Claim to Fame

I don’t really know what to make of this report:

A Forbes Magazine article this month names Lompoc's minimum-security prison camp as one of the “top 12 places to go to prison.”

Apparently, we’re a desired destination for minimum-security inmates: Lompoc made the list because of its nice weather, staff professionalism and outdoor opportunities given to camp inmates working on the prison's large dairy farm program, said criminal defense attorney Alan Ellis, who compiled the list for Forbes.

“It's a very difficult place to get into. It's a popular place, small. There's a high demand to get there,” said Ellis, who publishes an annual federal prison guidebook. “It's where I'd want to go.”

Getting on publishers Top Anything list is a feather in the cap for any municipality. Most of the time though it’s something positive; “Top ten small city’s in America” or “Top ten vacation destinations”…something that a city can use in promoting itself.

Not sure what Lompoc can do with this…unless the local Visitor’s Bureau is already working on some sort of Tourism campaign incorporating our "Award-winning Prisons”.

Meanwhile, this is more the kind of thing I was talking about.