Make no mistake about it: Hazel Parson will fight the construction of a Juvenile Prison in Columbia.

"I won't give up until I see it built," she says.

The prison was announced by Governor Paul Patton on July 21 at Lindsey Wilson College.

The prison would be built on land located just near Exit 49 off the Cumberland Parkway on land located behind the Columbia Church of the Nazarene, Mrs. Parson's church.

It would be a maximum security facility which would house the 85 worst juvenile offenders in the state. It would bring 75-80 jobs.

It would succeed Johnson Breckinridge Treatment Center, the Eastern Jefferson County prison which had to be closed because of incidents in the neighborhood and because pay and working conditions were so bad that jobs to staff it found too few takers.

Buoyed by the strong opposition to the project shown at the public forum,, Mrs. Parson says simply, "I have been energized."

For her, the fight has just begun. She thinks she has the backing of enough opposition to persuade the state that it should go elsewhere, that Columbians do not want their community to be a prison town.

Mrs. Parson will operate the command center from her home which will:

*Coordinate the petition drive against the prison.

*Direct the placement of Anti-Prison yard signs.

*and help with the calls and letters to appropriate officials.

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* Sign and get signers for the petition against the prison.

* Put up a "No Prison" sign in your yard.

* Question candidates about their stand on the prison and tell them you plan to vote accordingly.

* Contact the local Chamber of Commerce and the Columbia-Adair County Economic Development people and let them know how you feel.

* Talk with your neighbors. Engage their support.

* Learn all you can about prisons' effect on the communities they are in.

* Keep a scrapbook of prison stories from the daily newspapers, especially stories of Johnson Breckinridge Treatment Center, to help you reevaluate the prison.

* Write letters to the editor of the local newspapers, the Lexington paper, and the Louisville newspaper, and this magazine.

* Contact the Governor, the Commissioner of Corrections, the Juvenile Justice Commissioner, Senator David Williams, Senator Vernie McGaha, Representative Cox, Russell Montgomery, and House Speaker Jody Richards to express your feelings.

It may be that a "done deal" executed in secret, can be undone when the people know the full facts about a prison's effect on a community.

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You never forget it is there

Once the prison is built, you'll always be aware that it's there. Always in the back of your mind, it's presence is there.

Drive through Lyon County on the Western Kentucky Parkway, and always, always, you are conscious of the penitentiary at Eddyville, and the electric chair back in use there.