In this final installment marking the 30th Anniversary of Corrections Corporation of America, we bring you a list of the bodies left in the wake of CCA’s relentless pursuit of profits.

Compiled by our friend and colleague, Alex Friedman of Prison Legal News and the Human Rights Defense Center, here are the deaths in custody (prisoners) and in the line of duty (staff) in CCA facilities from 1987 to the present. These names are the most vivid testament to the fact that 30 years of imprisoning people for money is nothing to celebrate.

As of May 20, 2013

Note: This is an incomplete list; many more prisoners have died while in CCA custody, and this list includes only those deaths that have been reported by the news media or cited in government reports, court records and reports by non-governmental organizations.

Prisoners

Rosalind Bradford, 1987, Silverdale, medical

Alton Manning, 1995, HM Prison Blakenhurst (UK), death while being restrained

John Cowley, 1996, HM Prison Blakenhurst (UK), suicide

Michael Cephus, 1997, Youngstown, medical

William Christian, 1997, HCCF, homicide

Charles Edward Guffey, 1997, Tulsa Jail (DavidL.MossCriminalJusticeCenter), medical

Reginald Edmonds, 1998, HCCF, suicide

Ralph Carpenter, 1998, South Central Corr. Facility (SCCF), medical

Corey Smith, 1998, West TN Detention Facility, homicide

Stanley R. Rice, 1998, Youngstown, medical

Perry Clay, 1998, Youngstown, medical

Bill Hambly, 1998, Torrance County Jail, homicide

Gregory Allen Pope Sr., 1998, Tulsa Jail, medical

Bryson Chisley, 1998, Youngstown, homicide

Derrick David, 1998, Youngstown, homicide

Paula Richardson, 1998, MWCC (Australia), suicide

Geronimo Gonzales-Quintanilla, 1998, Torrance County Detention Facility, medical (after being restrained)

Donnell Reed, 1999, Correctional Treatment Facility (DC), during escape attempt

James Lebron Hurt, 1999, Silverdale Detention Facility, suicide

Merlin Lee Foster, 2000, Tulsa Jail, medical

Cory Adam Morris, 2000, Tulsa Jail, suicide

Leonia Sanchez Arriaga, 2000, Tulsa Jail, medical (head injury after assault)

Michael Schrecongost, 2000, Kit Carson, overdose

Marvin Borjas Diaz-Perez, 2001, West Tennessee Detention Facility, medical

Shane M. Spencer, 2001, Tulsa Jail, medical

Tom Harris, 2001, SCCC, homicide

Conrado Mestas Ochoa, 2001, EdenDetentionCenter, unknown

Jeffrey Buller, 2001, Kit Carson, medical

Calvin Lamy, 2001, Torrance Co. Detention Facility, suicide

Iulai Amani, 2001, FlorenceCorr.Center, medical

Antonio Lewis Franklin, 2002, Citrus County Jail, medical

Laren Sims Jordan, 2002, Hernando County Jail, suicide

Chad Littles, 2002, Bay County Jail, homicide

Justin Sturgis, 2002, Bay County Jail, medical

Benjamin David Brown, 2002, Correctional Treatment Facility (DC), medical

Estelle Richardson, 2004, MDF, homicide

Kevin Scott, 2004, ShelbyTrainingCenter, suicide

Sondria Allen, 2004, Tulsa Jail, accident

Scott Ray Dickens, 2002, Tulsa Jail, suicide

Michael Andrew Jones, 2004, Tulsa Jail, suicide

Jonathan Magbie, 2004, Correctional Treatment Facility (DC), medical

William Henry Cantor, 2004, Bay County Jail, suicide

Stacy Allan Tolbert, 2004, Bay County Jail, medical

Maria Solis-Perez, 2004, HoustonProcessingCenter, medical

Jose Lopez-Lara, 2004, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

James L, Kirk, Jr., 2004, WCF, suicide

Sarah Ah Mau, 2005, Otter Creek, medical

James T. Sly, 2005, Bay County Jail, suicide

Adam Gene Lippert, 2005, Cimarron Corr. Facility, homicide

Maya Nand, 2005, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

Felipe Gonzalez, 2005, Tulsa Jail, suicide

Elias Lopez, 2005, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

Emma Nobles, 2005, Gadsden Correctional Facility, medical

Daniel Ray Warren, 2005, Hernando County Jail, suicide

Walter Alvarez-Esquivel, 2005, LaredoProcessingCenter, medical

Reinaldo Prado-Arencilia, 2005, HoustonProcessingCenter, medical

Juan Salazar-Gomez, 2005, EloyDetentionCenter, suicide

Jose Lopez-Gregorio, 2006, EloyDetentionCenter, suicide

Mario Francisco Chavez-Torres, 2006, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

Geoffrey M. Conley, 2006, Hernando County Jail, suicide

Jose Lopez-Gregario, 2006, EloyDetentionCenter, suicide

John T. Wells, 2006, Hernando County Jail, medical

Truoc Tran, 2006, Hernando County Jail, suicide

Brian Keith Allen, 2006, Marion County Jail II (IN), medical

Charles Repass, 2006, Marion County Jail II (IN), medical

Anthony Kelly, 2007, West Tennessee Detention Facility, medical

Latasha Lorean Glover, 2007, Otter Creek, medical

Edward Duritsky, 2007, Hernando County Jail, medical

Felix Franklin Rodriguez-Torres, 2007, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

