Over the past few years, The Swanson Correction Center for Youth (SCCY), a prison for 600 juveniles in the rural town of Tallulah, Louisiana, became notorious throughout the world as the worst example of problems plaguing the U.S. Juvenile justice system. Following a decade of community, judicial and legislative action aimed at addressing brutality, misuse of funds, corruption and nepotism, Louisiana ordered the closure of SCCY and passed The Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2003, a sweeping reform of the state's approach to delinquent and adjudicated youth.

Meanwhile, in the town of Tallulah (population 9,000) located in the impoverished northeast corner of the Lower Mississippi Delta region, community residents wonder what will happen when the juvenile prison closes in June 2004, taking 400 jobs with it.

In 2003, a resolution was adopted by the Louisiana legislature calling for the state to turn SCCY into a prison for adults. Louisiana's adult prison population increased 60% in the past decade. Between 1980 and 2000, prison spending in the state increased 146% compared to a 23% growth in spending on education. Today Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the country.

A group called the Louisiana Delta Coalition for Education and Economic Development formed in 2003 with the goal of converting the prison into a Learning Center, providing educational services and workforce skill training to youth and adults in the region. In April 2004, a bill was introduced in the state legislature to create this center.

We spoke with community members in November 2003 to find out how they felt about the closing of the juvenile prison and their hopes and dreams for the future.