By CAROL P. HEARD

Managing Editor

Corrections Corporation of America, which is based in Nashville, Tenn.

Below is some information on CCA:

 Corrections Corporation of America is the nation’s largest provider of outsourced management services to federal, state and local government agencies.

 The company is the fourth-largest corrections system in the nation, behind only the federal government and three states.

 CCA houses approximately 75,000 offenders and detainees in more than 60 facilities, 44 of which are company-owned, with a total bed capacity of more than 80,000.

 CCA currently partners with all three federal corrections agencies (The Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement), nearly half of all states and more than a dozen local municipalities.

CCA specializes in the design, construction, expansion and management of prisons, jails and detention facilities, as well as inmate transportation services through its subsidiary company, TransCor America.

 The company joined the New York Stock Exchange in 1994 and now trades under the ticker symbol CXW.

 CCA employs nearly 17,000 professionals nationwide in security, academic and vocational education, health services, inmate programs, facility maintenance, human resources, management and administration.

 The company has been named among “America’s Best Big Companies” by Forbes magazine and ranked No. 1 in the publication’s “Business Services and Supplies” category.

It’s Web site is www.correctionscorp.com.

The Bainbridge-Decatur County Development Authority agreed Thursday to have Corrections Corporation of America build a prison here.

The Bainbridge-Decatur County Development Authority unanimously agreed to a memorandum of understanding with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to submit bids to either state or federal correctional entities that would contract the company to build a prison on 110 acres at the Decatur County Industrial Park, said Rick McCaskill, the authority’s executive director.

“It’s first and foremost a shot of optimism that we haven’t had in a long time,” McCaskill said. “We can feel real good about ourselves to come out on top.”

Decatur County was one of two finalists out of at least 33 prospective sites the CCA looked at in three states for the proposed prison site. The other finalist was Valdosta, Ga., which still may have a deal with CCA, but the negotiations are not at the point they are with Decatur County, McCaskill said.

Jay Hollis, project manager for site acquisitions with CCA, said the Nashville, Tenn., based company now has a partnership with Decatur County and Bainbridge, and in the event that CCA secures a bid to build a prison, it would most likely be in Decatur County.

The project

CCA is the nation’s largest provider of outsourced corrections. The company is the fourth-largest corrections system in the nation, behind only the federal government and three states.

“They have a pretty good read on the industry,” said McCaskill. He said if the company is securing a future site for a prison, then in all likelihood, the company will begin construction of a facility within two to three years.

“This will be an excellent site to market to our customers,” Hollis said.

Hollis said his company’s economic models showed this area has a good workforce which could fill positions at a prison, which are not just guard-type jobs.

Hollis said a prison project could be anywhere from a $60 million to a $150 million construction project, and eventually employ anywhere between 250 to 500 persons. Those jobs would be full-time and would include full benefits. In fact, 25 percent of the staff at their facilities require advance degrees or certifications such as teachers and nurses, Hollis said.

The prison has been rumored for months, but because there were numerous delays, including CCA’s attorneys’ offices being victimized by major flooding in Nashville, Tenn., earlier this year, the two parties finally agreed to the terms of the memorandum of understanding.

It’s been approximately a year between the time CCA began its search for a potential prison site and Thursday’s final agreement.

And Thursday’s agreement is just the beginning of what Hollis said could be a lengthy process before the prison is operational.

The procurement for a bid to build the facility could be nine months to two years out, and the actual construction could take an additional 16 to 18 months.

McCaskill said the site is in the back of the county’s industrial park, near where Old Eldorendo Road dead-ends into Bethel Road. McCaskill said it’s isolated and located back off the park’s main road.