Anthony David Bowman, 2007, SCCC, medical

Boubacar Bah, 2007, ElizabethDetentionCenter, medical

Rusty Hightower, 2007, Red Rock, unknown/found unresponsive in cell

Emmanuel Owusu, 2008, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

David Drashner, 2008, Northfork Corr. Facility, homicide

Joseph Alexie, 2008, Red Rock, medical

Robert Washington, 2008, Tallahatchie Co. Corr. Facility, medical

Terry Wayne Battle, 2008, MDF, medical

Gerald Townsend, 2008, MDF, homicide

Gregory Cole, 2008, Bradshaw State Jail, suicide

Ashleigh Shae Parks, 2008, Dawson State Jail, medical

Stephanie Rhaney, 2008, Gadsden Correctional Facility, unknown

Beverly Ford Murphy, 2008, Otter Creek, medical

Leonard Odom, 2009, Wheeler County Corr. Facility, unknown

Thomas Detric Adderson, 2009, Willacy Unit, medical

William Williams, 2009, MDF, suicide

Geoffrey A. Scheid, 2009, Bent County Correctional Facility, suicide

Roberto Medina-Martinez, 2009, StewartDetentionCenter, medical

Joseph Curtis, 2009, during transport by TransCor, heatstroke

Alan Young, 2009, West TN Detention Facility, suicide

Pam Weatherby, 2010, Dawson State Jail, medical

Bronson Nunuha, 2010, Saguaro, homicide

Clifford Medina, 2010, Saguaro, homicide

Terrell Griswold, 2010, Bent County Correctional Facility, medical

Joseph Mixon, 2010, Bay Correctional Facility, unknown

Eddie Moore, 2010, Leflore County Jail, medical

Andres Valdez, 2011, Kit Carson, transport van accident

Pablo Gracida-Conte, 2011, EloyDetentionCenter, medical

Miguel Hernandez, 2011, NorthGeorgiaDetentionCenter, medical

Derek Criddle, 2011, Delta Corr. Facility, homicide

Shebaa Green, 2012, Dawson State Jail, medical

Michael A. Nelson, 2012, Lake Erie Corr. Institution, overdose

Demond Flowers, 2013, Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, homicide

Jorge Garcia-Mejia, 2013, EloyDetentionCenter, suicide

Elsa Guadalupe-Gonzales, 2013, EloyDetentionCenter, suicide

Dustin Henning, 2013, HCCF, unknown

Raequayah Shropshire, 2013, Silverdale Detention Facility, medical

Babies

Babies that have died after being born to the following prisoners in CCA custody:

Meredith Manning, 2004, Metro-Davidson County Detention Facility (Elisha Edward Manning)

Countess Clemons, 2010, Silverdale Detention Facility (Roland Clemons)

Autumn Miller, 2012, Dawson State Jail (Gracie Miller)

Staff

Delbert Steed, January 2002, Hardeman Co. Corr. Facility (HCCF), homicide

Catlin Carithers, May 2012, AdamsCountyCorrectionalCenter, homicide

Grace Cortez, Dec. 2011, Kit Carson Corr. Facility, preventable van accident

Carla Meade, Jan. 2008, Otter Creek, suicide in the warden’s office

AFSC, along with our friends at Grassroots Leadership and the Public Safety and Justice Campaign, is participating in a week of coordinated actions to mark the 30th Anniversary of Corrections Corporation of America. We believe that 30 years of profiting from incarceration is nothing to celebrate.

As part of these coordinated actions, we’ve put together a little video birthday card for CCA. Check it out:

Birthday message to CCA

Today, at 4:00 at the Federal Court Building at Congress and Granada in downtown Tucson, we will be holding a demonstration and press conference featuring speakers from national and local organizations. We even got CCA a birthday pinata!

And stay tuned for Part III of the CCA Dirty Thirty series…

This year, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is celebrating 30 years of profiting from incarceration. CCA was one of the pioneers in for-profit prison management, and today is the world’s largest private prison company.

A publicly-traded company, in 2010, CCA saw record revenue of $1.67 billion, up $46 million from 2009.

Here in Arizona, CCA operates 6 facilities, holding prisoners from Arizona, California, Vermont, and Hawaii as well as federal prisoners. CCA is one of the main beneficiaries of harsh immigrant enforcement and detention policies, such as Operation Streamline. And recently CCA was awarded its first contract to run an Arizona state prison. The first 1,000 beds are set to come online in 2014.

Next week, at its shareholder meeting in Nashville, TN, CCA will be toasting itself with lavish parties hosting rich investors and well-connected lobbyists.

Meanwhile, people around the country say, 30 years of abuse, mismanagement, and political influence peddling is nothing to celebrate.

There will be protests to accompany the shareholder meeting in Nashville, as well as solidarity actions in Washington DC, Ohio, and and here in Tucson, where the AFSC is organizing a rally and press conference on Monday, May 13^th from 4:00-5:00pm at the aptly-named DeConcini Federal Courthouse, 405 W. Congress.

As part of the lead-up to this event, we at Cell-Out Arizona offer our readers a three-part retrospective of CCA’s Dirty 30: Thirty Reasons to Kick CCA Out of Arizona. Enjoy!

CCA’s Dirty Thirty, Part I: The All-Arizona Edition

30. CCA Pays to Play in AZ.

CCA employs Highground Public Affairs Consultants whose president is Governor Jan Brewer’s top political advisor Chuck Coughin. Governor Brewer’s former spokesman, Paul Senseman, was previously employed by CCA, then returned to his lobbying job after leaving the Governor’s office. His wife is currently employed as a lobbyist for the corporation (‘Ties that Bind’ In These Times 6/21/10).

CCA has given money to Governor Brewers past campaigns such as Prop.100 and stands to benefit greatly from SB1070. As more undocumented people are turned over to ICE it is likely that they will be sent to one of CCA’s three detention facilities in Arizona (‘Governor Brewer’s CCA Ties Burn Like Neon’ Phoenix New Times 7/29/10).

And let’s not forget former Senator Dennis DeConcini, a member of the Arizona Board of Regents (which oversees state universities) who also sits on CCA’s Board of Directors. Despite his claims of being a friend to the immigrant community, DeConcini owns upwards of 8,700 shares in CCA or roughly $222,268. Dennis has come under fire from community groups pointing out his own hypocrisy as well as the conflict of interest posed by the competition for state funds between prisons and universities.

29. CCA Greases Palms in Pinal County

CCA pays the Pinal county government based on the number of inmates in one of its prisons in Pinal, as part of an agreement to operate in the county. Last year that amounted to roughly $1.4 million, according to county budget documents. The payments increase as more beds are filled — under the agreement, the county receives two dollars per day for each inmate held in the facility.

The money in part funds the county sheriff’s office, whose enforcement actions have influence over the size of the prisoner population: Under an agreement with the federal government, the office acts as an enforcement agent on immigration law, arresting violators and referring them to federal authorities, who make the ultimate decision on detention. (“Private Prisons Profit From Immigration Crackdown,” Huffington Post, 6/7/12).

28. CCA Guards Participate in Drug Raids on Public High Schools

Guards from Corrections Corporation of America recently assisted local and state law enforcement in two drug raids on public high schools. CCA operates a total of six prisons and detention centers in Pinal County, where the schools are located.

According to an article by Beau Hodai in PR Watch, it was not the first time CCA guards were used in this way, despite the fact that CCA staff are not considered ‘peace officers’ and have no training or certification to allow them to participate in law enforcement activities in Arizona.

