Governor Sonny Perdue will join state and local leaders Monday morning south of Washington to cut the ribbon on the Wilkes Pre-release Center, making it Georgia's newest minimum security prison.

The opening ceremonies will be held at 9 a.m. Monday at the facility site off Highway 47. The governor will join state Department of Corrections officials, county, city, and civic leaders in opening the detention facility.

Officially to be called the "Wilkes Pre-release Center, a unit of Whitworth Parole Center," the facility, according to Corrections Division director Arnold R. Depetro, will ultimately house 192 "mediumto minimum-security" prisoners

who are within two years of release. The inmates chosen to come to the Wilkes facility will be low-risk offenders who would be assigned to outside work details around the county.

The facility will operate as a unit of the Whitworth Probation Center in Hartwell to save administrative costs, corrections officials said.

Hiring for the prison began in February. More than 160 applicants turned out for 48 jobs at the prison, and dozens have been hired and are in training now.

The $4 million facility was built three years ago but lay unused until the Georgia legislature took action this year to fund its operation along with that of three others.