Some inmates eligible for parole oftentimes end up staying in prison longer than expected, due to lack of medical care options, but now a nursing center in Milledgeville is hoping to lighten that load for correctional facilities.
"This is a nursing home," David Vincent said. "They're not inmates, they're residents."
Former inmates across the state of Georgia who need skilled 24-hour medical care will now have a place to go when they get out of prison.
"We are not acting as any sort of law enforcement or any part of the Department of Corrections, but rather as your traditional skilled nursing home," Vincent said. "We will have residents living with us that will have all the same rights, you know access to services that anyone residing in a skilled nursing facility would have."
Bostick Nursing Center is the newest addition to the Central State Hospital property in Milledgeville.
David Vincent is the President of Vero Health Management, the private company managing the nursing center.
He says many prisons have a number of inmates eligible for parole who have nowhere to go.
"They're eligible but they haven't been processed because they require care and there's no place to put them," Vincent said. "So they just live in prison."
Vincent says former inmates often aren't approved to go to a regular nursing home because of their criminal records.
"If you have your mom in a nursing home, you don't necessarily want her in a building with a registered sex offender," Vincent said. "And unfortunately, you know, that person may have paid their debts to society and be completely harmless, and may be so medically frail that they can't even get out of bed, but there's a stigma with that and those people need care, too."
The home will provide 200- 300 jobs and house up to 280 people.
Executive Director for the Central State Hospital Development Authority, Mike Couch, says this center will give Milledgeville-Baldwin County a much-needed boost.
"With the city and county, it's going to be $340,000 in property tax that they've never seen before," Couch said.
"We're looking forward to it. It's going to be a fun and interesting challenge," Vincent said.