After the first incident raised a huge public outcry, the corporation issued a statement that read:

“Our company strives to be a good community partner, and it was in that spirit that local staff responded to the request. Decisions like this are usually made at the facility level. CCA has since reviewed this practice and decided that facilities can no longer provide this type of assistance, for reasons such as liability. Unfortunately, many of the communities where we operate lack these types of resources, but we think this is the appropriate corporate level policy. We’ll continue to support our communities in many other ways.”

However, just a few months later, CCA guards just participated in ANOTHER drug raid on a high school in Pinal County, even after they publicly announced they would not do this. This time, astonishingly, they called it a “teaching lockdown.” After the first report of the raid surfaced, the website quickly removed CCA from the list of participating agencies.

27. More Immigrant Deaths at CCA’s Eloy Detention Center

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is currently investigating two suicides that occurred in the space of three days at the Eloy Detention Center.

CCA’s Eloy Detention Center, which houses immigrant detainees, had the most deaths of any immigration detention center in the country. According to the ACLU, nine deaths have taken place in Eloy Detention Center–most were caused by inadequate or delayed medical attention (‘Lost and Ignored’ Tucson Weekly 2/11/10).

26. Who’s the Criminal?

A CCA employee pled guilty to drug charges in April 2010 for attempting to give prison inmates cocaine at the Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence (‘Arizona corrections officer caught buying cocaine for inmate’ ABC15 4/21/10).

25. Dead-End Jobs

While correctional officers working for state prisons receive $18-$20 an hour, CCA employees are paid less to do the same job, earning only $10-$12 an hour. CCA employees also receive 240 less hours of training than those employed by ADOC (‘CCA criticized by union, praised by Florence officials’ The Daily Currier 12/18/09)

24. What a Riot!

A prison employee suffered a broken nose and cheekbones as well as eye socket damage during a 30 inmate brawl over an Xbox owned by an inmate at Saguaro Correctional Center (‘Prison Employee seriously injured’ KITV4 7/30/10)

23. Deaths in Custody

A prisoner in CCA’s Saguaro Correctional Center strangled his cellmate while the prison was in lockdown in June 2010. Saguaro houses Hawaiian prisoners in Arizona and was also the site of the stabbing death by two inmates who now face the death penalty in Arizona although Hawaii has no death penalty. Prisoners claim the prison is ‘greatly understaffed.’ (‘HI inmates complain about CCA’ Hawaii News Now 6/17/10).

22. Widespread Prisoner Abuse

A lawsuit filed on behalf of Hawaiian prisoners in CCA’s Saguaro Correctional Center argued that officers stripped and beat prisoners, in some cases hitting their heads against tables while their hands were cuffed behind their backs.  Officers and even the warden threatened the prisoners and their families.  The officials then destroyed the evidence of the beatings, including videotapes, and faslified reports.  An additional suit was filed claiming that beatings and threats have continued in retaliation for prisoners filing the suit (“Private Prison Beatings Continue, Men Say,” Courthouse News, 7/27/11).

21. Unsafe Facilities

The Inspector General for the State of California (which houses prisoners in CCA’s Red Rock, LaPalma, and Florence Correctional Center in Arizona) slammed CCA for serious security flaws and improper treatment of inmates.  Inspectors found faulty alarms and malfunctioning security cameras, prisoners evading metal detectors, and discovered that CCA was not checking the arrest records of employees or screening out those with gang affiliations  (“Prison firm optimistic about Arizona bid despite incidents,” The Arizona Republic, 8/8/11).

Stay tuned for Parts II and III of CCA’s Dirty Thirty!

As the August 31st deadline for award of a new private prison contract draws near, there’s been a healthy public debate as to the justification (or lack thereof) of the state’s plan for up to 2,000 more medium security prison beds.

Last week, Tucson Citizen Editor Mark Evans asked the $17 million question: “Private prisons are not saving us money–so why do we still have them?”

Then, Craig Harris of the Arizona Republic put out an excellent and comprehensive analysis of the facts–prison population is down, private prisons cost more–contrasted with the bogus rationale touted by Department of Corrections Director Chuck Ryan to justify their plans to go ahead with the contracts anyway. All you Psychology Majors out there can use this for your term papers on “cognitive dissonance.”

Even Linda Ronstadt took a shot at the for-profit prison industry on CNN’s Situation Room Friday. In a scathing rebuke of Gov. Brewer’s stance on immigration, Ronstadt connected the dots for viewers on the influence of the for-profit prison industry, which manages immigrant detention centers as well as prisons. Ronstadt stated, “…let’s look at the money for a minute. What Arizona is spending an awful lot of money on is private prisons. And Chuck Coughlin and Paul [Senseman]…are two of her top advisers. They are both lobbyists for the Correction Corporation of America, which is the biggest — one of the prison giants, private prison giants in the country.” At this point she was cut off by the host. Go figure.

Finally, a broad coalition of over 50 state and national leaders and organizations sent a letter to Governor Brewer today asking her to halt plans for a new for-profit prison contract. The list of over 50 leaders and organizations includes several Arizona elected officials—both Democrat and Republican—from the state, county and city levels of government. Also signed on to the letter are Arizona groups such as the League of Women Voters, the NAACP, the National Organization for Women’s Phoenix/Scottsdale chapter, and the Center for Economic Integrity.

We are posting the letter in its entirety here, along with the full list of signatories:

State and National Groups Oppose Plan for 2,000 More For-Profit Prison Beds in Arizona

August 28, 2012

Dear Governor Brewer and Director Ryan,

We write as organizations and individuals, both in Arizona and nationally, to oppose Arizona’s planned expansion of its for-profit prison beds. We urge you to immediately cancel the 2,000-bed prison RFP and do not award a contract for this procurement. These beds are unnecessary and costly, and the corporations bidding for the contract all have histories of mismanagement, abuse, and safety problems—including several incidents in Arizona prisons already under contract.

Firstly, Arizona does not need more prison beds, private or otherwise. The state prison population is dropping, and this decrease is projected to continue.[1] Furthermore, crime rates are down and thus investing $17 million in a new facility is a poor use of the state’s limited resources, particularly considering the crippling cuts to vital services of the last few years.

