McRae, Georgia
| McRae, Georgia | |
|---|---|
| City | |
McRae-Helena City Hall
|
|
 Location in Telfair County and the state of Georgia |
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| Coordinates: 32°3′52″N 82°53′54″W / 32.06444°N 82.89833°WCoordinates: 32°3′52″N 82°53′54″W / 32.06444°N 82.89833°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Georgia |
| County | Telfair |
| Area | |
| • Total | 4.4 sq mi (11.4 km2) |
| • Land | 4.3 sq mi (11.2 km2) |
| • Water | 0.08 sq mi (0.2 km2) |
| Elevation | 246 ft (75 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 5,740 |
| • Density | 1,322/sq mi (510.4/km2) |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| ZIP code | 31055 |
| Area code(s) | 229 |
| FIPS code | 13-49084 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0317973 |
| Website | mcrae-helena |
The city of McRae is the county seat of Telfair County, Georgia, United States. It was designated as the seat in 1871, after being established the previous year as a station on the Macon and Brunswick Railroad.
McRae was incorporated on March 3, 1874, and was named for a pioneering Scottish family. During the antebellum years and after the Civil War, the county had an economy largely based on cotton plantations, and McRae was a trading center.
As of the 2010 census, McRae had a population of 5,740, up from 2,682 at the 2000 census, due largely to expansion of the city limits to incorporate the area and prison population of the McRae Correctional Institution, a privately owned and operated prison under contract to the federal government.
The prison is a low-security facility holding adult males; it is owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Numerous complaints have been filed against the contractor and the ACLU asked the federal Bureau of Prisons not to renew the company's contract for this prison.
On January 1, 2015, McRae and the adjacent town of Helena merged to form McRae-Helena.
McRae was founded in 1870 as station number eleven on the Macon and Brunswick Railroad. In 1871, the seat of Telfair County was transferred to McRae from Jacksonville. McRae was incorporated as a town in 1874 and as a city in 1902.
McRae and Telfair County approved construction of a private prison in the early 21st century to hold federal prisoners, in the belief that it would provide jobs to local residents. McRae Correctional Facility, a low-security prison for adult males, has been owned and operated by CCA, the largest prison company in the United States in 2015, since it opened in 2003.
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Wikipedia