Then again, sometimes the badmouthing is true. I know someone from a rural town which had farms, a main street with a few dozen stores, a growing meth/heroin problem, and multiple prisons. His choices were to stay on his parents’ farm, work in a store, or go to work for the prison service in some capacity. Since none appealed, he left and didn’t look back.

His description was that it was the kind of place where you left your car keys in the ignition at night. Not because car theft was nonexistent, but if someone escaped from the prisons, you’d want them to take a car and get out of town, rather than taking you with the car.