Years of study by the Arizona Department of Corrections reveal that for-profit prisons are a bad bargain for state taxpayers. These studies have shown that, even though the corporate vendors promised the facilities would save the state money, in fact Arizona is overpaying for its private prisons. A recent investigation showed that many private prisons are more expensive than their state-operated counterparts. This study estimates that Arizona taxpayers are wasting $3.5 million per year on for-profit beds.[2]

All five of the prison corporations under consideration have spotty records of poor management, violence and disturbances, chronic understaffing of facilities, safety lapses, and other problems. Perhaps most notable is Management and Training Corporation (MTC), which manages the Kingman state prison where three prisoners escaped in 2010, leading authorities on a two-week, multi-state manhunt culminating in the murder of a couple vacationing in New Mexico. Investigations after the incident revealed that the alarms in the facility had been malfunctioning for over a year, but were never fixed.[3]

After the escapes from Kingman, the Arizona Department of Corrections conducted security audits of its other private prisons. At the three GEO prisons – Florence West, Phoenix West and the Central Arizona Correctional Facility – inspectors found such issues as inmates having access to a control panel that could open emergency exits; an alarm system that did not ring properly when doors were opened or left ajar; and that staff didn’t carry out such basic security practices as searching commissary trucks and drivers.[4] Similar problems were uncovered at MTC’s other Arizona facility in Marana, where inspectors also found that the swamp coolers were not working (in August), making it hotter inside the prison than outside.[5]

Three additional corporations that do not currently have contracts with the state of Arizona have also submitted proposals: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), Emerald Corrections, and LaSalle. Corrections Corporation of America operates 6 prisons located in Arizona that import prisoners from other states and the federal government, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A national investigation revealed that the company’s Eloy Detention Center had the highest number of immigrant detainee deaths of any ICE facility.[6] The Inspector General for the State of California (which houses prisoners in CCA’s Red Rock, La Palma, and Florence Correctional Center in Arizona) slammed CCA in 2010 for serious security flaws and improper treatment of inmates.  Inspectors found faulty alarms and malfunctioning security cameras, prisoners evading metal detectors, and discovered that CCA was not checking the arrest records of employees or screening out those with gang affiliations.[7]

Emerald’s only facility in Arizona is an immigrant detention center in San Luis. LaSalle currently operates prisons only in Texas and Louisiana.  Both companies have had issues in other states where they operate. For a full accounting of the problems in all five corporations’ prisons, please see the attached “Rap Sheets,” drawn from published news accounts.

In their efforts to reduce operational costs, private prison managers often focus cost-containment strategies on personnel and training, the two most expensive aspects of incarceration. Privately managed prisons generally minimize costs by reducing labor expenditures, including providing a lower level of salaries, staff benefits, and professional training. Consequently, there are higher employee turnover rates in private prisons than in publicly operated facilities.

This trend is reflected in Arizona’s existing private prisons. The Department of Corrections’ Biennial Comparison Review found that, across the board, all five of the state’s privately managed facilities had higher staff turnover and vacancy rates than publicly managed facilities, and guards frequently scored lower on core competency tests. GEO Group’s Phoenix West facility had a 61% turnover rate in 2011 and MTC’s Marana prison had a turnover rate of 56.8% that same year.[8] Deficiencies in personnel and programming among private prison facilities can compromise correctional operations, including basic safety and security. Undertrained and inexperienced guards may not be prepared to handle serious incidents. Security audits revealed that at the time of the escapes from MTC’s Kingman prison, 80% of the staff were new or newly promoted.[9]

There is ample evidence to suggest that for-profit prison corporations are not accountable to the citizens and taxpayers of Arizona. As private companies, they are not subject to the same transparency requirements or checks and balances as the Department of Corrections, despite the fact that they are performing the same functions and are paid with taxpayer dollars. The public has very little information about these facilities, or a voice in how they are run.

And as a result of the corrections budget bill passed last session, the Department of Corrections is no longer required to conduct a biennial comparison review of the cost and quality of these facilities, removing the last shred of public oversight over for-profit prisons and leaving lawmakers with little information on which to base budgetary decisions.

This action recently prompted Arizona State Legislator Chad Campbell to call on Arizona’s Attorney General to initiate an investigation into possible violations of state law and/or contract provisions requiring private prisons to save money and provide the same or better quality of service as the Department of Corrections. Given the Department’s own cost studies showing that for-profit prisons are more expensive and recent investigations into safety lapses, staff vacancies, and poor quality of service, there is substantial basis for such an investigation. It would be unwise for Arizona to award a contract to a corporation that may later be found to be violating state law and/or the terms of its existing contracts.

If containing costs is a goal, changes to sentencing and community supervision can help to further stabilize Arizona’s prison population and avoid unnecessary expenditures on prison expansion. The significant decline of Arizona’s prison population is attributed in part to legislative and probation policy changes enacted in the past few years that have effectively reduced revocations to prison for technical violations. A bill passed in the 2012 legislative session expanding eligibility for diversion programs has the potential to contribute to a further decline in prison populations. Continuing this trend with additional policy reforms in the upcoming session could render new beds completely unnecessary, while saving taxpayers millions and doing more to protect public safety.

The evidence is clear: For-profit prisons are costly, ineffective, and are not accountable to the citizens and taxpayers of Arizona. To invest millions more in this failed enterprise is throwing good money after bad. We urge you to show strong leadership and stewardship of public funds. Immediately cancel the 2,000-bed prison RFP and do not award a contract for this procurement.

We appreciate your consideration and would be pleased to provide further information.

Sincerely,

Arizona

American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona

American Friends Service Committee, Arizona Office

Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice

Arizona Ecumenical Council

Arizona Prison Watch

Center for Economic Integrity

Citizens to Protect Globe’s Resources

David’s Hope

Justice 4 All

League of Women Voters of Arizona

NAACP, Arizona State Conference

NAACP of Maricopa County

National Organization for Women, Phoenix/Scottsdale

 

State Representative Cecil Ash

House Minority Leader Chad Campbell

State Representative Tom Chabin

State Representative Debbie McCune Davis

Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias

State Representative Ruben Gallego

State Representative SallyAnn Gonzales

State Representative Katie Hobbs

Tucson City Council Member Steve Kozachik

Former Arizona State Representative Phil Lopes

State Senator David Lujan

State Representative Catherine Miranda

State Representative Macario Saldate

Tucson City Council Member Regina Romero

Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild

Senate Minority Leader David Schapira

State Representative Bruce Wheeler

 

Bishop Minerva Carcaño, Resident Bishop of the Phoenix Episcopal Area of the United Methodist Church

Billie K. Fidlin, Chair, Public Policy Commission, Arizona Ecumenical Council

Anne Morgan-Roettger, Parish Secretary, The Community of Blessed Sacrament

The Rt. Reverend Kirk Stevan Smith, The Episcopal Diocese of Arizona

Bishop Stephen Talmage, Grand Canyon Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

 

Mark Homan, Pima Community College Professor (Ret.)

