{"id":1557,"date":"2011-09-01T17:16:26","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T21:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/private-prisons-considered-harmful-gretchen-quarterman-to-jack-kingston.html"},"modified":"2011-09-01T17:16:26","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T21:16:26","slug":"private-prisons-considered-harmful-gretchen-quarterman-to-jack-kingston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/private-prisons-considered-harmful-gretchen-quarterman-to-jack-kingston.html","title":{"rendered":"Private prisons considered harmful —Gretchen Quarterman to Jack Kingston"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\nGretchen Quarterman
\n
\n3338 Country Club Road #L336
\n
\nValdosta GA 31605
\n
\n26 August 2011\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n\n\n
\nPDF<\/a>
\n
\n 
\n
\nHon. Jack Kingston
\n
\nMember of Congress
\n
\nFirst District of Georgia\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

 
\n
\nDear Mr. Kingston,<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nYou
\n
\nasked me last week in Tifton<\/a> to provide you with evidence
\nthat private prisons have fewer guards per prisoner than public
\nprisons.<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nHere is an example:<\/p>\n

\n“The largest juvenile prison in the nation, Walnut Grove Youth
\nCorrectional Facility houses 1,200 boys and young men, between the
\nages of 13 and 22, and is run by a private contractor, the GEO Group
\nbased in Boca Raton, FL. … State audits over the last several years
\nhad already indicated the burgeoning problem. While it is recommended
\nat youth facilities to have an inmate-to-guard ratio of 10:1 or 12:1,
\nWalnut Grove had a ratio of 60:1.”
\n
\n
\n
\n“When the Wolves Guard the Sheep,”<\/a>
\nby Mariah Adin in Kids and Crime, 28 March 2011
\n<\/small>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not just less staff, it’s less qualified staff:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n“The difficulties at Jena were attributed primarily to staffing
\ndeficiencies: a lack of stable leadership, high turnover, excessive
\novertime, and inadequate training. These faults are common in private
\ncorrections, with staff turnover running almost three times higher,
\non average, than at public correctional facilities.
\n
\n…
\n
\n“While performance problems of such severe magnitude are not yet common in
\nthe private prison industry, violent incidents are not isolated to a few
\nfacilities. A recent survey of private prisons by James Austin compared
\nthe rates of major incidents in private and public prisons of comparable
\nsecurity levels and found that private prisons had fifty percent more
\ninmate-on-staff assaults and two-thirds more inmate-on-inmate assaults.
\nThese ominous signs are fueling a mounting perception that in pursuit
\nof profits, private prison managers are heedless of the essential
\nrequirements necessary for delivery of safe and humane correctional
\nservices.”
\n
\n
\n
\n“Prison Privatization: Recent Developments in The United States”<\/a>
\nby Judith Greene,
\nA Paper Presented at the International Conference on Penal Abolition:
\nMay 12, 2000.
\n<\/small>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fewer and less qualified staff produce problems of violence,
\nsuch as the incident the FBI is investigating in Boise, Idaho
\nat the so-called Gladiator School.
\n
\n
\n
\n“Video release prompts FBI prison investigation:
\nCritics claim the privately run Idaho Correctional Center
\nuses inmate-on-inmate violence”,<\/a> by
\nRebecca Boone for AP, 30 November 2010
\n<\/small><\/p>\n

\nPrivate prisons in Pennsylvania have been involved in a “kids for cash”
\nscheme in which a judge was recently sentenced to 28 years for locking
\nup youths for money.
\n
\n
\n
\n“Pa. judge gets 28 years in ‘kids for cash’ case”,<\/a>
\nAssociated Press, 12 August 2011
\n<\/small><\/p>\n

\nMore comprehensive evidence is difficult to obtain, because, according
\nto the American Correctional Officer Intelligence Network,<\/p>\n

\n“In 1998 the private prison industry stopped providing information on
\nassaults, escapes, inmate population, inmate classification, staffing
\nratio’s, turnover rates, training statistics and virtually all
\ninformation that would allow the public to make an informed choice
\nregarding the privatization of our correctional facilities.”
\n
\n
\n
\nPrivate Prison Fact Sheet<\/a>,
\nAmerican Correctional Officer Intelligence Network, unknown date
\n<\/small>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nIn 2007, H.R. 1889, the Private Prison Information Act, got as far
\nas the House Judiciary Committee, where it died.
\n
\n
\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.govtrack.us\/congress\/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1889<\/a>
\n<\/small><\/p>\n

\nAs a member of Congress, I suggest that you reintroduce that
\nor another bill<\/p>\n

\n“To require prisons and other correctional facilities holding Federal
\nprisoners under a contract with the Federal Government to make the same
\ninformation available to the public that Federal prisons and correctional
\nfacilities are required to do by law.”\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then you won’t have to depend on constituents to ferret out that
\ninformation for you, and we’ll all know what our tax dollars are
\nbeing spent on.
\nAnd we would know if savings with private prisons were genuine.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nSincerely,
\n
\n[signed]
\n
\nGretchen Quarterman\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gretchen Quarterman 3338 Country Club Road #L336 Valdosta GA 31605 26 August 2011 PDF   Hon. Jack Kingston Member of Congress First District of Georgia   Dear Mr. Kingston, You asked me last week in Tifton to provide you with evidence that private prisons have fewer guards per prisoner than public prisons. Here is an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,40,14,70,2,1381,72,570,571,22,3],"tags":[3824,3825,8701,2702,8730,1566,7,8784],"class_list":["post-1557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-community","category-economy","category-ethics","category-government","category-immigration","category-incarceration","category-military","category-moody-afb","category-politics","category-transparency","tag-community-of-interest","tag-ga-01","tag-georgia","tag-gerrymander","tag-incarceration","tag-jack-kingston","tag-lowndes-county","tag-moody-afb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557","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=1557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}