“This is wrong. It is not the ideology of the American dream. We took a bite out of that dream and woke up in a nightmare.”

Those were the words of south Fulton resident A.J. James Tuesday afternoon as she stood near the old J.C. Larmore Probation Detention center west of Stonewall Road in Union City. James is one of the residents of Valley Lakes subdivision who saw fought the problems at the youth detention center while it operated from the 1980s and until it closed in 2005. She recently learned that Georgia Dept. of Juvenile Justice wants to re-open the facility as a short-term, education-based detention center featuring a high school curriculum and certified teachers. But for James, the proposal is completely untenable. Congressman David Scott and Fulton County Commissioner Bill Edwards agreed, stating their opposition to the proposal in a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Ben Hardin.

“We found out that the Dept. of Juvenile Justice is now trying to come back and get the facility from the Dept. of Corrections to open an 85-bed low-risk detention center,” James said. “They are calling it a youth development center under the guise of being a part of the school system. They’ve got $7 million that they are willing to invest to reinvigorate J.C. Larmore Probation Detention Center and the community does not want any type of detrimental facility within the community.”

A March 12 meeting with James, area neighbor Patricia Phillips and Commissioner Edwards, Congressman Scott and Dept. of Juvenile Justice representative Dr. Tom Coleman did nothing to satisfy what neighbors called an attempt to recreate the nightmare experienced by the immediate community in years past. Coleman said the current proposal was part of a three-year process designed to provide a model program with a school principal, certified teachers and a community advisory board. Probationers would live at the facility for a maximum of one year, Coleman said, adding that having the facility located in metro Atlanta would make it easier for the juveniles’ family members to visit.

While understanding of families concerns, Scott said facilities already established, such as the one in Milledgeville, would be more appropriate.

“There is no area here that can accommodate that kind of facility,” Scott said.

Weighing in on the issue, Edwards said such a facility would be better suited for an area that was not so heavily residential. Edwards and Scott March 19 sent a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hardin, stating their opposition and requesting a meeting on the issue.

An alternative proposal surfaced by Edwards called for the facility to be used by Fulton County Police as a police station outfitted with administrative offices.

Topographically, Larmore sits overshadowing the community, sitting high on a hill above Valley Lakes subdivision. This puts the facility in plain view of the neighbors below, said James. And the view from the valley below, she said, is more than what neighbors want, especially since there were occasions in the past where probationary work crews left the property and wandered into residents yards and, in some cases, stole residents vehicles. Making matters worse today, James said, is the presence of Sheltering Arms Day Care Center only a few hundred feet away from Larmore.

“Larmore is like a looming, glooming shadow that overlooks and stands above Valley Lakes subdivision and Littleton Woods. It induces anxiety and fear and the community has now locked its doors and armed itself,” James said, reflecting on prior problems with the facility and expecting the potential return of those problems if the facility re-opens. “That is not good in combination with deep-seated fear of anybody breaking out of the prison and walking across the lawn and coming into the community. We were not even told when cars were stolen, but we had a right to know who was breaking out and what they were in jail for in the first place.”

Unlike in past years when Larmore was in operation, the immediate vicinity is dotted with many more high-density subdivisions along Stonewall Tell Road and Highpoint Road, all within walking distance of anyone that might flee the facility, James said.

“It is a detriment to our community members, it is not economically viable for our community and there are fears of economic injustice. The residents cannot sell their homes if they want to leave. They don’t want their children watching other youth across the fence that are juvenile delinquents,” James said. “It is incumbent upon our politicians to keep the community informed about the plans for Larmore. And they have not.”