Susan Maurer, New Jersey Department of Corrections Commissioner, Ret.

Dr. Doris Marie Provine, ASU Professor

David Wells, ASU Professor

 

National

AdvoCare, Inc.

AFSCME

Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform

Criminon New Life, DC

Enlace

Grassroots Leadership

Human Rights Defense Center

In the Public Interest

Justice Strategies

Private Corrections Working Group

The Sentencing Project

 

Church of Scientology

The Disciples Justice Action Network

National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd

Presbyterian Criminal Justice Network

Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference

Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society

It’s been a hot summer in Arizona, but there were a lot of private prison corporate executives whose pants were on fire over the past two weeks.  On the plus side, our crop yields will set records this year due to the amount of b.s. that we just got showered with. 

Over the past two weeks, the Arizona Dept. of Corrections (ADC) conducted public hearings on proposed private prisons in 5 Arizona towns:  Eloy, Goodyear, Winslow, San Luis/Yuma, and Coolidge.  At each hearing, the ADC gave a presentation on the bidding process, the Corporation gave a (sometimes quite lengthy) presentation on how awesome they think they are, and members of the public got 5 minutes apiece to raise concerns, ask questions, or, in many cases, beg them for jobs.

In their efforts to win a multi-million dollar contract, the corporations—CCA, GEO Group, MTC, and LaSalle—told some real whoppers.  Here are our favorites, plus the truth that they are trying to hide.

Lie # 10:  “No immigrant prisoners have died in CCA’s Eloy Detention Center.”

When asked about an ACLU investigation that revealed the Eloy Detention Center had the most inmate deaths of any detention center in the US, CCA’s talking head said it just never happened. 

But records from the US Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement prove that nine immigrants have died while in custody at Eloy since 2003, two more than reported at any other facility.  The deaths were only discovered because of an ACLU lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act asking for a comprehensive list of deaths in 2007. In April, the Department of Homeland Security released a list of 90 individuals who died while in custody.

Just because CCA tried to cover the deaths up doesn’t mean they didn’t happen. 

Lie # 9:  “Jobs, jobs, jobs.”

At all the hearings, the sales pitch was the same:  This prison will create umpteen construction jobs and kazillions of guard jobs.  The corporations are manipulating the financial distress of rural Arizona towns to get themselves a multi-million dollar contract.  So, what will the people of the next Arizona Prison Town get?

Well, they’ll get a few jobs, but not nearly the number they were promised.  Here’s why:

• Private prison corporations are based in other states.  They are huge companies and bring in their own architects and construction companies.  They usually have relationships with distributors, and because buying in bulk is cheaper, they will go with those companies over local ones.  They will tell you that they will “try” to use as many local vendors “as possible,” but then they will determine that those local vendors are not competitive in their pricing or cannot handle the volume and they will go with the ones that they usually use. 
• These towns are tapped out.  Every one of them already has at least one prison or a prison nearby.  Eloy has several.  Pinal County, where Eloy and Coolidge are located, has 6 CCA prisons, two entire state prison complexes (with about 5 units each), a few federal detention centers, and a county jail that also rents out space to CCA. 
• The private prisons can’t keep people in the jobs they have now.  The Arizona Republic has reported that, “This year, through the end of June, the state has withheld about $844,000 from Kingman, $54,000 from Marana (also operated by MTC) and about $6,000 from Geo Group’s Phoenix West and Florence West prisons for failing to fill vacant positions quickly enough.”

Obviously, working in a prison isn’t for everyone.  These are difficult jobs, with long hours, and stressful conditions.  One corrections officer described it as “long stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of terror.”  Not every unemployed person in this town is going to want to work in the prison.  Or they will get a job there and quit shortly after.

Oh, and here’s another interesting twist:  The Yuma Sun recently reported that Bullhead City has reached a deal with the Arizona Department of Corrections and Management and Training Corporation for inmates from the Arizona State Prison in Kingman to perform park and street maintenance work in the city.  That’s right:  Instead of creating jobs, they are tossing Bullhead City residents out of these low wage jobs and replacing them with prison labor.  How many jobs will be lost there?  How many other towns will follow suit?

Lie #8:  “The prison will bring economic development to your town.”

Decades worth of research proves that prisons are not good economic growth for towns.

• In states with at least one private prison as of 1990, prisons have been shown to reduce the number of jobs overall in a community.  You might get prison jobs, but you won’t get other kinds of jobs that pay better.
• Private prisons pay less, which means that state prisons have to compete, driving wages down for everyone.
• As mentioned previously, relatively few corrections officers live in the same town as the prison where they work, which means they spend their money somewhere else.   One study estimates that up to two-thirds of potential tax revenues and other economic benefits leave the host community in this way.
• Having a prison nearby is not a draw for other kinds of businesses, and in many cases will scare them away.  Who wants to build a housing development or school near a prison?  Many Arizona towns are cultivating tourism due to historic landmarks and buildings, natural beauty, or scenery—what happens when you plop a huge prison with hundreds of feet of razor wire down in the middle of a historic area or pristine natural landscape?

One need go no further than Florence, AZ to see the true economic impacts of being a prison town.  You can bet they heard the exact same sales pitch when those prisons were proposed.  Where is the economic boom they were promised?  Where are the stores?  The industry?  The housing developments?  If prisons are so great for local economies, why doesn’t Florence have a thriving downtown? 

The bottom line is, once you have prisons, all you will ever have is prisons.

One final note:  Several residents noted during the hearings that Arizona is in a very sorry state when the only type of economic development offered to people is from an industry that is so harmful to our communities in so many ways.  One retired firefighter at the Goodyear hearing put it this way:  “Our fire station budget was cut and many firefighters were laid off.  But we don’t go around saying, ‘we need more fires.’”

Lie #7:  “We’ve learned from our mistakes.”

You gotta hand it to them—it takes some serious moxie to tell people that, because of your company’s gross negligence resulting in two deaths, your prisons are now the safest in the state.  Especially when we know that MTC dragged its feet on fixing the problems at Kingman and only got its act together when the state stopped paying them.

A security audit of Arizona’s private prisons completed after the escapes reveals that the problems at Kingman are endemic to all private prisons in the state.  Here’s what it found:

“At the three Geo prisons – Florence West, Phoenix West and the Central Arizona Correctional Facility – Corrections Department inspectors found such issues as inmates having access to a control panel that could open emergency exits; an alarm system that didn’t ring properly when doors were opened or left ajar; and that staff didn’t carry out such basic security practices as searching commissary trucks and drivers, among many other failures.

