AZ Republic: Why do we need more prisons?

Arizona prison contract will go to private firm

Corrections Department will award 1,000-bed deal to 1 of 5 contenders

Craig Harris / AZ Republic (AUG 26, 2012)


The state Department of Corrections plans Friday to award a private prison contract for 1,000 medium-security beds for men, citing a lack of beds for violent offenders and a projected increase in the overall inmate population.

Five out-of-state companies are vying for the contract. The value of the deal has not been disclosed while the state reviews the bids, but it likely will be worth millions of dollars annually. Sites being considered are in Coolidge, Eloy, Florence, San Luis and Winslow.

PDF: A look at the bids



The contract comes even though the state's overall prison population is expected to remain flat the next two years and increase only slightly thereafter. State records also show it's more costly for taxpayers to have private businesses run prisons.

According to state records, there currently are about 2,000 empty beds in Arizona's prison system, which houses 39,876 male and female inmates. Critics of the prison expansion point to those empty beds as a key reason why the state doesn't need to spend more money on beds.

State Corrections Director Charles Ryan acknowledged the empty beds but said the state has a shortage of permanent medium-security beds -- an 11-bed deficit as of Friday. Most of the empty beds are in minimum-security or women's facilities, and the populations cannot be mixed.

Ryan said the shortage will get worse by 2016, when the total prison population is projected to increase by about 600 more inmates, to 40,477 prisoners. Ryan said the increased projections are based on historical growth trends from the past five fiscal years. He added that the state doesn't foresee a significant decline in sex offenders or violent criminals, who would be housed in medium-security prisons.

"We need the medium (security) beds," Ryan said. "This is an issue of preparing and planning for the future."
The contract calls for up to 2,000 medium-security beds. The first 500 would come online in January 2014. The next 500 would be in place in January 2015. The Legislature has not determined when, or if, the remaining 1,000 beds would be added, but their decision would be based on increases in the medium-security population.

The state also plans to build a 500-bed maximum-security facility in Buckeye that's scheduled to open July 1, 2015. The cost for that facility is projected at $50 million. The Legislature allocated $20 million toward the new facility this budget year, which began July 1.

Corrections records also show that in fiscal 2011 there were 296 fewer prisoners than the previous year, and this past fiscal year that ended June 30, there were 304 fewer inmates for a total of 39,877.

Ryan attributed the overall decline to fewer parole revocations, fewer illegal immigrants being placed in state custody and an overall downturn in crime, but he still contends the additional beds are needed.

He said 735 of the empty beds are in women's facilities, where men can't be housed. There are another 1,127 empty beds at minimum-security prisons for men, but male inmates at medium-security sites can't be transferred there because the sites are not as secure, and there would be safety risks to other inmates, officers and the public. It would be cost-prohibitive, he said, to retrofit a minimum-security facility for more serious offenders.

"You can't mix and match," Ryan said. "You have to keep them separate."

Ryan said the 15,500-plus medium-security inmates are not allowed to work outside a prison's secured perimeter, and they typically are serving sentences that average 9.7 years. Just more than half of them have been sentenced for violent crimes, including assaults, sex offenses and robbery. The rest are serving time for drug offenses, drunken driving, forgery, theft and burglary, according to Corrections records.

Business model criticized

Records show it's more expensive to have private companies operate prisons.

The most recent information available shows the average daily cost per inmate in a state-run medium-custody facility in 2010 was $48.42, while the average daily cost for an inmate in a similar private facility was $53.02. That translates into a 9.5 percent higher cost per inmate for a private prison.

If the new private 1,000-bed facility operates at just 90 percent capacity, the annual cost for taxpayers would be $17.4 million, based on 2010 figures. A state-run facility, under the same scenario, would cost taxpayers $15.9 million annually.

Ryan countered that Arizona saves up-front construction costs by having a private company build the facility. The coming contract also calls for the state to assume ownership of the facility in 20 years.
Rep. Cecil Ash, R-Mesa, disagrees with Ryan's conclusions.

"Private prisons are the wrong business model," Ash said. "They are in the business for profit. The problem is most legislators just don't pay attention to this issue. Inmates don't vote, and the public doesn't see the inmates. They are out of sight, out of mind."

Ash, who is running for a justice of the peace position and will not return to the 2013 Legislature, is one of the few Republicans who have publicly opposed adding private prison beds, saying they waste taxpayers' money. Other outspoken opponents include the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group and watchdog organization.

"For-profit prison corporations are not accountable to Arizona taxpayers," said Caroline Isaacs, American Friends Service Committee program director.

