Tag Archives: private prison

Corrections Corporation of America: A Critical Look at its First Twenty Years

This is the report

Bobbi A. Hancock gave Andrea Schruijer Friday:


Grassroots Leadership published

Correction Corporation of America: A Critical Look at its First Twenty Years.
By Philip Mattera and Mafruza Khan,
Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First,
and Stephen Nathan, Prison Privatisation Report International. December, 2003.
Here’s an extract from the Executive Summary:

CCA is the leading participant in, and in many ways the embodiment
of, one of the most controversial industries ever created—the
incarceration of people for profit. While the company is looking
back through rose-colored glasses, there is a need for a critical
analysis of what CCA has brought to the world of corrections. That
is the purpose of this report.

Even by its own standards, CCA has not been a success. Rather than
taking the industry by storm, it still manages only about three
percent of prison and jail beds in the United States, and its global
aspirations had to be abandoned.

Only a few years ago, CCA was being widely vilified

Continue reading →

Community activism had nothing to do with biomass plant not coming here —Andrea Schruijer to Bobbi A. Hancock

Received today. -jsq

Subject: Meeting with Andrea

Just a quick recap of a meeting I had yesterday with VLCIA’s Andrea


Schruijer. When asked where we were with the private prison issue, she
responded, “we contractually agreed to a 3rd extension with a term of
365 and CCA has until March 13, 2012 to request that extension.” So I
asked,” if CCA doesn’t request a

3rd extension, then the issue is over,
right?” She replied, “If there’s no response from CCA, then it is up to
the board to determine how to move forward.” When I asked her why they
would even consider honoring a contract extension to CCA knowing some
of the controversy over CCA’s business practices, she replied, “because
there is a partnership between the VLCIA and CCA and we are
contractually bound to a 3rd extension.”

I pointed out that the private prison industry wasn’t interested in
public safety and rehabilitation they simply wanted to make a quick
buck off the lives of others. I informed her of the chronic employee
turnover, understaffing, high rates of violence and extreme cost
cutting which all have been attributed to CCA.

I told her that Lowndes County already had its own share of air


pollution and that amount of air pollution here is directly
proportionate to the amount of lung and bronchial caner in our area. I
encouraged her to consider sustainable businesses for the future
economic growth of our community, not smoke stack business. Her reply,
“so what you are saying is that you think the industrial should just
close its doors?” I actually hadn’t thought about that but the
question did make me ponder.

I left her with

a 91 page research report which takes a critical look
at the first twenty years of CCA’s operations. I requested an email
response of her thoughts about the report and am currently awaiting the
response…

Biomass did come up in the conversation and Mrs. Schruijer was quick to
assert that

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Valdosta Mayor and Council are implicated in the private prison —John S. Quarterman @ VCC 2012 02 23



Valdosta City Council and Mayor, who may not have been following the private prison issue,
now know about it and are aware that they are all implicated in the private prison
decision, due to events at the Industrial Authority board meeting
and the Valdosta City Council meeting, both Thursday 23 February 2012.

After remarking that I’d rather be talking about the additional solar panels
recently installed on my farm workshop up here in the north end of the county,
I recapped the
case against a private prison
and referred the Valdosta City Council to

my LTE in the VDT of that morning
(Thursday 23 February 2012).
I remarked that I was disappointed the Industrial Authority

hadn’t done anything to stop the prison at its meeting earlier that same day.
Since they might be wondering what all this had to do with them, I pointed out that,
if I could use the word,
they were all implicated as mayor and council
in the private prison decision because

Jay Hollis, CCA’s Manager of Site Acquisition, in his Valdosta-Lowndes County, GA / CCA Partnership: Prepared Remarks of August 2010,
lavishly praised the Lowndes County Commission and Chairman and the
Valdosta City Council and mayor.
Although the mayor was different now, and maybe some of the council,
nonetheless it was the same offices of council and mayor, still implicated.
I asked for their opinions on that subject.
Per their custom, they did not offer any at that time.
So, maybe we’ll hear from them later.
Or maybe the Industrial Authority board will hear from them….

Here’s

the video:




Valdosta Mayor and Council are implicated in the private prison —John S. Quarterman @ VCC 2012 02 23

VSEB, employment,

Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 February 2012.

Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I., the bostongbr on YouTube.

-jsq

Crickets, or what the Industrial Authority didn’t say about the private prison

Silence speaks volumes.
Your tax-supported Industrial Authority wants a private prison in
Lowndes County, Georgia.

