AIU Atlanta Students Visit Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (GDCP)
March 27, 2012
•AIU Atlanta
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On March 21, 2012, seventeen Criminal Justice students from the Atlanta campus of American InterContinental University (AIU Atlanta) were accompanied by Dr. Florence Ferguson, AIU Atlanta Program Chair for Criminal Justice, and Peter C. Correa, President of AIU Atlanta, on a tour of Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (GDCP). GDCP is a Georgia Department of Corrections facility located in Jackson, Georgia.
John T. Harper, Jr. served as the escort officer for the members of the AIU Atlanta learning community touring the prison, built in 1968 and currently the largest in the state. Officer Harper, a 24 year veteran of GDCP, facilitated a fascinating tour that included an overview of the eight cellblocks containing both double-bunked and single-bunked cells. There are also eight dormitories and a medical unit. The AIU group was also briefed on how and where the facility conducts diagnostic processing for the state correctional system, houses male offenders under death sentence (UDS), and carries out state ordered executions by lethal injection. The AIU visitors also learned that the prison complex contains a special management unit that houses some of the most aggressive and dangerous prisoners in the correctional system.
President Correa wishes to voice his sincere appreciation to Dr. Kenneth Tay for his efforts in making this tour happen. Dr. Tay is a full-time professor at AIU Atlanta and is the individual who sponsored this event as the advisor for the local chapter for Alpha Omega Xi, the local chapter of the Lambda Alpha Epsilon national criminal justice fraternity.
President Correa also wishes to publically thank Officer Harper and the Georgia Department of Corrections for providing these AIU students with such a meaningful and significant learning experience...an experience consistent with our focus on enhancing lives through education.
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