She also contends they are not subject to the same transparency, reporting or oversight requirements as government agencies, and she believes the for-profit prison industry is getting a contract because it has exercised its political muscle in Arizona by hiring a cadre of lobbyists and made campaign contributions to influential legislators.

At least one of the companies, Corrections Corporation of America, employs one of Gov. Jan Brewer's key advisers as a lobbyist, and former Arizona U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini serves on the company's board.

Who's bidding

Arizona got into the private prison business in 1993, with a facility in Marana in southern Arizona.

Today, about 6,500 Arizona inmates or about 16 percent of the inmate population are in private prisons. The state houses roughly 33,000 inmates in 10 complexes across Arizona. The overall Corrections budget is about $1 billion.

Management & Training Corporation and the GEO Group Inc. currently have contracts at five prisons in Phoenix, Florence, Kingman and Marana. Both are bidding for the additional medium-security beds. The other bidders are Corrections Corporation of America, Emerald Correctional Management and LaSalle Corrections. All five are headquartered outside Arizona.

Following steady growth in the inmate population, the Department of Corrections in 2009 sought bids from private prison operators for an additional 5,000 beds in Arizona.

During the bidding process, three inmates escaped July 30, 2010, from Management & Training Corporation's private prison in Kingman. Two of the escapees are accused of murdering an Oklahoma couple who were vacationing in New Mexico.

An Arizona Department of Corrections review of the Kingman facility after the escape found numerous deficiencies with training and equipment, including an alarm system that issued false alarms so frequently that staff members began to ignore them.

The state suspended the bidding process after the escape and revised a bid for 5,000 beds. That bid was canceled and a new request for up to 2,000 beds was issued after the prison population forecast changed. The Legislature most recently authorized funding for 1,000 of the 2,000 beds.

Local debate

While the American Friends Service Committee and ACLU have adamantly opposed the addition of private prison beds, many residents in communities that may house the inmates have been very supportive, Ryan said.

That was the case earlier this month at a public hearing in Florence, known as Arizona's prison capital for its state-operated and private prisons.

Florence's mayor, town officials and the schools superintendent all voiced support for more inmate beds, after they were told by GEO Group that the company's proposal to build a new 1,000-bed prison would create 200 construction jobs, 260 jobs at the facility and a $12 million annual payroll. The company, however, would not say how much the company pays its guards.

"We are proud of our institutions, and proud to have a much-needed service to the state," Florence Mayor Tom Rankin said during the hearing. "It will create more jobs, and more jobs means more people will shop here."

Rankin also took a shot at critics of the proposed prison, saying they didn't live in his community and shouldn't try to derail a jobs creator.

But opponents, including Isaacs, countered that any new prison was a waste of money for all Arizona taxpayers.

A GEO executive had to correct himself during the hearing for saying the company had never had an escape at one of its facilities after an opponent pointed out that an escape had occurred in 2006 at a GEO facility in Florence. Last year, when The Republic was examining the bidders for new private prisons, the newspaper found that at least 27 escapes have been reported from GEO facilities over the previous seven years, including one in Texas that led to a murder.

Pablo Paez, a GEO spokesman, said the Florence escape occurred at a low-security DUI-offender facility shortly after the company took over from a prior operator. He added the other escapes predominantly occurred at low-security facilities, such as halfway houses where offenders are placed in the months nearing their release.

During other questions from opponents, GEO officials at least twice attempted to take control of the meeting from Corrections Director Ryan by telling the critics that their allotted time to speak had ended, when it had not. Ryan allowed the critics to continue.

"It was evident that the representatives from the local community are very supportive of the proposed facility," Paez later said. "Unfortunately, during any public hearing, outside interest groups which are not related to the local community can at times overtake a meeting and bring up issues that are not related to the community's views on the proposed project. This can lead to spontaneous exchanges which unfortunately can take away from the central purpose of these public hearings, which should be for the local community to express its views on the proposed project."

GEO officials did not attempt to cut short comments from supporters of its proposal.

Reach the reporter at craig.harris@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8478.

AZ Private Prison Watch: RFP Finalists.

The Arizona Department of Corrections has named their finalists in their quest to add more private prison beds to our massive inventory of human storage pods here. Any town who invites these snakes into their economic development plan deserves what they have coming to them - they'll end up with abusers and rapists wearing badges in their communities, and lose their collective souls like Eloy did when it was bought by CCA. It's just a shame that it's the kids who end up having to pay for the decline of their community once it becomes a prison town.