After
Tuesday’s conversation with VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer,


I went to Thursday’s Industrial Authority board meeting expecting
to hear something from the board about the private prison.
What I heard:

Crickets.

The only thing a board member said about it was Chairman Roy Copeland
reminding me that the board didn’t answer questions in Citizens Wishing
to be Heard.

Earlier, Col. Rickets did say that the current contract with CCA
for the private prison expires
March 13th,
and that meanwhile CCA can either

request a third extension
or
CCA could

send a Notice to Proceed (NTP) to VLCIA
before
March 13th.
Remember, CCA has, according to

the contract,
CCA has

“absolute discretion”

for issuing that NTP.

Col. Ricketts added that in staff’s discussions with CCA,
CCA had indicated they were mulling it over internally, and
VLCIA should “stand by” for CCA’s next move.

That’s right, your local Industrial Authority, whose staff and land purchases
are funded by your tax dollars, should stand by waiting for a private
prison company to tell them what to do.

And the Industrial Authority board’s silence is an answer:
they said nothing different from their previous vote for the contract
to bring in this private prison;
nothing different from their previous acceptance
of the first and second option extensions;
and nothing in objection to what Col. Ricketts said.

So your tax-supported Industrial Authority wants a private prison in
Lowndes County, Georgia.

Do you want that?
Do you want a private prison with fewer guards per prisoner

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Did they know it would be considered for a private prison at that time? —Barbara Stratton

Received today on

News about CCA’s private prison Project Excel expected at Thursday’s VLCIA board meeting. -jsq

Do you know why the county sold this property for less than the assessed
price to the current owner in 2007 minus the wetlands that interject? Did
they know it would be considered for a private prison at that time? Now
the current owner will make the million dollar profit instead of the
county. Since this is considered industrial park acerage owned by the
county why would the county sell it if an industry/business was not
promised at that time? What is the 100 acres the development agreement
says the owner will be given? Is that the 119 acres of wetlands? If
the county decides not to allow the private prison what happens to the
earnest money that has been deposited to date since that would not be
an action by the buyer or the seller?

-Barbara Stratton

According to the online information from the Lowndes County Tax Assessors
Office,
parcel number 0156D 005 on W/S Perimeter Road was sold by “VALDOSTA-LOWNDES COUNTY” to “BASSFORD N L JR” on 14 November 2007 for $1,463,512 as fair market value
:


Sale Information
Sale Date Deed Book Plat Page Price Reason Grantor Grantee
11-14-2007 3967 072 PC A 3852 $ 1,463,512 Fair Market – Vacant VALDOSTA-LOWNDES COUNTY BASSFORD N L JR
02-13-1998 1514 0327 $ 0 Non-Market VALDOSTA-LOWNDES COUNTY

The seller was not the Lowndes County Commission, which would start with
“LOWNDES COUNTY”, and it’s not the City of Valdosta, which wouldn’t be
hyphenated with the county name like that.
Could it be the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority?

-jsq

LTE: Tell the Industrial Authority No private prison —John S. Quarterman

My LTE in the VDT today. -jsq

Industrial Authority Executive Director Andrea Schruijer told me to expect
their board to say something at their 2PM Thursday board meeting about the
private prison Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) wants to build
on US 84 at Perimeter Road. If they don’t give CCA another extension,
the contract expires March 13th.


There’s still time to contact them, (229) 259-9972.
Or go to their board meeting at 101 North Ashley Street,
2PM Thursday February 23rd.



A private prison would not increase employment in Lowndes County. It
would not even save the state money. And it would have high risk
of closing after or even before it opened, because of escapes and
inmate disturbances, and most importantly because the state and federal
governments can no longer afford to incarcerate so many people. That would
leave us and the state holding the bag for any investment in building it.

Outsourcing public justice for private profit at taxpayer expense is
not only bad business, we the taxpayers can’t afford to pay for it while
public education is under increasing budgetary pressure.

As members of the local community, we do not wish to live in a private
prison colony, with the attendant risks of inmate violence and escape,
and the accompanying public opprobrium that would drive away the
knowledge-based workers we claim to be trying to attract.

Finally, public justice should not be a matter of private profit.

John S. Quarterman

lives in Lowndes County

You may recognize the wording from the

petition.
You can always write your own letter with your own reasons.

