Tag Archives: private prison

Why private prison employees might not want to work too close to home —Barbara Stratton

Received yesterday on

Video: Drive Away CCA radio. -jsq

Great interview John. The comment about employees not wanting to
work at a facility in the same county they live in was an
interesting thought relative to the proposed local employment
benefits. When I worked for CCA in the inmate Mental Health unit at
the Valdosta Correctional Institute we were always warned that


keeping pictures of our families or anything personal on our desks
was possibly dangerous and therefore not recommended. I loved my job
there because being inside the prison meant we had to form close
working relationships with each other and I love teamwork on the job
and it was never boring. We had almost constant training hours
warning us about the dangers of being in close contact with inmates
and all the rules about interacting. Forheight=”1 instance we had one inmate
who was a brilliant artist. He like to gift us with his artwork,
which we were allowed to accept as a non-personal gift to be placed
on the office walls. He was a very well behaved prisoner especially
to females, but his beautiful artwork always consisted of some form
of predator watching prey such as a cat watching a bird. We loved
the artwork, but took note of the inuendos.

Prisoners were always given strict instructions that

Continue reading →

VSU Health Sciences: much better than a private prison

I hate to agree with the VDT but Health Sciences at VSU would be
good for the community.
If we weren’t spending so many state tax dollars locking people up,
we’d be able to afford that more easily.
And it turns out the Georgia House found the money.

Staff Writer editorialized yesterday,
A ray of hope for VSU project,

Amid the lost homes of this past weekend’s tornado and severe
storms, South Georgia could use an infusion of hope.



Good news came Monday with word that the Valdosta State University
Health Sciences and Business Administration building has a renewed
shot at becoming reality.

Earlier this year, the $23.5 million project was assumed dead.
Though its inclusion had been expected, the building was not part of
the 2012 state budget.

Later that day it was back in the proposed 2013 Georgia budget.
David Rodock wrote today for the VDT,

Funding for new VSU building approved,

Continue reading →

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

Private companies are not subject to sunshine laws —VDT

The VDT reminds us of an important distinction in yesterday’s
editorial,



Citizens entitled to open government,

All governmental entities supported by tax dollars are subject to
the laws. Private companies are not.

As the VDT knows better than anybody else around here,

getting informaiton out of Valdosta State Prison
or the Georgia Department of Correcions (GDOC) is very hard.
The VDT has been trying to find out what’s going on at Valdosta
State Prison for years now, and getting the runaround
and hitting stone walls.

Florida has a law that says private prison operators have to comply
with

Continue reading →

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

ACLU and 60 policy and religious groups ask states to reject CCA’s prison privatization offer

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

Motorcade against CCA, 5PM Tuesday March 6th

Do you want to live in a prison colony?
Help us say, CCA Go Away!

Join us 5PM Tuesday March 6th 2012 at the private prison site (Dasher-Johnson
Road off US 84 at Inner Perimeter) for a motorcade by Valdosta City
Hall to the Industrial Authority offices: for education and against the
private prison.

When: 5PM (rush hour) Tuesday March 6th
How: Cars, trucks, motorcycles, and bicycles
Who: Everybody is invited
What: Oppose the Private Prison
From: Proposed Private Prison Site

US 84 @ Inner Perimeter Road

(Staging on Dasher-Johnson Road next to US 84)
By way of: Valdosta City Hall

Valdosta City Council Work Session

Honk to say No CCA!
To: Industrial Authority Office

2110 N. Patterson Street

(Patterson at Park Avenue)

Bring a sign: No Private Prisons!
Contact:
noprivateprisons@gmail.com

Winn Roberson, 229-630-2339, winnroberson@bellsouth.net

John S. Quarterman, 229-242-0102, politics@quarterman.org





on the web


View Larger Map





Petition

Winn Roberson read the newspaper Friday (February 24th)
and realized the prison site
was down the street from him, so the news finally sunk in.
This motorcade was his idea to drive the point across to the
Industrial Authority: we don’t want a private prison!

John S. Quarterman lives about as far away from the prison site
as you can get in Lowndes County, but realizes it will affect
everybody for many counties around.
So let’s say CCA Go Away!

-jsq

PS: If you can’t come, you can still sign the

petition to the Industrial Authority, or write a letter to the editor, or…

CCA private prison VDT front page today



Former Sheriff Paulk luke-warm; Sheriff Prine completely opposed.
Water and sewer, wetlands, federal funding: all hurdles, says Paulk.
Sheriff’s Association also opposed, says Prine.
More in the VDT article.

Lowndes County Sheriff Chris Prine has also shared his thoughts
on the private prison industry:

“If I’m going to house an inmate and if I’m going to be responsible,
I’d rather them be in my facility not a private prison,”
said Prine.
“If I’m going to be responsible for them
I want them to be within my reach.
the Sheriff’s Association
feels the same way I do.
I’d say the large majority of Sheriff’s feel the same way about this.
I don’t want a private facility handling my prisoners.”

Here’s

video of Sheriff Prine saying most of that a few weeks ago.

They also mentioned

the petition
and
quoted me:

“If those signatures and calls are making any impression
on the Authority they certainly don’t admit to it,”
said Quarterman.
“This is another Lofton (Brad Lofton, former
Authority executive director) project.
It’d be nice if the Industrial Authority represented the community
they were located in.”

Do you want the Industrial Authority to notice?
You can sign the

the petition,
or send VLCIA your own letter,
or write a letter to the editor to the VDT, or….

-jsq

Sweetheart deal for private prison site?

CCA has

a contract

to buy

the private prison site from a private landowner.
But who did that landowner get the site from?
The Industrial Authority!
And the sale prices involved are rather interesting: the landowner gets almost 100% profit in five years.
One person I showed them to immediately said, “sweetheart deal.”
What do you think?

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
bought the site back in 1998 for $1,243,200, and
sold it to the landowner in 2007 for 1,463,512, which is an increase of
about 18%

in almost 10 years or about 2% per year.
CCA can buy it from the landowner in 2012 for $2,907,000,
for an increase of 99% in about five years or almost 20% per year.
Which is far more than the 20% in five years or about 4% per year shown by the assessed value.
And this remarkable surge in the price of that land
is during the worst real estate market since the Great Depression.

Does this look like a sweetheart deal to you?

Date Price $ Increase % Increase % /year From To

2012?		 $2,907,000 $1,443,488 99% 20% N.L. Bassford Jr CCA
2012 $1,756,320 $   292,808 20%   4% Assessed Value
2007 $1,463,512 $   220,312 18%   2% VLCIA N.L. Bassford Jr
1998 $1,243,200 Camellia Investment Co. VLCIA
Prices in this table are taken directly from the legal documents.

All percentages are rounded and approximate.

Images of the deeds and plats are
on the LAKE website.

Here is
a petition for VLCIA to reject the private prison.

-jsq