Globe's prison town prospects: with what will crime pay?

This letter is a sorry reflection of all those "economic planners'" and "community leaders" who see only short term cash rewards from private prisons, and have little concern for the long term corrosion it brings to a community - look at what's happened to the City of God, Eloy...who planned all that, anyway? It wasn't the people - it was none other than Corrections Corporation of America and the politicians and businessmen they seduced. The Eloy mayor is even on their payroll.



Those prisons reflect on their host communities, you know, and it's pretty sad what becomes of prison towns once the mentality that abuse of prisoners is an acceptable externality of the market in today's society sets in. Even decent people become complacent with the illusion that they aren't responsible for changing such conditions - they are coopted even in the face of evidence of evil there in order to continue their income, pay rent, cover their health care, assure new books for their kids schools, etc.


This guy talks about how the community will profit from the rewards Emerald and the State collectively promise - but how will this pay? Most residents can't really wish for the children of Globe to be transformed by a prison-dependent labor sector into abusive, callous people capable of torturing and raping others bound in chains - yet this proposal offers little hope for other ways for townspeople to support themselves that doesn't require that they buy into this racist, misogynistic, repressive system of "justice".


What a new prison will NOT bring is a healthier town, that's for sure. You begin to die the day you break ground. Don't trust anyone who tries to tell you otherwise - they're sucking the real profits off for themselves, and will leave your town to wither once the American prison boom goes bust.



So, good luck to the Resistance in Globe. Don't let the creeps at Corplan/Emerald rape your lovely community of its humanity, at least not while it sleeps. Wake your neighbors up, and fight their propaganda and politics back with everything you have...

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EDC president responds to ballot initiatives on prison prospect

Wednesday, Jun 15th, 2011
Arizona Silver Belt
Letters to the Editor

There will more than likely be a public hearing in our area sometime before June 30, 2011 in response to whether the residents of the City of Globe are interested in having an additional prison built within the City limits. At this time none of us know exactly when or if this will be, we only know that the State plans to award contracts on or around July 1, 2011, which will add 5,000 beds into the Arizona State Department of Corrections (DOC) system.

The Southern Gila County Economic Development Corporation has been working with Emerald Companies, a private corporation, along with their engineers, developers and the AZ DOC in an effort to bring 1,000 beds to our area. You might ask why the SGCEDC would continue to work on this project after hearing that 2,700 people are opposed to this project. Please let me offer our position on this project. We represent approximately 27,000 residents in southern Gila County and we strongly believe that we have heard personally from the majority who recognize the benefits of this project. While the SGCEDC has made an effort to keep the public informed on this project, we did not feel that it would be proper to debate this project in the media before knowing if it was even available to us.

At this time Emerald Companies have been asked to provide their Best & Final offer, which means that their proposal is being considered. We have assimilated a lot of information and have made this information available to the public at many past meetings, at my monthly Meet & Greet meetings, and a couple of advertisements in the local newspapers. Also Mr. Mickie Nye attended several radio programs with Mr. Jim Moss to thoroughly discuss this project. We have not withheld any facts about this project. The following information has been researched and compiled very carefully to bring you an accurate review of this project. We have heard from many residents and business that this project will offer many more assets to our communities than disadvantages.

A project this size will bring over 300 direct jobs and approximately another 100 indirect jobs. As of the end of 2010 Gila County was suffering with an unemployment rate of 11.1 percent which means that there were approximately 6,000 people either unemployed or actively looking for employment. We believe that this project will help our economy and better the life style of many of these residents. We recognized that this project will also relieve a large strain from our social programs design to help unemployed people. If you are currently unemployed and seeking work locally, please watch for the Public Hearing Notice and join the meeting to show your support for this project.

If a contract is awarded for our area, this project will be totally developed by Emerald Companies. This includes all of the financing arrangements. None of our local governments will be responsible for the financing. Emerald will build this property to the State DOC specifications and the operations will be stipulated by the DOC. Since this project is under an AZ State contract it is strictly regulated by the DOC. The construction of this project will bring a new sewer line through the City’s North East Corridor proposed development. This along with improvements to the water infrastructure will benefit the City of Globe by two million dollars.