Globe lucked out here, by the way - Congrats to the Town of Hospitality; no plans for a prison there in all this. Our condolences to those of you still in the running for a prison in your backyard, however. There will be public hearings in your community, though, so it's theoretically not too late to stop it.

Here are the rap sheets from Private Corrections Working Group on each of these prison profiteers:

Geo Group
Corrections Corporation of America
Emerald Correctional Management
LaSalle Southwest Corrections (not much of a track record yet, I guess...)
Management & Training Corp

-----------------from the AZ Republic--------------

Arizona to expand private prisons
Bob Ortega
July 11, 2011
Arizona Republic

This month, and possibly as early as next week, the Arizona Department of Corrections is expected to recommend what company or companies should be awarded a contract to provide 5,000 new minimum- and medium-security prison beds.

That contract, put out to bid last January, is moving forward even though, after years of steady growth, Arizona's state-prison population has leveled off for the past year and a half - and even though all five bidders have checkered records of managing other private prisons.

Plans to add 5,000 new prison beds first surfaced last year as part of an unprecedented and massive bill legislators passed to privatize the entire state prison system. That ambitious privatization plan fizzled when no corporations showed any interest in a wholesale takeover. The proposal for 5,000 new private-prison beds survived, however.
Growth projected

At the time, based on growth rates, the Department of Corrections projected that Arizona would need another 8,500 prison beds by 2017. But since the end of 2009, when there were 40,585 inmates in the state prison system (including five private-contract prisons), the daily inmate count has fallen 1 percent to 40,181 at the end of June.

The Department of Corrections was the only major state agency to avoid a budget cut for the 2012 fiscal year, which began Friday. Its budget rose $10 million from last fiscal year, to $1.06 billion.

Some observers say that, given tight economic times, the state should reconsider paying to build more prisons.

"I don't think there's a need for it," said Rep. Cecil Ash, R-Mesa, who tried unsuccessfully last legislative session to promote sentencing reforms.

Ash noted that Texas, Missouri, South Carolina and other states have managed in recent years to reduce their prison populations and their crime rates at the same time.

He says Arizona should move in that direction instead of expanding private prisons.

A variety of federal and state studies have shown that Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Kansas, Michigan and other states have managed to reduce both their crime rates and their prison populations by increasing alternatives to prison for some drug and nonviolent offenders, and creating more flexible sentencing practices.

The plan for the new beds was part of Gov. Jan Brewer's executive budget in 2010. The Governor's Office did not return calls seeking comment on the need for the contract.
Over capacity

Corrections Director Charles Ryan said that even with prison population growth tailing off, essentially all the state prisons are over capacity.

"There are temporary beds that have been there 30 years," he said recently, at the state prison at Florence. The new beds would allow the state to eliminate many double bunks in cells or overcrowding in dorms that weren't built for the number of prisoners they now hold, he said.

Ryan also said he doesn't expect the number of inmates to stay level indefinitely.

The department didn't offer any theories as to why the inmate population has stayed level of late.

In any event, Ryan noted, the state's request for proposals would phase in the beds, with 2,000 to be filled by April 2013, and the remaining 3,000 to be completed by April 2015. The request notes that everything is subject to the legislative appropriations process.

All five companies that bid on the project have experienced escapes and other issues at other prisons they operate. All of the companies are supposed to disclose, in their bids, any escapes, homicides, assaults on staff or inmates, riots or other disturbances, and various other issues at any prisons they operate. That history, however, accounts for less than five percent of the point total in the criteria used to evaluate the bids.
The bidders

Those companies are:

- Geo Group Inc., of Boca Raton, Fla. A publicly-traded company, Geo operates about 80,000 prison beds at 116 federal, state and local prisons and treatment facilities in the U.S. and three other countries. It reported $62.8 million in net income on $1.27 billion in revenues for its most recent fiscal year ending Jan. 2. It operates three prisons under contract with the Arizona Department of Corrections: the Central Arizona Correctional Facility (medium security) in Florence, and the minimum-security Phoenix West and Florence West prisons.

Geo has had at least 27 escapes in the past seven years, according to press accounts, including one three years ago that led to a murder in a convenience store in Houston. In 2007, Texas canceled an $8 million contract with Geo and closed the Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, citing filthy conditions. The company is currently fighting a suit by the American Civil Liberties Union alleging the use of excessive force, and unconstitutional and barbaric conditions at its Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Walnut Grove, Miss. Meanwhile, the FBI and a federal grand jury are investigating alleged illegalities in the appropriations and the construction of Geo's $120 million Blackwater River Correctional Facility in Florida. The company did not respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment.

