Only six months have passed since violent criminals escaped the private prison in Kingman, but our legislature has re-issued the request for proposals for a new private prison. Back in August of 2010, killers were literally on the loose while Arizona slept. Gary & Linda Haas were brutally murdered. Private prisons let that happen.

Perhaps our legislature thinks we’ve forgotten due to recent events. But it adds insult to injury to assume that Arizonans are uninterested about decisions affecting our safety.

In fact, Arizonans are saturated with law-and-order and tough-on-crime rhetoric. Gov. Brewer & Senator Pearce won their offices last election by touting SB 1070, even though In These Times and NPR revealed that the law was conceived in the right-wing belly of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), with influence from Corrections Corporation of America – a private company that houses immigrant detainees in Arizona.

But it seems our legislators are confused. The message surrounding SB 1070 was to discourage “criminals” from entering and staying in Arizona. However, the influence of private prison companies creates the exact opposite result: because these companies are paid per prisoner/day, they want to bring more criminals to Arizona and keep them here longer. Because land is cheap, private prison companies look at Arizona like England viewed Australia in the 1800′s – one big prison.

These corporations say they save states money, but they never guarantee it. In fact, the company’s profits/expense to the taxpayers can be increased by lockdowns, giving undeserved disciplinary tickets, resulting in loss of good-time credits. Also, because companies like CCA are involved in drafting laws, they can influence profits by supporting laws that create new crimes, and longer sentences. Cha-ching!

Legislators are galloping down this dangerous road, even though they’ve known for years that privatization will cost more and deplete our already devastated budget. Every year since 2005, our Dept. of Corrections has released an independent study comparing private and public prisons showing that some private prisons are actually more expensive than public prisons. In the 2009 criminal budget bill, there was a provision that required the state to split any savings generated with the for-profit operator! Clearly, some legislators are more interested in benefiting their corporate backers than with saving money.

Arizona laws provide that private prisons under contract with the state must notify the state of any transfers, and compensate any costs associated with escapes. Putting aside the fact that no one can ever fully compensate the people who loved Gary and Linda Haas, this is the only power Arizonans have over these companies. But CCA has six prisons in Arizona that are not under contract with the state, meaning they are not subject to even those modest regulations.

Our state government is putting our lives in danger by handing control of our prisons to the lowest bidder. Corners were cut in Kingman: maximum security prisoners were housed with medium and minimum, the alarms didn’t work, and there weren’t enough guards to watch the entire prison.  Hours elapsed before Management and Training Corporation (MTC) notified the state of the escapes. The public wasn’t warned for over twelve hours.

Arizona needs to decide whether we want to reduce crime, or turn our state into the Botany Bay of America. If we get serious about crime prevention and education, we won’t need to expand our prisons… indeed, we may shrink them, save money, and make Arizona safer for everyone.

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?

Part II of Laura Sullivan’s exposé aired this morning on NPR.  In it she details the inner workings of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).  ALEC was responsible for drafting the bill language for what became Arizona’s anti-immigrant bill SB1070 as well as several others just like it.  Arizona was the only state that “successfully” passed the bill, but states like Pennsylvania and Michigan still have active legislation similar to SB1070.  When private organizations can cloak the actions and efforts of companies like the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) it’s no wonder we can end up with anti-democratic racist laws being passed into law.

Shaping State Laws With Little Scrutiny

Laura Sullivan, October 29, 2010, NPR

When you walk into the offices of the American Legislative Exchange Council, it’s hard to imagine it is the birthplace of a thousand pieces of legislation introduced in statehouses across the county.

Only 28 people work in ALEC’s dark, quiet headquarters in Washington, D.C.  And Michael Bowman, senior director of policy, explains that the little-known organization’s staff is not the ones writing the bills. The real authors are the group’s members — a mix of state legislators and some of the biggest corporations in the country.

“Most of the bills are written by outside sources and companies, attorneys, [and legislative] counsels,” Bowman says.

Here’s how it works: ALEC is a membership organization. State legislators pay $50 a year to belong. Private corporations can join, too. The tobacco company Reynolds American Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp. and drug-maker Pfizer Inc. are among the members. They pay tens of thousands of dollars a year. Tax records show that corporations collectively pay as much as $6 million a year. (More…)

Still not sure that private prison companies hold sway over Arizona law making and state legislators?  It’s even worse than that.  Meet the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC.  As Laura Sullivan of NPR shows in her article below, SB1070 was drafted at an ALEC meeting with the specific idea of creating more immigrant detainees to be held in private prison facilities such as those of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) who is one of many member organizations to ALEC.  Another Arizona notable is Russel Pearce, who was the original sponsor of SB1070 even though what was eventually passed was “almost word for word” that which was drafted at a previous ALEC meeting.  For all the sordid details read Sullivan’s piece below.

Prison Economics Help Drive Arizona Immigration Law

Laura Sullivan, October 28, 2010, NPR

Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Arizona a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal.

Glenn Nichols, the Benson city manager, remembers the pitch.

“The gentleman that’s the main thrust of this thing has a huge turquoise ring on his finger,” Nichols said.  ”He’s a great big huge guy and I equated him to a car salesman.”

What he was selling was a prison for women and children who were illegal immigrants.  (More…)

Welcome to the first post of Cell-Out Arizona! There will be plenty more where this came from but to get things started off, we felt it was important to provide a statement of perspective for Cell-Out Arizona on all things prison-related in Arizona.  We welcome your comments, questions, and interest as we continue to provide up to date analysis and critique of prisons and private prisons in Arizona.  Enjoy!

Cell-Out Arizona Manifesto

The escapes from the Kingman prison are a perfect illustration of all the things that the public should know about prison privatization.

So let’s reflect on what we might have learned from this mess, had we been paying attention:

1.  For-profit prisons are not cheaper.  An independent cost comparison study shows that while some private prisons save money, most cost about the same and some private prisons are actually more expensive.  Then there’s the cost of a 3-week manhunt and the impending lawsuits, not to mention the unquantifiable cost of two human lives.

2.  For-profit prisons are not accountable to taxpayers.  (more…)