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Cell-Out Arizona - Prisons, Privatization, and Politics

Public Hearings Scheduled for Proposed Private Prisons in Eloy, Goodyear, Winslow, San Luis, and Coolidge

by on Aug. 02, 2011, under AFSC, Arizona, Arizona Department of Corrections, Corrections Corporation of America, GEO Group, Management and Training Corporation, private prison, Privatization, Public Hearings

The Arizona Department of Corrections has given a green light to four private, for-profit correctional management corporations for the construction and management of an additional 5,000 state prison beds.

The Department of Corrections will be holding public hearings in each of the towns under consideration for a new prison or prisons.  The public is encouraged to attend and voice their concerns about having a private prison as a neighbor. 

Here is the schedule of the hearings:

1.   Eloy:  Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has proposed two prisons for Eloy—1,500 beds and 3,000 beds. 

The Eloy public hearing will be held Tuesday, August 9th, 6-8pm at the Curiel Annex School, 304 West Alsdorf Rd., Eloy. 

2.   Goodyear:  GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut) has proposed a prison that could be anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 beds. 

The Goodyear public hearing will be held Wednesday, August 10th, 6-8 pm at the Desert Edge High School Auditorium, 15778 West Yuma Rd., Goodyear.

3.   Winslow:  LaSalle/Southwest Corrections has proposed a 1,000-bed prison for Winslow. 

The Winslow public hearing will be held Thursday, August 11th, 6-8pm at the Winslow High School Performing Arts Center, 600 E. Cherry St., Winslow.

4.   San Luis (Yuma):  There are two proposed prisons for Yuma.  Management and Training Corporation (MTC) has proposed to build a 3,000-bed prison and GEO Group seeks to build one with 2,000-3,000 beds. 

The San Luis public hearing  for both proposed prisons will be held Tuesday, August 16th, 6-10pm at the San Luis City Council Chambers, 1090 East Union St., San Luis.

5.   Coolidge:  Management and Training Corporation (MTC) has proposed a prison of 3,000 or 5,000 beds. 

The Coolidge public hearing will be held Thursday, August 18th, 6-8pm at the Coolidge City Council Chambers, 911 S. Arizona Blvd., Coolidge.

This will be the one and only opportunity that the public will have to give input on these proposed prisons.  Thus far, the only publicity for them has been a statutorily-required posting in the “legal notices” section of the local papers. 

If you know anyone who lives in these communities, please encourage them to attend the hearings.  AFSC will be organizing carpools from Tucson.  Please contact us at:  cisaacs@afsc.org.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 at 1:07 pm and is filed under AFSC, Arizona, Arizona Department of Corrections, Corrections Corporation of America, GEO Group, Management and Training Corporation, private prison, Privatization, Public Hearings. Tags for this post: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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  • really?

    putting and keeping people in jail is a dirty business that NEEDS to be  the sole responsibility of the STATE not some contractor .   The only savings for prisons will be made through pay ,benefits and staff reductions  …PREDICTION  —down the road 2 -5 years  the guards will unionize ..staff turn over will be high and  there will be big problems the STATE will have to bail out….. with TAXPAYER MONEY …..ONE MORE THING …IS THIS A COST PLUS CONTRACT???  if it is BEWARE.    come back to this post in five years and see if this was correct  …….for an interesting side line add up  the campaign contributions over the years  who and how much

  • usmctrucker

    This state has a long history of incompetence in it’s corrections department.  The two instances that come to mind most readily are the Tison prison break and the one in Kingman just last year.  I guess the big question is how much of a tax refund we want as opposed to letting the state lock these guys up and putting some professionals in charge as opposed to friends-of-friends as political appointees.  I’ll chip in some extra in the interests of locking up bad guys and preventing jail breaks.

  • CMB

    The Kingman escape was from a PRIVATE prison. The friends of friends comment is interesting as Gov. Brewer is connected to the Corrections Corporation of America. Her campaign manager is a lobbyist for CCA. CCA helped to draft SB 1070…
    =more prisoners more profit. If private prisons are allowed to continue taking over the prison system they will only want more prisoners = more prifit, hence no sane look at the current criminal code will ever happen.
    The Justice system needs a hard look and maybe just maybe there is a better way to reduce crime and create public safety than “lock em up”. 
    Other states are using systems of Restorative Justice which helps the larger community to heal as well as holding offenders accountable for their crimes and accountable to the people they have harmed.  Our current system of justice encourages people NOT to take responsibility for their offenses and often ignores the victims needs.

  • more on ALEC and prisons

    “It’s bad enough that our companies have to compete with exploited and forced labor in China,” says Scott Paul Executive Director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a coalition of business and unions. “They shouldn’t have to compete against prison labor here at home. The goal should be for other nations to aspire to the quality of life that Americans enjoy, not to discard our efforts through a downward competitive spiral.”

    http://www.thenation.com/article/162478/hidden-history-alec-and-prison-labor

  • ponderthis

    Please attend these meetings.  Arizona is becoming the police state.  We would not need this many beds if we ended the war on drugs and sent victimless inmates home to be the bread winners for their families, possible save money in the prison system by jailing those criminals that actually had a victim.  We could also spend less money on AFDC, housing the poor, food stamps etc if the offenders were educated and being productive.  Why can’t Arizona citizens see the vicious circle and end the cycle?

  • ponderthis

    Please attend these meetings.  Arizona is becoming the police state.  We would not need this many prison beds if we ended the war on drugs and sent victimless inmates home to be the bread winners for their families, possible save money in the prison system by jailing those criminals that actually had a victim.  We could also spend less money on AFDC, housing the poor, food stamps etc if the offenders were educated and being productive.  Why can’t Arizona citizens see the vicious circle and end the cycle?  Do you want more prisons in your town?  What do they produce? ARGH!

  • PLAIN OL’ B.O.

    First, move this private industry down to MEXICO with supervision…A win/win

    Full employment for Mexico to aid in halting  illegal entry
    Everyone can visit their relatives, as they will be even closer  some as close as the bars

  • PLAIN OL’ B.O.

    ponderthis-
    They produce pirates?
    ARGH?

  • http://www.revita-derm.com/ RevitaDerm

    This state has a long history of incompetence in it’s corrections department.  The two instances that come to mind most readily are the Tison prison break and the one in King man just last year.

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