The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The Tallulah-based Louisiana Delta Coalition for Education and Economic Development aims to put the past ills of the infamous Swanson Correction Center for Youth ‹ now Steve Hoyle ‹ by emphasizing education over incarceration, said Moses Williams, coalition spokesman.

The coalition has already used cartoon television commercials depicting the transformation from prison to community college. Now, they are organizing the Tallulah Kids' Project to demonstrate through art what the youth of Tallulah want in their community, including more educational opportunities.

McCall Senior High School student DaShinta Dense, 16, is participating in the art project, in which students ‹ they are mostly of elementary age ‹ are creating 20-foot-long banners with pictures of what they would like to see in Tallulah and at the proposed college. Eventually, the banners will completely wrap around a portable, steel building, which will be shown at news conferences in Tallulah and Baton Rouge, intended to create awareness to their cause. The art is currently on display at the Tallulah Community Center.

"I really wanted to help get this project done and make a mark in history," Dense said. "Most people here want the college because it'll bring a positive vibe to Tallulah.

"Everybody knows the prison ‹ SCCY or whatever they're calling it ‹ but I want Tallulah to be known for a college and not a prison."

A community college in Tallulah would mark the most rural setting for a community college in Louisiana. Coalition members estimate total conversion costs at about $10 million. Since the facility was designed as a school for juvenile offenders, it is an ideal fit, Williams said.

The rehabilitation center officially opened in April for long-term, intensive substance abuse treatment. SCCY, notorious for its violence against juvenile inmates, closed in June 2004 before the state took control and converted it. The rehab center employs 153 people full time and is at about 95 percent of its 260-person capacity, said Assistant Warden Robert Rachal.

Last week, Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed into law a bill amending 2004 legislation authorizing a local government, not the state, to own the rehab center for the purpose of a learning center. The hope is the law will help resolve a complicated cooperative endeavor agreement between the state and the former owners requiring the state to pay $3.4 million in debt service each year for a facility it does not own.

State Sen. Charles Jones, D-Monroe, helped procure $25,000 for a feasibility study during the legislative session that coalition officials hope will lead to a plan to create a community college, Williams said.

"What we have now is a shell of a prison," said Williams, arguing the facility lowers property values in Tallulah. "If we develop the long-term solution of education, then people can earn better jobs, and we won't need a big prison."

In defense of the rehab center, Rachal said he is working with the city and local civic organizations to promote community involvement. There are already cleanup crews helping with beautification for the region.

The first group of inmates successfully completed their 12-month intensive treatment program last week, he said.

Originally published July 23, 2005
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