Students Tour Metro Transitional Center and Metro State Prison

KENNESAW, Ga. (Apr 1, 2010) — On Tuesday, March 23 and Thursday, March 25, 2010, members of the Criminal Justice Student Organization and Criminal Justice Honor Society joined other criminal justice students and faculty members Peter Fenton and Michael Shapiro in touring the Metro Transitional Center and Metro State Prison in Atlanta.

The transitional center is one of two facilities in Georgia designed to assist women leaving prison to prepare for life “on the outside.” Typical residents spend six to eight months in their transition process, and must be fully employed before release.

The prison is one of three women’s facilities in Georgia, and includes the diagnostic and intake function, equivalent to that for men at the Georgia Diagnostic and Intake Center in Jackson, Georgia. The prison also houses the most severely mentally ill female inmates in the State.

Students were guided through both facilities by Department of Corrections staff and had the opportunity to talk to several inmates of the prison, including Kelly Gissendaner, the only woman currently sentenced to death in Georgia, as well as to residents of the transitional center.

Faculty members hope to return to both the Transitional Center and Prison in the Fall of 2010.