KFTC Blog

U.S. Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers recently announced major progress for efforts to bring a new maximum-security federal prison to Letcher County, one of the many Eastern Kentucky counties hard hit by the declining coal industry.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons awarded a contract to conduct an environmental impact study on two selected sites. But even as that process moves forward, no funding has yet been allocated for construction of the proposed $250 million to $350 million project.

If built, this will be the fourth new federal prison to come to Eastern Kentucky, and the sixth federal prison built in Central Appalachia, since 1992 — in addition to new state and private prisons. Indeed, in the last quarter-century of skyrocketing incarceration, Central Appalachia has become one of the most concentrated areas of prison growth in the country.

Each prison came with the promise of hundreds of jobs and broad-scale economic growth. So as Letcher County waits, we should ask, what happened in these other prison-host communities. Did the promises come true?

McCreary County, where a federal prison opened in 2004, provides one example.

Georgetown College has changed for the better in a lot of ways, in the last few years.
- We have a thriving diversity initiative.
- For the past five years we have had written policies in place that prevent discrimination against gay students, and anti-harassment policies that protect people of all sorts.
- Recently we hired our first openly gay faculty members.

So we honestly believed it was a matter of mere housekeeping to extend the College’s nondiscrimination policies for faculty and staff to include such things as sexual orientation.  In April 2012 the faculty approved such a policy for faculty.  This proposal passed with 90% of the vote and a big round of applause.

But last year the Board of Trustees voted down the new policy.  We are here today to ask, in public, that the Board reconsider its decision, and to make the case for our proposal.

The chapter held its monthly chapter meeting on Thursday, April 18th at 7 p.m. at The Episcopal Mission House. Chapter members used this space to remember fellow KFTC member Danny Cotton and reflect on the spirit and energy that he brought to the chapter and everyone around him. “The Commonwealth did not have enough time with Danny. He had a deeply rooted sense of place here and he devoted the time he had to fighting for and loving this place,” KFTC member Greg Capillo said.

In honor of Danny, KFTC chapter members thought of what they each believed Kentucky deserves and wrote Tumbler messages expressing their vision for Kentucky and their disappointment about how the sequester that Mitch McConnell demanded might adversely affect that vision.

Appalachian author Bob Sloan – a passionate voice for protecting the land and culture from the destruction of mountaintop removal – died on April 17. He was 65 years old.

“He was a fine ally and fine company, so it’s a double loss,” said Wendell Berry, whose invitation to a Kentucky Authors mountaintop removal tour with KFTC in 2005 provided Bob with the experience that fueled his commitment to stopping the destruction.

“This has been a life-changing experience for me. I keep going back and forth between rage and wanting to cry,” Bob said after listening to the stories of eastern Kentucky residents and flying over Perry County.