{"id":1109,"date":"2012-02-15T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/cca-offers-to-buy-prisons-from-48-states.html"},"modified":"2012-02-15T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T13:00:00","slug":"cca-offers-to-buy-prisons-from-48-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/cca-offers-to-buy-prisons-from-48-states.html","title":{"rendered":"CCA offers to buy prisons from 48 states"},"content":{"rendered":"Desperation or disaster capitalism by CCA?\nTrying to get as entrenched as possible before more people catch\non that private prisons\n\ndon’t save money for states?<\/a>\n

\nAndrew Jones wrote for Raw Story yesterday,\n\nPrivate prison company offers to buy 48 states’ prisons<\/a>\n

\nIn exchange for keeping at least a 90 percent occupancy rate, the\nprivate prison company Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has\nsent a letter to 48 states offering to manage their prisons for the\n\n<\/a>\nlow price of $250 million per year, according to a letter obtained\nby the Huffington Post.\n

\nThe company says it’s a way for states to help manage their current\nbudget crisis. “We believe this comes at a timely and helpful\njuncture and hope you will share our belief in the benefits of the\npurchase-and-manage model,” CCA chief corrections officer\nHarley Lappin said in the letter.\n<\/blockquote>\nWhat does CCA\n\nwant in return?<\/a>\n

\n…a 20-year management contract, plus an assurance that the prison\nwould remain at least 90 percent full….\n<\/blockquote>\nSo if a state,\nsuch as Georgia,\n\nwas thinking of sentencing reform,<\/a>\nor of getting on with decriminalizing drugs,\neither would become quite difficult after signing such contracts.\n

\nHere’s \nCCA’s offer letter,<\/a> complete with a blank to fill in for the state.\n

\nMaybe CCA is realizing that it’s coming to the end of its rope\non its old tricks, such as these, pointed out by\n\nChris Kirkham in HufffintongPost yesterday,<\/a>\n\n\n

\nThe move reflects a significant shift in strategy for the private\nprison industry, which until now has expanded by building prisons of\nits own or managing state-controlled prisons. It also represents an\nunprecedented bid for more control of state prison systems.\n

\nCorrections Corporation has been a swiftly growing business, with\nrevenues expanding more than fivefold since the mid-1990s. The\ncompany capitalized on the expansion of state prison systems in the\n’80s and ’90s at the height of the so-called ‘war on drugs,’\ncontracting with state governments to build or manage new prisons to\nhouse an influx of drug offenders. During the past 10 years, it has\nfound new opportunity in the business of locking up undocumented\nimmigrants, as the federal government has contracted with private\ncompanies in an aggressive immigrant-detention campaign.\n<\/blockquote>\nNew opportunity to the tune of a ten-fold increase in CCA’s stock price,\n\naccording to Bloomberg.<\/a>\n

\n\n<\/a>\nYet so far no other states have followed\n\nArizona, Georgia,<\/a> and\nAlabama<\/a>\nin passing bogus “anti-immigrant” laws like GA HB 87 that actually\nproduce many new crimes that lock up people in CCA’s prisons.\nThis is despite ALEC lobbying to pass such bills in\n24 states.<\/a>\nSo CCA is trying a new strategy: buying prisons.\n

\nSo far,\n\nonly Ohio has actually sold a prison to CCA.<\/a>\n\n<\/a>\nOhio, the same state where last year\n\nsix prisoners, including five convicted\nmurderers, escaped from another CCA-run prison.<\/a>\nPrivate prisons are\n\na public safety problem.<\/a>\n

\nWhy would any state sell a prison to a company like that, or\noffer it a management contract?\nCCA is counting on states to be desperate:\n

\nIn recent years, Corrections Corporation of America has made it clear\nthat it sees opportunity in the new era of state budget crises. During\nearnings calls with investors, company executives have pointed out that\nthe Great Recession has brought renewed interest in privatization.\n

\n“We continue to believe we are very well-positioned in a market\nthat, despite the economic pressures faced by our customers, has\nprovided healthy financial performance,” Corrections Corporation\nchief executive Damon Hininger said in the company earnings call\nlast November. “Indeed, it is because of these pressures, which lead\nto severe capital constraints and the need to avoid increasing their\npension liabilities, that we believe our value proposition to\ncustomers is getting stronger.”\n<\/blockquote>\nThat’s disaster capitalism, or\n\n“the shock doctrine”:<\/a>\n

\nusing the public’s disorientation following\nmassive collective shocks … to achieve control by imposing economic\nshock therapy.\n<\/blockquote>\nIn this case, the shock is budget shortfalls engineered by tax cuts.\nIn Ohio, for example,\n\ntax cuts for the rich<\/a>\nwere the main source of the budget problem.\n

\nAny state can fall for that disaster capitalism pitch.\nLouisiana’s governor wanted to, but its legislature refused.\n

\nLouisiana State Treasurer John Kennedy compared the strategy to “a\njunkie selling the television set and radio to generate money for\nhis next fix.”\n<\/blockquote>\nHow about instead we take away the need for the junkie to get\na lot of cash for the fix and for a state to get a lot of cash\nto pay for prisons?\n

\nA state that really wants to save money could reform sentences\nso nonviolent prisoners get out onto probation, parole, and rehabilitation.\nA state that wants to save a lot of money could decriminalize drugs:\n\nlegalize, regulate, and tax.<\/a>\nThat would drastically reduce the prison population, removing any\nexcuse to privatize prisons, while producing tax income for the state\njust like now from tobacco and alcohol.\n

\nThis sounds like good news:\n

\nState corrections officials who were contacted in California,\nPennsylvania, Virginia, Montana, Georgia, Texas, Illinois and New York\nall said they were not considering such prison sales at this time.\n<\/blockquote>\nUntil we recall that Georgia wants to let CCA build new private\nprisons, which is even worse, because it expands the prison system\nfor CCA’s profit at taxpayer expense.\n

\nCCA admits that\n\nlocal community opposition could affect its ability to site a prison.<\/a>\n\n<\/a>\n\nWe don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.<\/a>\nSpend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.\nFollow\n\nthis link<\/a>\nto petition the Industrial Authority to reject CCA’s\nprivate prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.\n

\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Desperation or disaster capitalism by CCA? Trying to get as entrenched as possible before more people catch on that private prisons don’t save money for states? Andrew Jones wrote for Raw Story yesterday, Private prison company offers to buy 48 states’ prisons In exchange for keeping at least a 90 percent occupancy rate, the private […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,140,1113,14,15,71,8,2,19,1381,72,178],"tags":[8759,1124,8817,2858,2751,8701,2625,2650,7,3067,75,1297,2651,60,8749,82],"class_list":["post-1109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-alec","category-cca","category-economy","category-education","category-gdoc","category-georgia","category-government","category-history","category-immigration","category-incarceration","category-vlcia","tag-alabama","tag-arizona","tag-cca","tag-corrections-corporation-of-america","tag-disaster-capitalism","tag-georgia","tag-industrial-authority","tag-legalize","tag-lowndes-county","tag-ohio","tag-prison","tag-private-prison","tag-regulate","tag-tax","tag-vlcia","tag-war-on-drugs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-hT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}