-jsq

An Industrial Authority agenda with content! Including VSEB and land acreage!

Yesterday Andrea Schruijer promised to get an agenda for
tomorrow’s 2PM Thursday 23 February 2012 Industrial Authority board meeting (101 N. Ashley Street)
online.
It’s
there,
and it has content!


What it does not have is any mention of

anything about Project Excel, or CCA, or the private prison,
even though Ms. Schruijer told me yesterday to expect the board
to say something about that.
You can still

express your opinion to them before then.
And since this agenda says

**TENTATIVE**

maybe that item will get added before tomorrow afternoon.

Also missing is

any item for the Strategic Planning RFP,
even though that RFP says the board will review any responses received by their February board meeting.

What this agenda does have is numerous specific items
under the usual broad headers such as
Existing Industry/Project Report.
So instead of listening to Col. Ricketts
and trying to figure out what he’s talking about,
you can see such things as
“e-Snychronist® Existing Industry Retention
and Expansion business information system (BIS)” in writing.
You still don’t see names of the
“five (5) Prospects”
or the “three (3) companies that are developing expansion plans”.
Maybe I buy the competitive information argument for the prospects,
but I’m not so sure about the three expanding companies, especially
if they’re already local.
And considering the things VLCIA has tried to sneak in under cover
of not mentioning competitive information, such as biomass and a private prison,
I’m not sure I buy that argument at all.

Also on the plus side, the agenda includes an actual schedule for bids

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Roy Copeland

Roy Copeland

Chairman
Tom Call

Tom Call
Mary B. Gooding

Mary Gooding
Norman Bennett

Norman Bennett
Jerry Jennett

Jerry Jennett,

It’s not too late to express your opinion to this tax-funded (1 mil of your
property taxes + SPLOST funds, for around $3 million a year) appointed board.
Follow this link for

contact information for the VLCIA board.
Or
sign the petition online
and your signature gets emailed directly to

VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer.

-jsq

News about CCA’s private prison Project Excel expected at Thursday’s VLCIA board meeting

Thursday’s Industrial Authority
retreat and board meeting are both open meetings, which the
public can attend.
And at the 2PM board meeting apparently there will be news about
Project Excel, CCA’s private prison.

VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer clarified on the telephone just now
that

Thursday’s 9AM-2PM board retreat
is an open meeting; the public can attend.


She said the agenda was made by the facilitator, and she had not seen it.
The purpose of the retreat is for board members to talk about their experiences
and roles as board members.
The retreat is not for discussing specific projects.

Regarding the 2PM board meeting Thursday, she said she thought the agenda
was on VLCIA’s web pages.
When we looked and found it wasn’t there,
she said apparently there was some confusion due to the rescheduling
of the meeting, and the agenda would be there soon.

I asked her whether the Project Excel

Project Excel, the CCA private prison, she said the

Preliminary Specifications
(
see section 1.6.1)
had been received.
She said they had been received,
and they were simply a site diagram, a copy of which was
hanging on VLCIA’s office wall.
From discussion with her, it appears to be this site plan:

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“I’ve found that Minnesotans do not want their laws written by the lobbyists of big corporations” — MN Gov. Mark Dayton

Remember

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC),
the

big corporate lobby group that

helps CCA push for private prisons?
The one that

lobbied 24 states
to pass “anti-immigration” laws that create new misdemeanors and felonies
to send more customers to CCA prisons?
One governor has decided he’s had enough of that.

Zaid Jilani wrote for Republic Report 15 February 2012,

Minnesota Governor Calls Out Corporate Front Group ALEC, Vetoes Its Bills

It has grown so powerful that it now has

nearly one-third
of all state legislators under its umbrella.

ALEC has worked with legislators to pass bills ranging from issues
as diverse as stripping unionized workers of their rights to

making it harder for low-income citizens to vote.
It is usually able to do so because it hands its corporate-written
template bills to state legislators and gets them passed without any
public scrutiny as to the origin of this legislation.

Late last week, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D)



decided that
corporate front groups like ALEC should not be able to write his
state’s laws. Dayton decided to veto a series of “tort
reform” bills that would’ve restricted the rights of citizens
to sue to hold big corporations responsible. In a press conference
discussing his vetoes, Dayton condemned ALEC for providing the
templates for the bills. “I’ve found that Minnesotans

do not want
their laws written by the lobbyists of big corporations,” said
Dayton.

Here’s
video:

Continue reading →