Marla Woodson served community

I would like to give special recognition to Marla Woodson, one of the correctional officers who served a life sentence in Fayette County’s juvenile and adult detention centers. Woodson died recently after a long battle with cancer. She was as courageous fighting her illness as she was serving this community for more than 20 years.

She began working with us in the 1990s when then-Mayor Pam Miller asked me to take over the Juvenile Detention Center. I inherited a small but very competent staff that was quick to embrace our Adult Detention management philosophy. We upgraded the facility and the staff was provided proper training, but most important, we were given resources by the city to provide quality health care and educational training to the facility’s youth.

Woodson not only accepted these changes but assured that every child had an opportunity to do the right thing. She was fair and firm, the same qualities that she possessed when the state took over the facility and she became part of the Adult Detention staff.

We need to make a special effort to recognize the Fayette County Community Corrections staff with the same enthusiasm we give the other public safety staff. I thank Marla Woodson and all the officers who serve this community or have done so in the past.

This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 3:22 PM with the headline "Marla Woodson served community."