serves the facility in south Washington County.
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