What are the monetary benefits? The salary range is $29,000 to $200,000 annually. These are not minimum wage jobs. The current prison located in the same area provides approximately $3.5 million dollars in annual wages along with another half million dollars in local revenues. Economists will tell you that the dollar turns five to seven times before escaping local communities, which calculates out to $20 - $28 million dollars annually. This is a nice clean industry with continuous sustainability. We need these jobs!

I have heard so many stories about the bad things that come with private prisons and I will tell you that I cannot accurately respond about this because, like any private business, they all operate differently. However, I can tell you that we, as a team, have investigated Emerald Companies very thoroughly. They are a very good private prison operator. If they are awarded this contract for a 1,000 bed facility they will have to provide the same service and safety standards that are required within the state operated facilities.

In closing I would like to ask that if you are a registered voter within the City of Globe and are asked to sign any petition to put this issue on the ballot in March of 2012, please strongly consider saying no. This would be a tactic to interfere with the DOC process and the true feelings of the citizens of Globe would not be known until long after the contracts have been awarded. Some other community will receive this huge economic benefit. That would be a shame during these economic times.

Jerry McCreary

SGCEDC Board President

Globe: City of Hospitality's Field of Dreams may become a nightmare.

Tipped off to this article in the Globe Miami Times by our friend Jim Moss, from The City of Hospitality itself, trying to prevent Globe from building a private prison.   Sounds like it was a pretty darn good presentation he gave, too...thanks Jim. Hopefully someday Globe will develop its "field of dreams" into something beautiful - instead of a warehouse for storing people who have been thrown away - and the children of your town will thank you all for your efforts as well.
  
Check out the Globe Miami Times for more on this issue - they've been doing some pretty critical coverage of the private prison industry. There's a well-informed bunch of people in that town, so there may yet be hope for their collective future. 

Give the Southern Gila County Economic Development Board a piece of your mind, if you're from the area, before they compromise your community any further.  Someone's expecting to make a healthy return on their investment in the EDC's plans - and it won't be the good people of Globe. Here are the rap sheets on Corplan Corrections and Emerald Correctional Management - anyone who tells you that it's good for the town to do business with those folks is clueless, misguided, or corrupt.  

Tell the EDC that you expect something better for your kids' and grandkids' futures than a private prison to work for (or perhaps to live in, given the rate at which we're criminalizing everyone as even more Arizonans plunge into poverty).

Here's the EDC's contact info. Make sure to find out when they're scheduling their next meeting, and be there:

Southern Gila County EDC
1360 Broad Street
Globe, AZ 85501

928.425.4495 / 800.804.5623

Office Hours
7:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. MST

www.SGilaCountyED.com
SGCEDC@cableone.net

While you're at it, hit the Globe-Miami Chamber of Commerce with your thoughts on the prospect of the private prison industry taking them over, too. 


GLOBE-MIAMI REGIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
1360 North Broad Street, Globe AZ 85501
(928) 425-4495 / (800) 804-5623 / Fax (928) 425-3410
gmr@cableone.net • www.globemiamichamber.com

Here's the Globe city council, too, and the city administration contact info: 

City of Globe
150 N. Pine St.
Globe, AZ 85501

Phone: 928-425-7146
Fax Number 928-425-4820
Hearing Impaired Line: 928-425-3550
globeadmin@globeaz.gov

Finally, here are a couple more local media links about the group's efforts:

Copper Country News: Globe City Council Hears From Group Opposed to Private Prison (9/15/10)

Silver Belt: Citizens become active against prison proposal (8/4/10)

                    No prison town, for now (9/22/10)

  

(this is a real interesting news site with coverage on a lot of local criminal justice stuff, including the private prison proposal):   Gila1019.com

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Local EDC Board hears from Citizens Opposed

November 5, 2010 FPposts, Globe Az, Private Prison Project 

By Linda Gross

Jim Moss, who heads up Citizens of Globe Opposed to Becoming a Prison Town (aka: Globe Citizens Opposed to a Private Prison), gave a ten minute presentation on Thursday to the Southern Gila County Economic Development Board who were instrumental in bringing the project to Globe. Although the State has temporarily pulled the RFP (Request for Proposal) on building more prisons by partnering with the private prison industry, the move is simply to allow them to re-write the RFP to include greater security standards. It is expected the project will be back on the table – soon.

Jim Moss, with Citizens Opposed to a Private Prison, addressed the EDC at this months Board meeting.

