Private Prison Watch AZ: Legislative Delegation

Legislative Delegation and Press Conference

on Prison Privatization

Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 11:00am

Arizona Capitol House Lawn

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) will send delegations of volunteers to meet with key legislators and deliver the testimonies and other materials gathered through our Public Hearing on Prison Privatization (Tucson, October 27, 2010) and other activities.



We will then gather on the House lawn for a brief press conference to report on our meetings with the offices of the Arizona Secretary of State and Attorney General, discuss our opposition to prison privatization, and renew our call for an immediate cancellation of the recently re-released RFP for 5,000 new private prison beds in Arizona.



Carpools from Tucson will be organized—please contact us at 520.623.9141 or email cisaacs@afsc.org to participate!



Caroline Isaacs

Program Director,

American Friends Service Committee

Arizona Area Program

103 N. Park Ave., Suite 111

Tucson , AZ 85719

520.623.9141 p/520.623.5901 f

www.afsc.org/az

SB 1070: Call NOW, vote is MONDAY

This via friends in the movement, about the piece of legislation designed to trump local soverignty in the pursuit of all the racists they can get to vote for them - that appears to be the main target audience - and constituency - of some legislators. Anyway, call this weekend and do some kind of visible action in resistance to the bill.

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Please forward to your lists also...Thank you Here is a list of the Republican Senators who need to be called to vote NO on SB 1070, even if you just leave a message, please take a moment to call them! A group of us spent this morning at the State Legislature, we talked to four Republican Senators,all we need is 3 of them to vote no on SB 1070. One said she will definitely vote no, we only need 2 more... Two (Steve Pierce and Jay Tibshraeny) told us they were "undecided"....there is still time to help this bill die. Please take a moment to call, here is the list, all of them are Republicans.  Some possible talking points to these Republicans could be.... 1) The enormous cost to implement this law in a time of economic strife, cuts in education, we want taxes cut NOT increased because of this bill...   2) Public safety overall will be jeopardized with this bill as local law enforcement will be spending too much time on checking everyone's status rather than responding to emergencies.... 3) Incarceration of Parents of U.S. citizen children, will only lead to more people on the welfare system, for the rest of us to take care of.  There is actually a high number of US citizen children with undocumented parents- extracting the bread-winner from the family only puts more strain on the rest of us. THE LIST Jay Tibshraeny    602-926-4486   (told us he was undecided) Steve Pierce        602-926-5584  (told us he was undecided) Barbara Leff         602-926-4486 Linda Gray            602-926-3376 Al Melvin               602-926-4326 Ron Gould            602-926-4138 Jack Harper         602-926-4178 Sylvia Allen          602-926-5219 Jim Waring           602-926-4916 Bob Burns            602-926-5993 Chuck Gray           602-926-5288 John Huppenthal   602-926-5261 Thayer Verschoor 602-926-4136 Jonathon Paton     602-926-3235 John Nelson     602-926-5872  (I spoke with him in person, he said he knows it is not a good bill, but 70% of his constituents want him to vote yes on it - please call him and tell him you don't want it!) Please forward to your lists....!

5th Special Legislative Session AEA Alert

Doug Kilgore's latest post from the AZ teacher's union on the upcoming special session (he refers to Tuesday the 14, which is the 15th, so I'm still confused about exactly who will be at the capitol tomorrow - but that means we may have another day of calling and emailing legislators before the votes are actually in.):

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December 7-11, 2009

Inside This Issue...  


           

• More Cuts to Public Schools?
• Legislative Panel Shirks Responsibility on Tuition Tax Credit Problems
• News Link
  

Special Session Still in Doubt

Governor Brewer, Senate President Burns, and House Speaker Adams are still attempting to put together an agreement on some solutions to Arizona's continuing budget deficit. As of today, their plan to convene a special session on Tuesday, December 14 appears to be dead and attempts to call legislators together later in the week is looking less and less likely.

Unlike the last special session, there have been discussions with Democrats in both the House and the Senate this time. It seems likely that a Republican-only strategy will not allow enough votes to pass the Governor's proposed temporary sales tax increase. The House Republican Caucus is pushing hard for attaching corporate and personal income tax cuts to the deal which would actually increase Arizona's budget deficit in FY2011. The Senate is more likely to support a bi-partisan solutions with a straight sales tax earmarked for spending in education, health and human services, and public safety.

The Governor has asked the legislature to include a provision that would send a ballot measure to the voters allowing legislators to ignore the Voter Protection Act, a constitutional provision that protects spending on programs passed by the voters from legislative tampering. Such a measure would allow the legislature to raid Proposition 103 education funds and other voter approved programs. Democrats have opposed this and it is unclear if there is enough Republican support to pass it without them.

