Tag Archives: Corrections Corporation of America

Gladiator School cancelled; 2 other CCA prisons closed

CCA loses contracts, including for its notorious

Gladiator School; GEO, too.


Some states are catching on to the private prison scam.

Aviva Shen wrote for ThinkProgress 21 June 2013,

Three States Dump Major Private Prison Company In One Month,

State lawmakers who embraced private prisons as a cost-cutting
measure are starting to have trouble ignoring their abysmal
conditions. Corrections Corporation of America, the largest and most
powerful private prison company in the nation, lost four prison
contracts in the past month after extensive reports of abuse,
neglect, and even fraud within their operations.

Idaho cut ties with the corporation on Wednesday, which turned the


state’s largest prison into a violent hellhole inmates called
“Gladiator School.” Earlier this year, CCA was caught
understaffing the prison and using prison gangs to control the
population. The company admitted to falsifying nearly 4,800 hours of
staffing records to squeeze more money out of the state for
nonexistent security work. Shift logs at the prison showed the same
security guards working for 2 to 3 days at a time without breaks.

Last week, Texas closed two CCA prisons, including Continue reading →

Videos @ VLCIA 2012 02 23



Here are videos of the February 2012 Industrial Authority meeting.
Apologies for the poor sound.
The room turned out to have very echoey acoustics, and no placement
of the camera seemed to alleviate that.
Also it’s in three chunks, the first of them quite long.
In the interests of moving along and catching up on posting videos
of recent meetings, we’re going to leave it like that for now.
Here’s

the agenda.

Here’s

a playlist:




Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,

Andrea Schruijer Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 February 2012.

Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

VLCIA executive session on real estate transactions last Thursday noon

According to the VLCIA website,
they had a special called meeting last Thursday,
including apparently an executive session to discuss real estate
transactions.
One big real estate transaction with a deadline of today (13 March 2012)
is the CCA private prison.



This is on the front page of the VLCIA website:

Notice:The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority will hold
a Special Called Meeting on Thursday, March 8, 2012 at noon, for the
purpose of reviewing bids and awarding a contract for the Miller Business
Park Landscape/Irrigation Project and discuss real estate transactions.

Here’s

the agenda.
I congratulate the Industrial Authority for posting agendas!

Note the executive session.
The agenda doesn’t say what the executive session is for (isn’t it supposed to,
according to Georgia sunshine laws?).
We can guess it’s for real estate transactions, as in the notice on the VLCIA
front page.

Hm, what real estate transactions could that be?
A contract for a landscaping and irrigation project isn’t a real estate
transaction.
Let me think…
oh, the CCA private prison is a real estate transaction!
Could that be what they were discussing?

The rest of VLCIA’s website is pretty thoroughly broken right now, as in

Warning: Parameter 3 to showItem() expected to be a reference, value given
in /home/industri/public_html/includes/Cache/Lite/Function.php on line 100

None of the other links seem to work.

-jsq


Special Called Meeting of the

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority

Thursday, March 8, 2012, 12 noon

Valdosta Lowndes County Industrial Authority

Conference Room

Valdosta, Georgia

  • Call to Order Special Called Meeting

  • Invocation

  • Welcome Guests

  • Westside Business Park

    • Reviewing bids and awarding a contract for the Miller Business Park
      Landscape and Irrigation Project
  • Adjourn Special Called Meeting into Executive Session

  • Adjourn Executive Session/Call to Order Special Called Meeting

  • Adjourn Special Called Meeting

Marching at the Industrial Authority 2012-03-06



After

starting up at the prison site
and

heading out,


we
honking at the Valdosta City Council,
we
marched at the Industrial Authority office.

Drive Away CCA!

Here’s

Part 1 of 3:




Marching at the Industrial Authority 2012 Part 1 of 3:

No private prison in Lowndes County,

Motorcade against Corrections Corporation of America, Drive Away CCA,

CCA, VLCIA, Corrections Corporation of America, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority,

Valdosta City Council, Lowndes County Commission, incarceration, prison, private prison,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 March 2012.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.



They weren’t in, since they only meet once a month.

Here’s

Part 2 of 3:

Continue reading →

Industrial Authority got wetlands easement from Lowndes County for private prison site

Before selling it off to a private landowner who
who two years later got a contract with private prison company CCA

to resell it for almost 100% profit,
the Industrial Authority acquired a road easement through county-owned wetlands
from Lowndes County:

Further, Grantor hereby conveys a Non-Exclusive Ingress and Egress Easement
in that certain 0.685 acre tract or parcel of land
situate, lying and being in Land Lot 153 of th 11th
Land District of Lowndes County, Georgia.
Said 0.685 acre tract being designated as “0.685 acres — Ingress/Egress
Easement reserved for future right-of-way extension”
as depicted on that certain map or survey
“Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority” dated
September 8, 2004 and recorded September 9, 2004 in Plat Cabinet A, Page 2659,
Lowndes County records, to which
map and survey is hereby referred in further aid of description.

An easement that a private landowner might have more difficulty getting
from the county.
Isn’t that convenient?


This is the wetland that

has not yet been approved for that purpose by the Army Corps of Engineers,
according to Ashley Paulk.

By the way, that wetland easement in 2004 was

before Brad Lofton was hired in 2006 to be executive director of VLCIA,
so the very peculiar history of this bit of land can’t all be blamed on him.
The appointed Industrial Authority board and the elected
Lowndes County Commission
and Valdosta City Council

are all also involved.

