THOMSON, Ga. (CB)- Mayor Benjamin Cary Cranford is a sick man for the way he is treating the prisoners of Jefferson County Correctional Institution. Mayor 'Benji' was arrested on June 6th after it was discovered the 52-year-old mayor purchased a bottle of Seagram's Extra Dry Gin and left it in a ditch along Georgia 150 in Thomson where a crew of state prisoners would be working.

Cranford's behavior is both appalling and inhumane, not for trying to leave the prisoners the bounty of booze for their work, but for his decision to leave a bottle of gin in the ditch for the prisoners doing road work on an 86-degree day.

One of the most famed prisoners of all time said, "I think a man working outdoors feels more like a man if he can have a bottle of suds". Mayor Cranford, a death penalty supporter, must have thought, "A man working outdoors feels more like putting their bed linens around their neck and testing the structural strength of exposed pipes in their cell." This could be the only reason the Mayor conceived leaving a bottle of hot gin in a ditch for the inmates.

Although it is worth noting that Cranford is a paving contractor himself and might know the secret to road work is hot Seagram's passed around pals as they are digging drainage ditches along a roadway. The one-year mayor has been released from McDuffie County Jail on $5,000 bail. It is unclear if this arrest will impact his position as Mayor as it does not directly relate to his duties.

It is also unknown if this was the first or will be the last time he attempts to get inmates intoxicated. If it was the first time, it was not successful, but he can always try, try a gin.