By Associated Press
Columbiana, AL – The Alabama Department of Corrections has finalized an agreement with a New Jersey-based company for a training center that will prepare inmates to rejoin the work force, but an opponent says the plan puts the community in danger.
Prisons Commissioner Richard Allen said yesterday the three-year, three (m) million dollars contract with Community Education Centers hasn't been signed, but he said its ''a done deal.''
Bill Palatucci, senior vice president of Community Education Centers, said his company will house approximately 400 inmates at the Columbiana center when it opens in November.
Allen said none of the inmates will have been convicted of violent or sex-related crimes and they will work in one of the state's 10 work release centers after successfully completing the six-month program.
Johnnie Doss Page, president of the Shelby County chapter of Victims of Crime and Leniency, or Vocal, said she plans to circulate a petition asking city leaders to stop the plan.
Community Education Centers has facilities in New Jersey, Colorado, Wyoming, South Carolina, Indiana, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Wyoming.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)