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Wayne County's rolling hills in the northeast corner of
Pennsylvania has been home to generations of dairy farmers. But
recent hard times have meant foreclosures and the loss of young
people to cities. Desperate to attract jobs, officials invited the
Federal Bureau of Prisons to consider the area for a maximum security
prison.
This decision has divided the otherwise quiet community. Those
opposed to the prison say they were left out of the decision-making
process, and that the Federal government used threats and coersion to
force citizens to sell family land to the project. Damage to local
wetlands from the construction and the destruction of historical
sites has helped galvanize opinion against the project. Activists
also feel that the race to build more prisons is short-sighted, since
many federal inmates are non-violent drug offenders. "Find
alternatives," they say.
County officials, on the other hand, say
the prison will bring much-needed jobs into the area and attract
other industries, such as hotels and restaurants catering to the
institution.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is facing a crisis of
their own: The Washington D.C. jail population has recently come
under its jurisdiction, and recent immigration laws have caused
inmate population to swell.
This struggle, which is causing many
Wayne County residents like Sandi Gambuti to say, "Not in my
backyard, not in anyone's backyard", will be played out many more
times before the Federal Bureau of Prisons completes its largest
expansion ever.
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