These discussions continue to center on the same issues that have been addressed and re-addressed since early in the year. There are additional solutions available, including other types of tax increases, closing tax loopholes and tax credits, and some remaining one-time fixes that buy time until a tax increase can be passed. View the latest budget options developed by AEA and the Arizona Budget Coalition.

More Cuts to Public Schools?

Arizona has now cut all that is allowed under the maintenance-of-effort (MOE) provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA - the federal stimulus plan). Some influential legislators like Senator Russell Pearce (R-Mesa) are suggesting that the Governor ask for a waiver from the MOE provision and if the waiver is denied, defy the ARRA provision and risk losing other federal funds. Such an action would also put Arizona out of the running for hundreds of millions of dollars of Race to the Top Grant funds for K-12 education.

It appears that the next budget battle for public education will be to hold the line on additional cuts in order to continue to meet the MOE provisions. Again, the extreme elements that are deeply entrenched in the House and Senate Republican Caucuses will be pushing for more K-12 cuts and must be stopped if Arizona wants a reasoned solution to our deficit.  

Arizona has already spent the entire $1.1 billion provided for public education in the stimulus based on its pledge to abide by the MOE which requires spending for state assistance to public schools to fall no lower than its FY2006 level. Paul Senseman, a spokesman for Governor Brewer, said cutting below "maintenance-of-effort" levels is not an option. Other legislators from her own party will not likely take no for an answer on this issue without a fight if recent history repeats itself.

Legislative Panel Shirks Responsibility on Tuition Tax Credit Problems

In August, the East Valley Tribune published an investigative report that showed the Arizona tuition tax credit for private schools program is often abused, lacks oversight, and has failed to increase to any significant degree the access that disadvantaged children have to private schools. Other media and private citizens' reports uncovered additional violations of the public trust. In response to pressure from Democratic House members who launched their own bi-partisan study and the public, House Speaker Kirk Adams appointed a committee to form recommendations to deal with the issue.

To the surprise of most observers this legislative panel completed its work and recommended increasing the amount of the dollar for dollar tax credits by 50% while rejecting measures to require the funds to be spent on families below certain income levels and limiting the amount of funds being kept by school tuition organizations for their own use and profit. Some reform measures were adopted but lack the fiscal accountability measures that would eliminate the abuses found in the investigative reports. The recommendations fail to disallow wealthy parents from working directly with school tuition organizations to ensure that their children receive the benefits of the tax credit.

These recommendations would still allow owners of school tuition organizations to keep 10% of the tax credit dollars for their own use and use those dollars and dollars from other school tuition organizations to build for-profit business ventures that capitalize on the use of other tax credit dollars. Representative Steve Yarbrough (R - Chandler) has built a multi-million group of businesses using tuition tax credit dollars.

Testimony from Representatives Andy Biggs (R-Gilbert), Rick Murhpy (R-Peoria) and Debbie Lesko (R-Peoria) defended the tuition tax credit program and downplayed the need for many of the recommendations that had been suggested to protect our tax dollars from abuse. Senator Tom Chabin (D-Flagstaff) and Jack Brown (D-St. Johns) argued for stricter oversight, an income threshold for recipients of the tuition funds, and limits on school tuition organizations. Learn more. 

News Links

 

Income limit nixed for tuition scholarships

A legislative panel refused Thursday to recommend changes to Arizona's Private School Tax Credits program that would require income limits for families receiving tuition scholarships or reduce the amount of money charities can use to administer the program.  

Schools take another budget hit

Legislature's vote to have impact on local districts

Local school officials are bemoaning the latest round of budget cuts from the state and looking for ways to minimize the damage to education.  

Science education in Arizona seen as key to new jobs

Teachers, businesses say public funding isn't enough for high-quality education

Daisy Alvarez rolls black ink onto a glass surface and presses her fingertips onto it, leaving prints that other seventh- and eighth-graders in her class dust to reveal the swirls and arches that make her unique.

Ditching tenure tells good teachers: Go elsewhere

In 1921, California was the first state to establish teacher tenure; in 2009, Arizona became the first state to abolish it. Never one for half-measures, this month the Arizona Legislature eliminated tenure, creating yet another reason for good teachers to teach elsewhere.  

Contact Us
 
Please contact Doug Kilgore, Government Relations Organizational Consultant, doug.kilgore@arizonaea.org for questions and comments.

AZ Budget: Phoenix New Times Coverage.

No details on this yet...
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Verschoor Shows Up, Burns Burns Dems; Senate Passes Budget Bills

By James King in Budget Blunders

Phoenix New Times, Mon., Nov. 23 2009 @ 2:08PM

Senate President Bob Burns

After nearly four agonizing months, the Arizona State Senate has finally passed four bills that will cut about $450 million from the state's budget.

Like most things in the Legislature, this afternoon's agreement didn't come without a little bit of drama.

First and foremost: Bravo to Senator Thayer Verschoor for actually showing up today...