-jsq

Heading out Drive Away CCA 2012 03 06



Yes, we drove about that slow the whole way: that was in the plan.
We honked at Valdosta City Hall: the City Council could hear us inside.

They have Citizens to be Heard at their

regular meeting tonight.

Here’s

the video:




Heading out Drive Away CCA 2012 03 06

No private prison in Lowndes County,

Motorcade against Corrections Corporation of America, Drive Away CCA,

CCA, VLCIA, Corrections Corporation of America, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority,

Valdosta City Council, Lowndes County Commission, incarceration, prison, private prison,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 March 2012.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Starting up Drive Away CCA —Winn Roberson 2012 03 06





Winn Roberson told us how he had the idea for the

motorcade against CCA,
from the private prison site past Valdosta City Hall to the Industrial Authority.

Here’s

Part 1 of 2:




Starting up Drive Away CCA —Winn Roberson 2012 03 06 Part 1 of 2:

No private prison in Lowndes County,

Motorcade against Corrections Corporation of America, Drive Away CCA,

CCA, VLCIA, Corrections Corporation of America, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority,

Valdosta City Council, Lowndes County Commission, incarceration, prison, private prison,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 March 2012.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.



And how he wasn’t opposed to it just because it was down the street from him;
also because:

“Every step so far has dollar signs behind it.”

A private prison would give everybody from justices to jailers incentive
to keep more people in prison instead of rehabilitating anybody.

Here’s

Part 2 of 2:

Continue reading →

Video: Drive Away CCA radio (John S. Quarterman interviewed by Chris Beckham)



The motorcade went well and

you can still help
Drive Away CCA!

Turning radio into TV, here’s LAKE video of Tuesday morning’s interview
with Chris Beckham about

Drive Away CCA, the motorcade against the private prison.


Listen for the mentions of
Sheriff Chris Prine (he is
opposed to the private prison “I want him in my jail, not a private jail”)
Winn Roberson (the

motorcade was his idea),
Matt Flumerfelt (he filed the open records request that revealed

the contracts with the March 13th),
Bobbi Anne Hancock (she

dug up a history of CCA that reveals problems for many years
and she had a

very funny interview with VLCIA executive director Andrea Schruijer),
George Boston Rhynes (he’s been following incarceration and especially

jail issues for many years),
and former sheriff and current Lowndes County Commission Chairman
Ashley Paulk (he listed a number of hurdles the prison project
would have to leap before it could happen), and also the VDT.
Too many other people are involved to name here.

Here’s

the video:




Video: Drive Away CCA radio (John S. Quarterman interviewed by Chris Beckham)

No private prison in Lowndes County,

Radio WVGA 105.9 FM with Chris Beckham, Drive Away CCA (DAC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 March 2012.

Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Audio from WVGA 105.9
Also,

audio from WVGA 105.9 is available.


There are plently of things you can still do to help Drive Away CCA:

  • Sign the

    petition.

  • Speak at the Valdosta City Council meeting Thursday
    or at the Lowndes County Commission meeting next Tuesday.
    They’re both

    implicated in this private prison decision.

  • Write a letter to the editor.

  • I’m sure other people can think of many other things.

CCA cares about

“public acceptance of the Company’s services”.
If we show enough public opposition, we can

Drive Away CCA!

-jsq

CCA Go Away

Somebody else is trying to



drive away CCA.
Near Ft. Lauderdale, CCA wants to put a detention center
in Southwest Ranches, Florida, and
CCA Go Away (facebook)
is organizing against that.

Lots of clever signs, from the unmistakable:




CCA Go Away

to the symbolic

orange jailbirds holding oversize $20 and $100 bills.

Plenty more

in their flickr set:


No Prison Here in This Town

Put Residents Before Profit

The Prison is No Longer A Secret



Did You Know?

A Prison is coming to your neighborhood!

Say No to

Corrections Corporation of America

No CCA



If they can do it, we can, too.
Come to the prison site Tuesday 5PM to help

Drive Away CCA!

-jsq

Faith groups urge state governors not to sell prisons to CCA

From

Quakers
to
Catholics,

“Our
organizations advocate for a criminal justice system that brings
healing for victims of crime, restoration for those who commit
crimes, and to maintain public safety.”

religious groups oppose privatization of prisons.
Here is

the text of a letter
many of them sent to all 50 state governors,

joining the ACLU in opposing
CCA’s recent

offer to 48 states to buy their prisons.



You can help

drive away CCA, 5PM this Tuesday, March 6th.
Or sign the

petition to the Industrial Authority
to reject the private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.

-jsq

March 1, 2012

Dear Governor:

We the undersigned faith organizations represent different


traditions from across the religious and political spectrum. Our
organizations advocate for a criminal justice system that brings
healing for victims of crime, restoration for those who commit
crimes, and to maintain public safety.

We write in reference to a letter you recently received from Harley
Lappin, Chief Corrections Officer at Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA), announcing the Corrections Investment Initiative –
the corporation’s plan to spend up to $250 million buying prisons
from state, local, and federal government entities, and then
managing the facilities. The letter from Mr. Lappin states that CCA
is only interested in buying prisons if the state selling the prison
agrees to pay CCA to operate the prison for 20 years — at minimum.
Mr. Lappin further notes that any prison to be sold must have at
least 1,000 beds, and that the state must agree to keep the prison
at least 90% full during the length of the contract.

The undersigned faith organizations urge you to decline this
dangerous and costly invitation. CCA’s initiative would be costly

Continue reading →