At MTC’s Marana prison, there were broken monitors, a control-room panel that didn’t work, missing perimeter lights, missing razor wire, missing visitor passes. Marana’s swamp coolers – in August, in Arizona – weren’t working, making it hotter inside the prison buildings than outside.”

You can read the full report, obtained through a public records request by Arizona Republic reporter Bob Ortega, on the Republic website.

Not only did MTC resist making the necessary fixes to Kingman demanded by the Department of Corrections, they threatened to sue us for attempting to hold them accountable.  When ADC pulled our prisoners out after the escapes and refused to pay MTC until the security problems were fixed, MTC threatened to sue us for $10 million.  Because they have better lawyers and more money than God, we rolled over.  We paid this corporation $3 million for empty beds—beds that were empty due to their gross negligence, which resulted in two deaths. 

Clearly, this is not a corporation that “learns from its mistakes.  It’s a company that is wholly unaccountable for its mistakes. 

Lie #6:  GEO Group’s contract to run the Cook County juvenile detention center was cancelled because the state wanted to move the facilities from rural to urban areas, NOT because of the rampant abuse of children by GEO’s guards.

Baloney.  The New York Times reported that “Juvenile detainees as young as 13 years old slept on filthy mats in dormitories with broken, overflowing toilets and feces smeared on the walls. Denied outside recreation for weeks at a time, they ate bug-infested food, did school work that consisted of little more than crossword puzzles and defecated in bags.”

In response, Texas “has transferred the 197 offenders in Bronte to other institutions, fired seven monitoring officials and canceled an $8 million contract with the GEO Corporation, the prison company in Boca Raton, Fla., that managed the center. The state has also opened a criminal investigation and a review of the adult prisons run by GEO.” 

Lie #5:  “Our security system is state-of-the-art”

I would bet a large sum of money that this exact same pitch was made to the people of Kingman when that prison was built.  They might have fancy technology, but does it work?  And if it stops working, will they fix it?  See the security audit referenced under Lie #5—broken monitors, control-room panels that don’t work, alarms that don’t ring properly, malfunctioning security cameras.  These problems were found in all our private prisons.

Technology is only as good as the people using it.  We consistently hear after a riot or escape that a for-profit prison was having “staffing issues.”  That pay was low, there was a lack of training, and the guards were inexperienced.  Clearly, ADC has gotten wise and is requiring contractors to provide the same training as the state—it’s written into the RFP.  But that doesn’t address the turnover problem.  Those folks might get trained, but they won’t stick around.  That means that a large percentage of the staff is inexperienced and unlikely to know how to handle a dangerous situation.  One report stated that 80% of the guards at Kingman were recent hires.

At Kingman, the guards were propping those state-of-the-art security doors open with rocks.  They ignored those high-tech alarms when they went off.  The ADC monitor was either asleep at the switch or being blown off by Central office.  As they say, “you can’t fix stupid.”

Lie #4:  “The town is not taking any risks in the financing scheme for the prison”

Prison construction for private facilities is almost always financed through lease revenue bonds.  They generally create an “Industrial Development Authority” or “Public Facilities Corporation,” which is essentially a paper tiger created through the city or county.  The reason they fund through this mechanism is because they don’t want to take the risk, carry the paper, nor pay the interest. 

When industrial revenue bonds are issued, the public is often told that neither the local government nor the taxpayers will be obligated or negatively affected in any way if the project fails.  While it’s true that revenue bonds are not a general obligation of the issuer, it is not true that governments and taxpayers will be unaffected by the risks of the project. 

The debt is paid off with the money received as per-diem payments for each inmate housed.  This looks great on paper, but what happens when there are no inmates?

The savvy businessperson approaches any financing project asking “where is the market?”  In this case, the financing for these prisons is dependent on a guaranteed occupancy of state prisoners.  Yet the Arizona Auditor General reports that our prison population grew by only 65 prisoners in 2010.  And there’s a movement afoot in the state legislature to reduce our prison population as 25+other states have done through sensible reforms to criminal sentencing laws favoring cheaper alternatives like probation, drug treatment, and house arrest.

If there’s no market, then these projects are doomed to fail.  And what will happen to the town then?  What if the corporation gets a better offer somewhere else and decides to pull out of the contract?  What if Arizona’s prison population goes down?

Don’t just take my word for it.  Here’s what the Director of the Oklahoma DOC said after Arizona pulled its inmates out of a private prison there:  He said the private prison industry is a speculative market.  “It is not immune to recession and trends in sentencing and crime,” Jones said. “A lot of states have gone back and applied research to their sentencing practices, which results in sentences that are more evidence-based, and that obviously affects a market that relies upon incarceration.”

There are numerous cautionary examples of towns facing default struggling to pay the debt on an empty prison:  Hardin, MT is one of the most notable.  The town there got so desperate that they actually asked the state to send them sex offenders and lobbied the Obama administration to send Guantanamo detainees.  A few weeks ago, the town of Littlefield, TX had to hold a public auction to sell a prison there so that they could pay the debt on the facility after GEO group cancelled its contract and left the town holding the bag. 

Even if the town isn’t directly responsible for paying the debt on the prison, a default on the bond can affect the town’s credit rating (kinda like S&P just did to the United States).  That can make it difficult for the town to borrow money for other needed projects like new schools or a hospital.  Some towns have taken desperate measures to try to pay the debt on a prison in an effort to avoid default, including raising taxes and cutting other critical city budgets.  A bond default can also make a city the target of costly litigation, further draining the town’s coffers. 

Lie #3:  “It’s impossible to measure recidivism from our prisons, because the prisoners may be housed in several different facilities during their incarceration.”—Terry Stewart, former Director of the Arizona Department of Corrections and now consultant for MTC

We asked every one of the companies what their recidivism rate was, and none of them had an answer.  Isn’t that convenient?  These companies can make claims about how they supposedly are “changing lives” and rehabilitating people, and they don’t even have to prove it. 

Probation departments, social service providers and re-entry programs all measure recidivism.  They don’t say, “well, this guy is also getting services at the VA and the food bank, so there’s no way to measure the impact of our programs.” 

Let’s face it–these corporations know that their recidivism rate won’t be any better than the state’s and probably worse. 

What’s more, the Arizona Department of Corrections has all this data, they just won’t go to the trouble to analyze it.  They could easily do a comparison between state prisoners who have been housed in private prisons at any point in their incarceration, and those who have only been in state facilities. 