(finish at the Phx New Times)

Call for Early Release of Low-risk Arizona Prisoners.

(Update December 31, 2009, if you're still looking for news here. There will be no early release.  -Peg )

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AEA Legislative update from Doug Kilgore. As he urges, call your legislator this weekend - if you click and take action (at the Arizona Education Association website), make sure you include a word about early release for prisoners:
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Legislature's Second Attempt to Cut Schools by $144 Million

Every Legislator Needs a Phone Call Today

Last week the Senate fell one vote short of cutting $144 million from public schools and $155 million from the Department of Economic Security. They want to reconsider these cuts again this week. It is time for this special session to end without additional cuts to our schools and most needy citizens. It is time to call a new special session to adopt a comprehensive solution to our budget deficit. Click and take action to make your phone calls. Ask your legislators and the governor to adjourn this special session and go back to the drawing board to develop a bipartisan and comprehensive solution to our state's budget crisis.

Weds Legislative Special Session

Hey all - as far as I can tell, the legislature is meeting again in the AM for their special session. Below is the link to a news article. I'm planning on heading out then to hand out more FMP bookmark links and wave around my sign. email me before 7am, or call me by 8 if you want a ride (I like this voice in red, thing. It's seems kind of like a whisper tonight. I need to try other colors, though...).  Peg

Special session to hammer out Arizona budget begins

Reported by: Dave Biscobing Email: dbiscobing@abc15.com Last Update: 11/17 7:26 pm

4pm Demonstration Postponed

Update from AEA:

The Senate did not have the votes to pass the budget today. This is another hurdle education advocates have overcome. The 4 p.m. protest at the capitol has been postponed. Please watch for further updates. Visit www.march4schools.com for the latest news.
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Sorry folks. I was just up there. I don't what happened, really, but we were all sent home by the AEA today. No rally. No more mass lobbying. Everyone is going back to school now, too. Maybe it was just too late to affect the budget deal.

Still, I was impressed with the number of people there from across the state who came to stop this budget from passing. Flagstaff, Tuscon, Kingman. And Paradise Valley turned out en masse - they even brought students, which I thought was awesome.

Anyway, hope you're not already on your way to the demonstration. We were all sent home.

Private Prisons still on the table

Desperate state may sell Capitol buildings, others

Under GOP plan, government would pay to lease back most of the sites

by Matthew Benson and JJ Hensley - Jul. 29, 2009

The Arizona Republic

“Call it a sign of desperate times: Legislators are considering selling the House and Senate buildings where they've conducted state business for more than 50 years.

Dozens of other state properties also may be sold as the state government faces its worst financial crisis in a generation, if not ever. The plan isn't to liquidate state assets, though.

Instead, officials hope to sell the properties and then lease them back over several years before assuming ownership again. The complex financial transaction would allow government services to continue without interruption while giving the state a fast infusion of as much as $735 million, according to Capitol projections…”

…Private prisons

“While the state is looking to sell and lease back selected properties, it also may try to contract out the operations of some prisons. The concessions provision is expected to be included within the new budget proposal, and legislative analysts believe it could generate as much as $100 million (on top of the sale/leaseback revenue) for state coffers. Private, for-profit prison operators would bid for the right to manage selected facilities, but the state would maintain ownership.

The concept concerns prison officials, who worry whether a private operator would be equipped and trained to handle the state's most hardened criminals. In a letter to Brewer last month, Corrections Director Charles Ryan wrote that a private operator would pay lower wages and provide less training.”

AZ LEGISLATORS IN POCKETS of PRISON PRIVATEERS?

Urgent Action Alert (AFSC TUSCON)

Some Arizona state legislators are determined to privatize ALL state prison complexes, as well as medical care and food services to prisoners, in spite of the Governor’s veto. This includes the state’s only women’s facility and may extend to maximum and supermaximum security units, including death row.

If this proposal goes through, it will be Arizona’s largest ever relinquishment of state control over a core government function to the for-profit sector. No private prison corporation has ever attempted to run an entire state’s prison complexes. Very few manage high security prisoners, and only in small numbers. This is a risky, unproven strategy that gambles with public safety in the name of questionable returns.

If these prisons are privatized and the state abdicates its authority, this will place over 11,000 additional prisoners in the hands of for-profit corporations that have chronic histories of wasteful expenditures, contractual failures and public endangerment.

Why Arizona should SAY NO to for-profit prisons:

1. Privatizing an entire state’s prisons would be a reckless experiment that gambles with public safety.

No private for-profit prison corporation has ever attempted to run an entire state’s facilities. Even Tennessee, the home state of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), refused the corporation’s bid to take over that state’s prisons. These companies have no track record to prove that they can safely manage all the various security levels and special needs of prisoners in Arizona. Do we really want our state to be a guinea pig for a national experiment?