The talk was meant to be informational and provide the EDC Board with a greater understanding of the the groups efforts which have included a 3 month petition drive which has gathered over 2000 signatures and a more targeted post card mailing which reaches registered voters and allows them to write a brief comment on why they oppose this issue.

"Today our main purpose is to share with you what our group - Citizens Opposed to Becoming a Prison Town, is currently up to, and to convince you that the majority of folks in this town and the wide community do NOT want another prison."

As a brief recap, Moss went on to outline what the group has done in the last four months:

* Information which was research-based and included sections on both the economic and social impacts of private prisons and the industry itself.

*A general petition drive which had gathered as many as 1000 signatures by the time the group addressed Globe City Council on September 13th .   TODAY we have over 2000 signatures.

*A booth at the County Fair gained another 325 signatures, with people. “We spoke to hundreds of people during the fair and heard very few voices that supported a prison project. Consistently over 4 months- whether at the Fair, out front of Safeway, volunteers going door-to-door, or residents visiting our retail shop – 70-80% of residents say they are opposed.

Moss acknowledged that elected officials and economic boards do not change their course of action easily and said, “Nor should they. However, sometimes, when substantial citizen opposition becomes apparent it is time to re-evaluate."

Moss showed the Board a file of 2000+ signatures and 350 signed postcards from registered voters who oppose the prison

"Our job, as Citizen Opposition Organizers/Leaders is to convince you that it is definitely time to re-evaluate. Ultimately, it is in the political arena that decisions are made. That public policy is determined. And, I think you will agree that elected representative’s power and authority rests with the people. Right?

So a few weeks ago we began our political ground campaign. We changed to a one-person-one-vote concept which has a much more powerful political impact. These postcards have been distributed throughout this area.

We are targeting registered voters, beginning in Council District 3. The preliminary results of this campaign has elicited over 200 registered voters who have thus far returned a post card – many with comments.
Out of 350 post cards we have exactly 1.5 cards supporting a prison.

Our plan is to go district by district by district. And to get over 2000 signed postcards from registered voters in Globe.

We continue to try to persuade elected officials and local leaders like all of you on the EDC Board. We truly want to find a positive way to bridge the impasse between local officials and the majority of citizens in our community.

It was reported in the Silver Belt a couple weeks ago, that a member of this (EDC) board, during a board meeting, accused our Opposition Team of “threatening certain Council Members.” We assume this person on your Board meant the threat of Recall? Actually, recall is a legitimate political tool that is sometimes necessary to exercise when elected officials refuse to listen to their constituents.Right? Honestly, we have not been pushing recall, even though Globe residents raise the question all the time. We have said from the beginning, recall is an absolute last resort."

(Jerry McCreary, EDC Board president, clarified the issue from his perspective and said the comment was merely from a member who had been asked by those of the Opposition group several times- 3 times- if they wanted a ‘button’ as they went in and out of Council Chambers the night of the Groups presentation. (The group was passing out No Prison Town stickers). The member felt threatened by this action. He was not aware of any Council member being threatened, although that is what was reported in the Silver Belt.)

Ian Lamont looks over the Opposition Postcard which Moss provided.

Moss continued, ” We have been urging a resolution from Council that reflects a majority “will of the people’ on this issue. We understand it does take time…A meeting with Arizona Legislators has been scheduled in November and we expect the DOC to be there. We will show them the postcards we have gathered and the comments from local citizens. ”

“Finally, we did not take up this cause to be spoilers of a grand idea, or to wave the flag of morality. We have done our homework. We believe that the evidence shows that a big prison (and the proposal is for one 3 times the size of the current State prison), in a small community such as ours bring problems, not solutions.  That, as a community, we should not be looking at incarceration as an economic development strategy, nor should be looking at inmates as “profit centers.”  That we should not be partnering with the unscrupulous Private Prison Industry.

That we, the citizens….and this community- can do better.”

NOTE: Moss asked for another meeting with the Board when they would have more time to discuss the issue and field questions.  McCreary has agreed, saying he would email the Board with several possible dates and find a convenient time for all. He noted that the Board would not be doing their duty if they were not open to all views. It is expected that this second meeting will take place within the next 3-4 weeks. Interested citizens are welcome to attend.