Lie #2:  “What lawsuits?”

When directly asked whether the company had settled lawsuits over abusive conditions in its juvenile prisons in Michigan and Louisiana, GEO Group representatives hemmed and hawed and refused to answer the question.  We consider this the same as lying.

As reported in the Dallas Morning News, GEO not only faced lawsuits over bad conditions, but they actually lost contracts due to their abuses. 

The U.S. Justice Department sued the company in 2000, when it was known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp., alleging that juveniles at the company’s Louisiana facility were subjected to excessive abuse and neglect. Wackenhut agreed to a settlement that provided for sweeping changes to Louisiana’s juvenile justice system and required the company to move all juveniles from its facility. The former security chief pleaded guilty in 2001 to beating a 17-year-old handcuffed inmate with a mop handle. In October 2005, Michigan closed the state’s private youth prison run by GEO after an advocacy group sued the prison over inadequate inmate care. 

And, rather than accepting responsibility for its actions, the company turned around and sued the state of Michigan for wrongful termination of contract.  How’s that for being a “good corporate citizen”?     

And the #1 Lie told at the Arizona Hearings:  “I’m accountable to you”—George Zoley, CEO of GEO Group

Waaah! Ha! Ha!  Good one, George!  About 30 seconds after uttering this whopper, Zoley proceeded to tell the crowd that GEO does not even bother to measure recidivism and then refused to disclose how much money he makes.  Accountability, indeed.

Fortunately, Frank Smith of Private Corrections Working Group was in attendance and informed the crowd that Zoley made $16 million last year.  Zoley’s pay, he pointed out, is a matter of public record.  As a follow up, Frank provided us with the exact figures.  Zoley’s salary, per companypay.com, was $3,825,433.  He made $23 million in stock trades in the last 18 months. 

Just a note to the boys at GEO corporate—don’t send Zoley to these things.  He creeps people out.

OK, nobody’s pretending that Arizona State Legislators listen to NPR.  But if they did, they might learn that they are about to make a $65 million mistake in awarding contracts for 5,000 more private prison beds in Arizona.  

The reports both focus on the exploits of the GEO Group, the nation’s second largest private prison company and one of the bidders for a lucrative new contract here in Arizona.  Sadly, these problems are not limited to one corporation—there are similar examples on the rap sheets of every for-profit prison operator.  That’s because they all have the same problem:  They are in the business of making money first, and they will always prioritize profits over protecting the public or rehabilitating prisoners.

A two-part expose aired last month lays out two of the inherent risks in handing over corrections to for-profit corporations:

1.  The profit motive trumps rehabilitation
2. Small towns can get left holding the bag for empty prisons when the prison corporations go after more lucrative contracts

The first installment, “Town Relies on Troubled Youth Prison for Profit,” details how a small town became so financially dependent on the Walnut Grove juvenile prison that elected officials, monitors, and other government actors have repeatedly turned a blind eye to rampant abuses against incarcerated youth.  NPR found that the prison is paying the town $15,000 in lieu of taxes, paying $4,500/month to the Correctional Authority, and even “reimbursing” the salary of the corrections employee whose job is to monitor how the prison is run.

Who’s going to let a little sexual abuse, drug trafficking, or medical neglect in comparison get in the way of such a cash cow?  

In the second part of the expose (the amusingly alliterative, “Private Prison Promises Leave Texas Towns in Trouble”), NPR reveals how a small rural town was left on the verge of bankruptcy after GEO Group pulled out of a contract to run their detention center.  To avoid defaulting on the loan they took out to build the prison, the city has “raised property taxes, increased water and sewer fees, laid off workers and held off on buying a new police car.” 

Citizens of towns like Globe, Eloy, Sahuarita, and Benson would do well to study this report.  The story and even the actors may be uncomfortably familiar.  Here’s how it goes:

1.  A guy by the name of James Parkey comes to your town representing a company named Corplan
2. He makes a sales pitch to your Mayor and Council promising a brand-spanking new prison for immigrants, or state inmates, or inmates from another state that won’t cost you a cent to build.  The private operator will finance, construct, and operate the prison and pay off the costs with the money generated by the contracts they get to put inmates in the facility 
3. Your town elders, desperate for jobs and economic development sign on the dotted line
4. Everything is swell until you can’t find any inmates
5. The town is left scrambling to keep from defaulting on the bonds for the prison; the town’s credit rating is down graded making it hard for the town to borrow money for new schools or hospitals;  and drastic measures are taken like raising taxes, laying off workers, and putting off other important projects or purchases

Think it can’t happen here?  Prisoners aren’t as easy to come by as they once were.  Crime is down, and many cash-strapped states turn to sentencing reform to reduce prison populations and save money. 

In some cases, horrendous abuses and lawsuits against the prison corporations have led states to cancel contracts.  This is the case in Hawaii:  That state’s Governor has pledged to pull their prisoners out of a CCA prison in Eloy, Arizona after abuses and deaths in that company’s Saguaro Detention Center came to light.  CCA is currently the largest employer in Pinal County, and is most likely one of the bidders on those 5,000 new beds.     

It’s pretty clear that our state legislators are not listening to the warning signs.  Maybe it was those steak dinners that CCA paid for at the ALEC meeting or the donation checks they got during the last election cycle.  So, that means it’s up to the voters and taxpayers to get the facts and make our voices heard.  Private prisons aren’t good economic development.  They’re a short-sighted boondoggle that could leave our children on the hook for our leader’s poor decisions.

Arizona’s not the only place where shills for the private prison corporations get appointed to positions of power.  Despite a vigorous opposition campaign, the US Senate recently appointed Stacia Hylton as the head of the US Marshals Service.  The Marshals Service handles security for federal courthouses, apprehends federal fugitives, and also oversees the detention of federal prisoners awaiting trial or immigration proceedings.  Many of these detention centers are run by for-profit prison corporations like CCA and GEO Group. 

The opposition campaign against Hylton’s nomination focused on conflicts of interest based on her acceptance of $112,500 in consulting fees from GEO Group, the nation’s second-largest private prison company, which has contracts with the U.S. Marshals to house federal detainees, and which obtained multi-million dollar contracts during Hylton’s tenure as the Federal Detention Trustee.

A month before she retired from her position as the Federal Detention Trustee in February 2010, Hylton formed a consulting company in Virginia. Following her retirement, her company (of which she is the sole owner) quickly accepted consulting work with GEO in regard to detention services and was paid $112,500. 

