Yesterday, the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group that has been advocating against prison privatization in Arizona, released an extensive report reviewing the safety, quality, and cost of private prisons in Arizona—including 6 prisons operated by Corrections Corporation of America that do not contract with the state.  The report, Private Prisons:  The Public’s Problem,  is the first of its kind to be completed in Arizona, and reveals widespread and persistent problems ...

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By Guest Blogger Penny Pestle, ppestle@cox.net

Years and sometimes decades after ignoring safe and cost-effective sentencing reform in states across the country, Arizona’s politicians and prosecutors are afraid…very afraid.  They fear changes they should have made a long time ago.

Last year, Judiciary chairs Rep. Farnworth and Sen. Gould out-and-out refused to allow any sentencing reform bills to be heard in their committees. It’s the legislative equivalent of sticking your...

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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 pr...

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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:  ...

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Much has been made of Governor Brewer’s intimate ties to Corrections Corporation of America.  Her Chief of Staff, Paul Senseman, is a former CCA lobbyist, and his wife is currently a lobbyist for the company.  Brewer’s campaign manager and senior policy advisor, Chuck Coughlin, runs a consulting firm that also lobbies for CCA in Arizona.  Brewer accepted a total of $60,000 in contributions from people associated with CCA for her campaign and the tax increase initiative that she was pushin...

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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 American Friends Service Committee condemns this action as unnecessary and deeply irresponsible given the state’s economic crisis and the dismal safety records of all four of the corporations involved.

Arizona’s Auditor General estimates this expansion will cost us over $640 million by ...

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In this day and age, most of us can relate to the feeling that our elected officials aren’t really listening to us or acting in our best interests.  But here’s the story of a group of citizens who are actually going to do something about it. 

Citizens Opposed to Globe Becoming a Prison Town has been organizing against a proposed private prison there for almost a year now.  They are one of the most effective and organized yet truly grassroots groups out there.  They have packed City Counc...

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An article published today in the New York Times has revealed to the world what you heard here first:  Private prisons are not saving us money.  The article cites Arizona research that shows that, overall, we’re losing money on our private prisons.

Yet, the Department of Corrections is preparing to award lucrative contracts to for-profit prison companies to build and run 5,000 new private prison beds.

Arizona’s Auditor General estimates this expansion will cost us over $640 million by 2017...

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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...

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Yesterday, AFSC representatives gathered at the Capitol to deliver testimonies, along with pages and pages of independent research and published works that make the incontrovertible case against the practice of for-profit incarceration.  The event was covered by KPHO’s crack reporter, Morgan Loew.  Loew has long been a thorn in the side of for-profit prisons, exposing their influence-peddling in Arizona state government.

That same day, the Arizona Republic announced that several bills to imp...

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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 a...

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