Op-Ed: 2007 WTVM News Article - "Columbus Growth is Too Much for Prison Labor"

In the wake of numerous emails and phone calls, I happened to be doing some research on Columbus' history of waste removal and garbage and bulk waste refuse collection as well as recycling ... because many local citizens seem to be upset about all of the trash and waste that is now littering the scene behind the sheen.

One caller referred to her latest trek near the East Wynnton Road area as a "dump," and another one stated that it "spreads far and wide out from there and even in some of the northernmost parts of the city, up to Sears Woods and beyond".

It's hard not to see it if you live in or frequent Wynnton's neighboring area of East Highland, both of which are located in Midtown Columbus. 

Local Evictions in the Time of Numerous On-going Pandemics

In several particular homes on one street, large waste disposal has languished for more than two months with no pickup relief in sight; and with a glowering mournful pandemic that has stricken the nation and the state and this city from one coast and beltline to the other, something seems to be gravely out of whack.

In the 2007 news article, it was reported that 'Columbus' growth was too much' for the then-300 count prison inmates at Rutledge Correctional on Schatulga Road. The article showed that Public Service Director Rufus Riggs offered "...a few options that could fix the potential inmate shortage, like hiring city laborers or contracting those services out."

But in the statement following at that time, Riggs also seemed to imply that another option was to expand the prison, fill it up and then it would make more 'unpaid labor' available ... hence, "Some hard decisions will have to be made. Some of those include looking at expanding the prison to get a larger inmate population, so that we have more inmates available," said Riggs. 

The elder WTVM article also quoted Warden Bill Adamson as saying ... "...there's enough land to expand the prison. It's just a matter of planning a solution, well ahead of the problem."

One would have to fully lean into a plethora of numerous conspiracy theories to read between the lines on how using more land to expand the prison population and the lack of city services tie into one another, but nowadays, nothing is off the table - ...

Prison Circus Coming Soon - Columbus (GA) Ledger-Enquirer

Then v Now and In The Meantime

Considering the waste collection issues currently at hand around the city, which still appears to be a growing issue nearly 15 years later, the recent call for outside contractors with private trucks seems to be forced upon the city out of necessity.

Sadly enough, it wasn't just the pandemic combined with lowered prison numbers that may have caused the vibrations of no large-waste trash pickup in the most blighted areas, but also a pretty huge on-going fight about the "school-to-prison" pipeline and private profiteering from government services.

That fight is a big one nationwide, not in the sense that prisoners should not work, but in the sense that they should be paid at least minimum wages for that work.

If that happened, they wouldn't leave prison as "Returning Citizens" without a dime to their names in order to get partially stabilized with food, clothing and housing. Paychecks, too, can go "on their commissary or 'books' " as savings until it's time for them to be released - then their payment can be added to a debit card for them to use on release.

Or, on the converse, they could be hired by the city and county as soon as they get out to do the same work they were already doing inside for free.

The same jobs are literally badly needed on the outside. 

One security company owner stated to us that he just started hiring this week and received more than 100 applications within 48 hours, even as another local resident reported seeing more people on the streets panhandling than she remembers seeing in quite some time.

The garbage dumps on the streets can't stay around much longer with formerly incarcerated city employees who are paid wages to pick it up and dispose of at the properly designated dump site.

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