For more information on the objections raised by the opposition coalition, visit Prison Legal News to view their press release on the issue:  https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/350_displayNews.aspx

The situation is echoed here in AZ by Chuck Coughlin’s appointment as a senior advisor to Governor Brewer.  Coughlin owns HighGround Public Affairs Consulting, a lobbying firm that represents about 20 clients, including Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).  The relationship raised serious questions about Coughlin’s role in Brewer’s decision to sign SB 1070, which will, if fully implemented, send thousands of immigrants to detention centers run by CCA.

But the influence peddling doesn’t stop there.  KPHO’s Morgan Loew reported in November that:

…HighGround’s client list nearly doubled after Brewer ascended to the governor’s office and brought Coughlin on board.

In addition, nearly one dozen former employees of Coughlin’s clients now have positions on boards and appointments to state government positions.

The list includes Mark Brnovich, who is the director of the state Gaming Department and the chairman of the Commission on Privatization and Efficiency. Brnovich is a former senior director at Corrections Corporation of America, which is a HighGround client.

Sherry Henry is the director of the state Office of Tourism. She’s a former hospitality manager with the Fiesta Bowl, which is a HighGround client.

Eileen Klein is the governor’s chief of staff. She’s the former chief operating officer of Physician’s IPA of United Healthcare, another HighGround client.

Richard Bark is the governor’s deputy chief of staff for policy. He’s a former attorney with the law firm of Gallagher and Kennedy, which is a HighGround client.

When Russell Pearce brought his Senate Bill 1070 to an ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) meeting it was made into model legislation, and now this model legislation has turned up in Tennessee–the home state of Corrections Corporation of America.

According to an article in The Tennessean, the bill, sponsored by Senator Bill Ketron, would make it a state crime to be in the country illegally, as well as give police the power to question and detain ‘suspicious’ people. While CCA denies taking a stance on any immigration bills it is clear that they stand to benefit, and the company has certainly taken an interest in Tennessean politics:

Campaign finance records shows that CCA, its officers and their families contributed more than $95,000 to campaigns in the state this past election cycle. The company also had five lobbyists on its payroll working at the Tennessee legislature this year. CCA earns as much as 12 percent of its revenue from contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ALEC provides a direct link to these legislators with an interest in ‘public-private partnerships’.  Six members from the Tennessee House of Representatives attended ALEC’s conference in San Diego this year at a cost of $15,000.

Read more about Tennessee, CCA, and ALEC, at The Tennessean website.

Where will 1070 end up next?

So, NPR airs a  2-part series exposing the ties between SB1070, Corrections Coproration of America, ALEC, and Arizona politicos, and how do Arizona’s two daily newspapers respond?   By handing the microphone to Senator Russell Pearce.  On the eve of the election, we learn that our state government is in bed with a private industry that is essentially writing our laws so that they can profit from locking people up, and our press runs to the guy with the most blood on his hands for comment.   Is Gannett a member of ALEC too?

Both the Arizona Republic and the Arizona Daily Star published articles that allowed Pearce to deny the NPR report, not with facts and evidence but with his own statements:  GOP’s Pearce denies report on orgin of SB1070 and Sen. Russell Pearce: SB1070 story ‘a lie’.  Now, of course, the guy should have a chance to give his side.  But that was the extent of the coverage.

Granted, the NPR report was somewhat unclear as to ALEC’s role vis a vis SB1070.  ALEC didn’t write the bill– Sen. Pearce clearly holds that distinction.  SB1070 was a mash-up of various immigrant-bashing legislation he had unsuccessfully tried to pass for several years prior.  We like to think of it as ‘Russell Pearce’s letter to Santa Claus’:  In one bill, he got everything he wanted.

What ALEC did–what ALEC does–is turn that horrible bill into “model legislation” that it exports to other states.  So, no, we don’t have ALEC to thank for SB1070 in Arizona, but watch out America–it’s coming soon to a legislature near you, via your legislators who are ALEC members.

So here’s the story that Arizona media should be covering:  What ”model legislation”  has been imported to Arizona by our Legislators who are ALEC members and what role did the for-profit prison industry play?

Here’s a hint.  The Institute for Money in State Politics reported in 2006 that:

Lobbyists registered as representatives of the private-prison industry gave 84 percent of the money Arizona candidates received from private-prison sources. Twenty lobbyists from 10 firms represented, among other clients, five private-prison firms and one food service subcontractor, Aramark Corp. Their contributions totaled almost $65,500.

 

The top-contributing lobbyist was John P. Kaites with Public Policy Partners. According to the Arizona Secretary of State, the GEO Group, Inc. is among the organizations and businesses for which Public Policy Partners lobbies. A former Arizona legislator, Kaites is currently an attorney with Ridenour Hienton. He received the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Outstanding Legislator of the Year Award in 1998.

 

 ALEC backed many of the tougher Arizona sentencing policies that helped increase state prison populations in the past decade and made model legislation available to legislators.  (Policy Lockdown:  Prison Interests Court Political Players, Institute for Money in State Politics, April 2006.  http://www.followthemoney.org/press/ReportView.phtml?r=255)

That’s right.  ALEC wrote the tough-on-crime bills that sent prison populations through the roof and created a prison overcrowding crisis that our Legislators have turned to the private prison industry to solve.  Cha-ching!

One more thing:  The Republic article gave Pearce the last word on SB1070:

“But Pearce said most of those detained would likely be detained in city or county jails, not private prisons.”

According to Immigration Attorney Rachel Wilson, this statement is a lie.  When local law enforcement pulls someone over or arrests them and asks them about their immigration status under SB1070, if the person is undocumented, law enforcement is required to call ICE or the Border Patrol.  If the person hasn’t broken any state laws, they will go immediately into ICE custody to begin deportation proceedings.  If they have broken a state law, they may go to a County Jail, but they will more often than not later be transferred into ICE custody to be deported.  Either way, it’s dollar signs for CCA.

Arizona media should be helping to expose the corruption of our politicians, not acting as their platform for self defense or legitimizing the misinformation they propagate.

US Representative Raul Grijalva was interviewed by Keith Olbermann on Countdown last night on the recent stories that have finally surfaced of the financial ties between Russell Pearce, Corrections Corporation of America, and Jan Brewer’s signing into law SB1070:

“And the fact of the matter is, Russell Pearce and Jan Brewer made a decision to put this law in effect [and it] had nothing to do with border security, had nothing to do with the security of the state – it had to do with the profit line.”

Here is the link to the 7 minute video on MSNBC - Private Prisons See Gold in Immigration Cases