Headquarters
Until 2009, the Georgia Department of Corrections headquarters was in the James H. "Sloppy" Floyd Veterans Memorial Building in Atlanta. In 2006, Governor Sonny Perdue announced that the agency planned to move its headquarters to Tift College in Forsyth from a location in Atlanta by 2009. The state estimated that the relocation would bring around 400 jobs to Forsyth. A 2007 employee survey indicated that 49% of the headquarters staff who responded to the survey planned to move with the agency and continue employment at the new headquarters. The agency plans to relocate to the former Tift College by 2010. The ordered relocation will occur in September of that year.
Five GDOC offices in Atlanta are merging into one facility in Tift. After the move was announced in 2006, many employees have moved south of Atlanta, and as of 2010 increasing numbers of employees who live on the south side of Atlanta were hired. Some employees left GDOC for other jobs after the move was announced. Four years of planning and $45 million funded the move. The Georgia Corrections Academy moved to Tift in Fall 2009. In September 2010 the administration began to move into Tift. Employees will reverse commute to Forsyth instead of commuting with traffic into Downtown Atlanta.
The 43 acres (17 ha) Tift College campus is visible from Interstate 75. Part of the Tift College property will be used as the GDC headquarters, and a part is used as the Georgia Corrections Academy.
The State of Georgia stated that the move will occur because the Atlanta location "does not facilitate effective Command & Control." There are 92 GDC facilities in the vicinity of Macon/South, while there are 27 GDC facilities in the vicinity of Atlanta/North. There are 35 state prisons in the vicinity of Macon/South and there are 5 state prisons in the vicinity of Atlanta/North. The agency stated "Elimination of regional offices accentuates need to be in central GA." In addition, five previous GDC Atlanta offices would be consolidated into one new location; according to GDC this will cause more efficient operations. The moving of the headquarters would cause 80,000 square feet (7,400 m2) of space to become available in the Twin Towers complex in Atlanta.
The agency considered placing its headquarters on the property of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (GDCP) in unincorporated Butts County, near Jackson. Other potential headquarters sites included another site in Forsyth, Macon, areas around Macon, Centerville, and the area near Warner Robins.
Read more about this topic: Georgia Department Of Corrections
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