What do the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees,
The Sentencing Project, the NAACP, and the Southern Poverty Law Center
have in common?
They all want states to reject
CCA’s offer to 48 states to buy prisons.
Right here in Lowndes County, our Industrial Authority wants to go
one better for CCA and help
build a shiny fresh new private prison with our tax dollars.
PR from yesterday,
ACLU Urges States to Reject CCA Offer to Privatize Prisons,
The American Civil Liberties Union and a broad coalition of 60
policy and religious groups today urged states to reject a recent
offer by the nation’s largest private prison company to buy and
privatize state prisons.
In a letter sent to governors in every state, the ACLU and 26 other
organizations said a recent offer by Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA) to buy prisons currently run by state officials is a
backdoor invitation to take on additional debt while increasing
CCA’s profits and impeding the serious criminal justice reforms
needed to combat the nation’s mass incarceration crisis.
Two similar letters are also being sent today by religious
coalitions to governors. One of the letters, sent by 32 faith groups
including the United Methodist Church General Board of Church and
Society, the United Church of Christ/Justice and Witness Ministries,
the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of
Public Witness, says there is a moral imperative in reducing
incarceration through evidence-based alternatives to imprisonment
and re-entry policies that ease the transition of prisoners back
into society. A third letter, from the Presbyterian Criminal Justice
Network, argues that the principles of mercy, forgiveness,
redemption and reconciliation are largely absent from the private
prison industry.
“Selling off prisons to CCA would be a tragic mistake for your
state,” the ACLU’s letter reads. “[CCA’s] proposal is an
invitation to fiscal irresponsibility, prisoner abuse and decreased
public safety. It should be promptly declined.”
You can
help decline CCA’s private prison in Lowndes County.
-jsq
introduced into the state senate that will allow the establishment of regional land bank authorities. We citizens never consented to all this regional government that is being forced on us. If we can’t keep up with what the local land bank authority is doing just imagine what a regional land bank authority will be able to accomplish with zero public knowledge and input. This is one of the most dangerous pseudo-government entities ever and it needs to be addressed from the citizen level immediately. I applied for a citizen vacancy on the Land Bank Authority, but of course those positions are reserved for politically supportive individuals. Per the sunshine laws, which Sam Olens has sworn allegiance to, a citizen review committee would have to be advised of the meetings that are currently never publicized.
