BENNETTSVILLE -- The sign hanging over the entrance to the federal prison in Marlboro County reads “Do Your Career Justice” -- a play on words to be sure, but that’s exactly what hundreds of residents from Marlboro County and the surrounding area were looking for when they attended a job fair at the newly built prison Friday.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ job fair will continue through today, and it’s likely that hundreds more will attend. The fair is being offered to explain the criteria for getting a job at the prison, which will employ upward of 300 people.

The process of getting a job at the prison is a long and complicated one, but with 17 percent unemployment in Marlboro County, there is a lot of interest.

“It’s not the easiest thing in the world,” said Mike Smith, executive assistant at the Bureau of Prisons. “It’s a long, drawn-out process and if it’s not done right, they won’t get hired.”

Smith said people who attend the job fair will have the opportunity to talk to human resources personnel and to representatives of the area of the prison where they are applying to work. A 45-minute class also is given to potential employees, explaining how to apply for the job they want, the qualifications they need and how personal situations might play into their likelihood of being hired.

People attending the job fair who are truly interested in getting hired at the prison can expect to spend a couple of hours at the prison just learning how to apply for the job. But the process is worth it for many.

Federal Prison Job Fair Those interested in a career at the new Federal Correctional Institution in Marlboro County should attend a job fair today at the prison. WHERE: 696 Muckerman Road, Bennettsville WHEN: From 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. POSITIONS AVAILABLE: Food service, maintenance, warehouse, medical, education, clerical, recreation and case management

“I used to work at Evans Correctional Facility here, the state prison,” said Adele Bolton, a 35-year-old physician’s assistant.

Bolton recently moved back to Bennettsville from New York with her 16-year-old son to be closer to her family. She said she is like many people who attended the job fair Friday.

“It’s because of the career opportunity,” Bolton said. “People really need jobs right now, and this is a chance for a career, not just a job.”

And people who are hired by the Bureau of Prisons usually end up making a career out of it.

“This is the only federal agency where you can start at the bottom and work your way up to director,” said Warden Mike Pettiford, who arrived in Bennettsville last week from a federal prison in Mississippi.

Pettiford was busy Friday making his way around the job fair, talking to potential employees and trying to dispel some misconceptions about working at the prison.

“A lot of people in the community are under the impression that they’re not qualified to work here without even knowing what the qualifications are,” he said. “There are a lot of different kinds of jobs here.”

Another misconception Pettiford wants to dispel is what it’s like to work at a federal prison. The drab gray concrete buildings and the razor wire-wrapped around the top of fences could lead to one impression. Television images of wealthy corporate executives heading off to jail for misconduct leads to another impression.

Pettiford said they’re both wrong.

“It’s not ‘Oz,’ and it’s not Club Fed,” Pettiford, referring to the HBO series based on life in a prison and another term to describe minimum-security prisons used to house white collar criminals.

That’s one reason Phillip Chenoweth, 28, drove to Bennettsville from Rockingham, N.C., on Friday. He said he knows what it’s like to work in a prison and he likes it.

Chenoweth was applying for a job as a food service worker at the prison. It’s a job he held at a state prison in West Virginia until recently when he moved back home to help care for his father, who is ill.

Chenoweth said the job fair has made the application process easy.

“They explained exactly what they’re looking for in the responses on the questionnaire, and what they’re looking for in resumes,” he said.

In addition to the hundreds of jobs the prison will provide, there will be another economic impact when it opens, Smith said.

“The most obvious impact will be in the local economy,” he said. “Not only will the staff spend their salaries locally, but the prison will purchase services and products locally.”

Another boon the prison might bring is hotel business.

“We’ll be bringing some 1,500 inmates here,” Smith said. “And they’re allowed to have visitors, so when their family comes to visit, they’ll need a place to stay in many cases.”

The same scenario playing out in Bennettsville has been playing out in Williamsburg County, which is also home to a new federal prison and has struggled with high unemployment.

The Williamsburg County facility has already hired a crop of employees.

“Williamsburg County’s prison just had its first class of training for new employees,” said Gail Counts, a human resources manager for the prison system.

Let us know what you think of this story | Send us a letter to the editor