Every for-profit prison corporation that would compete for these contracts has a history of serious problems, ranging from financial mismanagement, abuse scandals, riots and disturbances, and patterns of violence and abuse. The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) found a significantly higher rate of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults in private prisons (66% more) than in public prisons. Inmate-on-staff assaults were 49% higher in the for-profits.

For specific information regarding lawsuits, incidents, and poor management of prison facilities for some of the prison corporations doing business in or with the state of Arizona for, please see the attached “Rap Sheets”or go to: http://www.privateci.org/.

This risky, unproven strategy could prove to be a disaster for Arizona.

2. Private, for-profit prisons are no bargain.

Every credible, independent cost comparison study ever conducted has found that analyses of purported cost savings of private prisons in legitimate apples-to-apples comparisons, conclusively demonstrate that the for-profits cost about the same or in some cases are more expensive.

Maximus, an independent, reputable research firm, studied Arizona's prisons in 2006. It determined taxpayers were spending an estimated $1,526,289 MORE annually on two privately run prisons.

Counties and states often pick up the tab for things that private prison companies don’t provide, like mental health and medical care. And when there are riots or escapes, it is local law enforcement that has to put out the fires, send in SWAT teams, and track down escaped prisoners—at taxpayer expense.

Giving one private corporation a monopoly over Arizona facilities gives them little incentive to cut costs. What’s more, the proposal vetoed by Governor Brewer actually proposed to split any cost savings between the state and the private operator! Once they take over the entire state system, the corporation would have Arizona over a barrel if the company decided to raise its rates.

These are out of state, for-profit, publicly traded corporations that are concerned only with their bottom line, not what’s best for the people of Arizona.

3. Privatizing Arizona’s prisons means lower wages for prison staff, in the middle of a huge recession.

One of the ways private prison corporations cut costs is by cutting corners—primarily on staff pay and training. Public safety is one of the few remaining employment sectors in Arizona, and privatizing these jobs would be a huge economic blow to the thousands of men and women who work in these facilities.

That’s why the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association (the state’s prison guards union) rallied at the State Capitol Monday, July 13, to show their opposition to legislative efforts to privatize the state's prisons. Corrections officers were joined by AZCOPS leaders and union activists from CWA and AFL-CIO.

None of the corporations in the running for these contracts is based in the state of Arizona, so all the dollars spent on administrative costs would flow out of the state into the pockets of out-of-state corporate CEO’s.

4. Arizona legislators, including several members of the Republican leadership that brokered this deal, are in the pocket of the private prison industry.

All the major private prison corporations have numerous, highly paid lobbyists working day and night to influence our elected officials.

These lobbyists and other private prison interests gave $77,267 to Arizona candidates during the 2002 and 2004 election cycles. Republicans received nearly 90% of industry contributions.

Is it any wonder that some of the biggest beneficiaries of these contributions are now the ones leading the charge to privatize Arizona’s prisons?:


RECIPIENT 2002 2004


Sen. Russell Pearce (R-18) $880 $2,400
Sen. Robert Burns (R-9) $1,735 $736
Sen. Robert Waring (R-7) $650 $1,595
Sen. Thayer Verschoor (R-22) $0 $1,130
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-22) $0 $675
Sen. Jack Harper (R-4) $0 $625

Keep in mind, Arizona’s contribution limits are among the lowest in the country, at $270 per legislative candidate per election in 2002 and $280 in 2004. Unfortunately, no comparable statistics were available for the 2006 or 2008 elections.

Source: The Institute on Money in State Politics, “Policy Lock-Down: Prison Interests Court Political Players.” April, 2006. http://www.privateci.org/private_pics/follow.pdf

What YOU can do….

Contact the following policy makers tell them to SAY NO TO PRISONS FOR PROFIT!

Governor Jan Brewer
**Please THANK her for vetoing the earlier version of this bill, SB1028 and ask her to hold firm in her commitment to ensuring that Arizona fulfills its responsibility to manage its own prisons.
602.542.4331 or 800.253.0883 ph, 602.542.1381 fax. Make a comment online at: http://azgovernor.gov/Contact.asp

ADC Interim Director Charles Ryan
602.542.5497 ph, cryan@azcorrections.gov

Arizona Speaker of the House Kirk Adams
602.926.5495 ph, 602.417.3019 fax, kadams@azleg.gov

Arizona Senate President Robert Burns
602.926.5993 ph, 602.417.3225 fax, rburns@azleg.gov

If you can blind copy us, we will have a better idea how effective this initiative is. If you receive responses, even boiler-plate ones, please forward those to us, if possible.
Thanks for all your continuing assistance. Together we can stop this!

Caroline Isaacs
Program Director,
American Friends Service Committee
Arizona Area Program
103 N. Park Ave., Suite 111
Tucson, AZ 85719
520.623.9141 p/520.623.5901
www.afsc.org/az