Private prison company CCA, which in conjunction with ALEC promotes laws in dozens of states and nationally that lock up more people for CCA’s private profit at taxpayer expense, really doesn’t like
community opposition to siting private prisons in their communities.
Hm, why would CCA hate community opposition so much, unless it works?
Not quite rolling his eyes when she mentions visiting communities,
CCA’s video pair disparage
community opposition to private prisons
on their own web page,
When Corrections Meets Communities:
Question:
There are Web sites and blogs that are adamantly opposed to your company
and industry, and they provide negative information about you. Why?
Hm, you mean like some of the material on this blog?
Answer:
CCA and all corrections companies recognize the ongoing efforts
of local, loosely formed grassroots groups and national, well-funded
associations that jointly oppose the establishment of partnership
prisons, many for self-serving reasons. Such groups go to great lengths
to attack, criticize and misrepresent the entire industry. They make false
allegations and often rely on hearsay and unreliable sources. Regrettably,
these biased groups often resort to misinformation and inflammatory
rhetoric to turn isolated incidents into broad generalizations about
the corrections industry as a whole.
Well-funded? Har! OK, not this blog.
That plus we provide evidence, like
CCA’s own 2010 Form 10K to the SEC
and
medical reports at McRae
and
extensive research by NAACP and personal experience by LEAP,
including
NAACP’s report on the War on Drugs
that got even Grover Norquist on the same stage saying we can’t afford
to lock up so many people.
Speaking of well-funded, I prefer
Bloomberg’s take:
The big winner in the crackdown on the illegal immigration
has been
the private prison industry. As Bloomberg Business Week reports in its
latest issue, companies such as Corrections Corporation of America are
making millions. In fact, CCA makes more money from detaining immigrants
than it does from any single U.S. state.
…
That has led to CCA’s stock rising ten-fold in the last decade.
It’s true, Bloomberg is well-funded. Will CCA claim Bloomberg misrepresented
CCA’s well-recorded stock price history, or what CCA’s own executives
told CCA about the anti-illegal immigrant source of their profits?
Back to the CCA FAQ:
Opposition efforts do a disservice to the national discussion of the
merits of public-private partnership in corrections. A healthy dialogue on
correctional partnerships should focus on the facts – not half truths,
Internet chatter and blatant lies.
Those big bucks CCA gets from the government to detain immigrants?
Those are our tax dollars!
CCA and ALEC
promote locking up more people nationally and in dozens of states.
Taxpayers and the victims of those laws
have every right to oppose the privatization of justice for the profit of a few corporate executives and shareholders.
Every right to oppose private prisons and, to oppose the war on drugs that funds them,
like
Jimmy Carter is doing.
And if you want to call Jimmy Carter a liar, CCA, them’s fightin’ words.
More from the CCA FAQ:
When these groups criticize CCA, they are, by extension, criticizing
governments that have carefully chosen to manage a portion of their
corrections system in this manner.
Well, yeah!
Thank you, CCA, for drawing one correct conclusion.
CCA’s own website says under partnering:
“CCA has been a great partner with us for nearly a decade now.
Coffee
Correctional Facility and Wheeler Correctional Facility certainly meet
the standards of the Georgia Department of Corrections. I particularly
appreciate CCA maintaining exemplary accreditation status with both
the American Correctional Association and the National Commission on
Correctional Healthcare. I look forward to a continued long relationship
with them.”
—Commissioner James E. Donald, Georgia Department of Corrections
Yes, I criticise that!
Georgia has no business outsourcing public justice for private profit.
The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority should reject
CCA’s attempt to site a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.
The state of Georgia or the federal government (whichever might
end up behind that private prison) should spend those tax dollars
on rehabilitation and education instead.
-jsq