Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 6, 1995 TAG: 9501060112
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
``We'll have a full-time doctor. We'll have medical staff around the clock,'' said David Myers, president of Corrections Corporation of America.
Only prisoners facing medical emergencies would be taken to Wythe County Community Hospital, he said. ``When that happens, we provide all the security.''
Myers was responding to comments made Wednesday night by Dr. Paul Morin, a Wytheville physician, who addressed a meeting of 150 citizens at a meeting organized by Citizens Against the Prison. Morin said that up to 80 percent of prisoners are infected with Hepatitis B and that incidence of infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is 20 percent higher than in the general population.
Morin said Wythe County would have trouble recruiting good doctors if the prison is built here.
Dr. Chris Fletcher, CCA's medical director, disputed those figures on disease rates. ``If they're talking about New York City, that's one thing. If they're talking about Virginia or Tennessee, that's not accurate,'' he said.
Fletcher, who has been with CCA about 21/2 years, said a 1,300-bed CCA prison had only one to two emergencies a month where a prisoner had to be taken to a local hospital. ``They would never be without an armed guard,'' he said.
The prison, planned for a site two miles east of Wytheville, would house 1,500 inmates. It would be the first private prison in Virginia and the largest of CCA's prisons in various states and other countries.
Fletcher said the prison could handle X-rays, sutures, intravenous medication and other types of treatment in its own facilities.
``There are people who are HIV positive [in the general population], and nobody knows about it,'' Myers said. Sometimes even the infected person does not know. In a prison situation, he said, ``at least we know who they are.''
Myers and other CCA employees visited Wytheville Community Center on Thursday to distribute literature and information on CCA and answer questions.
When the CCA employees arrived at the center and saw the parking lot full of cars, Myers asked a reporter if this was an office building. He seemed mildly surprised on learning that most of the cars had brought people to the informational meeting.
The CCA employees made no formal presentations to the crowded in the ``bingo room'' at the center, but chatted informally and answered questions. Some people also filled out job applications.
A number of those attending wore stick-on labels with a slash through a circle over the world ``prison.'' The label is the symbol of the recently formed Citizens Against the Prison.
Another new organization is Citizens for the CCA, which is organizing ``information sessions'' throughout the county for citizens to get information on the prison project.
All the meetings will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The first one will be tonight at Sheffey Elementary School.
The others will be Saturday at Barren Springs Fire Department, Monday at Rural Retreat High School, Tuesday at Speedwell Elementary School, Wednesday at George Wythe High School and Thursday at Fort Chiswell High School.
The organizers said all the meetings are open to the public.
Myers said the prison could be complete as early as mid-1996. It will be built by Ray Bell Construction of Brentwood, Tenn., which has built a number of prisons, including some for CCA.
The proposed facility would not take prisoners from outside Virginia and is unlikely to expand, he said, because 1,500 is an optimum number of prisoners to handle.
He said key personnel like the warden, assistant warden and chief of security would probably be brought in from other areas, since those posts would need to be filled by experienced people.
The prison will need about 200 corrections officers. CCA plans to put new employess through a three-week training course plus a week of on-the-job training. Myers hoped to carry out the training program in cooperation with Wytheville Community College.
The prison will also have a doctor, nurses, office personnel, mechanics and other employees, he said.
by CNB