- Management & Training Corp., of Centerville, Utah. A privately-held company, MTC operates 20 prisons in seven states, with a capacity of 26,000 prisoners. It does not publicly release financial data. It began in 1981 operating federal Job Corps centers. MTC operates two prisons under contract with the Arizona Department of Corrections, a medium/minimum security facility in Kingman and a minimum-security facility at Marana.

MTC currently faces lawsuits over the deaths of an Oklahoma couple killed after three inmates escaped from its Kingman prison last year. The company has also had escapes from prisons it operates in Texas and Utah. In two separate instances, it has been ordered by the U.S. Department of Labor to repay a total of more than $650,000 in back wages to officers from whom it withheld overtime pay in Texas and four other states. MTC spokeswoman Issa Arnita noted that the Utah escapees were inmates working outside the prison. And she said MTC added razor wire - not then required by Texas at minimum-security facilities - after the Texas escapes. She said that after the Department of Labor determination, MTC voluntarily audited all its facilities and compensated any employees who were due back wages.

- Correctional Corp. of America, of Nashville, Tenn. CCA is the largest private-prison company in the U.S., housing about 80,000 federal and state prisoners in 66 facilities across 19 states and the District of Columbia. A publicly-traded company, CCA reported net income of $157 million on $1.67 billion in revenues for 2010. It has no contracts with the Arizona Department of Corrections, but houses federal inmates and inmates from Hawaii, California and Washington at six prisons in Eloy and Florence.

CCA has had at least 21 escapes at various facilities over the past decade, including several that have led to assaults and other crimes. CCA also faces several lawsuits over its Idaho Correctional Center, dubbed the "Gladiator School" for allegations that guards and supervisors there regularly allowed violent inmates to assault and beat other inmates during 2009 and 2010. In January 2010, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear ordered hundreds of female prisoners removed from CCA's Otter Creek Correctional Complex after a series of charges that guards regularly sexually assaulted female inmates there. CCA did not respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment.

- Emerald Correctional Management, of Lafayette, La. A privately-held company, Emerald operates about 3,800 beds at six federal, state and local prisons. It has no contracts with the Arizona Department of Corrections, but operates the San Luis Regional Detention Center south of Yuma in partnership with the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It has had at least five escapes in the past decade.

Last year, the Houston Chronicle, reporting on the death of a Cuban immigrant, investigated the company's Rolling Plains Regional Jail and Detention Center in Texas. It noted that the company had no doctors to care for more than 500 immigration detainees at the facility, using only poorly supervised vocational nurses. Emerald did not respond to calls for comment.

- LaSalle Southwest Corrections, of Ruston, La. A privately-held company, LaSalle operates about 7,700 beds at 12 prisons in Texas and Louisiana. It has no contracts with the Arizona Department of Corrections. It has had eight escapes in the past six years, including three of minimum-security prisoners who walked away while on work crews outside the prisons.

Billy McConnell, a managing director of LaSalle, said that the company has never had an injury to a citizen or staff member as a result of an escape. "Anytime something like that happens we review our policies and procedure to make sure we know what went wrong, and we try to eliminate the possibility of that happening again," he said.

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

City of Hospitality: Globe's Prison town ballot initiative.

The Globe community group "Citizens Opposed to Becoming a Prison Town" just put out this press release today....Congrats to Jim and the rest of the gang out there. Save that little city from becoming another hell like Eloy, known for preying on and abusing prisoners...many of whom happen to be indigenous peoples far from their homes. That's got to be bad Karma for that community.

"Caging Arizona"
Arizona State University, NEEB Hall
Tempe, AZ (May 5, 2011)

Remember, people of Globe: in the end, all that you have is your soul. Please don't let the economic development people ever convince you that selling it would be a boost to your town's character or a blessing to your future and your youth...

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Date: June 21, 2011


Press Release: 1,000 Signatures Collected on Ballot Initiatives --- Will Let Voters Decide the Prison Issue


From: Ballot Initiatives Campaign Chairman, Jim Moss



Update: As of Monday, 6-20, just under 1,000 signatures have been collected by community Volunteers to place TWO Initiatives on the ballot at Globe's next regular election in March, 2012. The two Initiatives deal with any new prison project proposed for the Globe community.



1. One Initiative will require Voter approval for any new prison project built within Globe City Limits.



2. The other Initiative will require Voter Approval for ANY Municipal money, resource, or infrastructure to be used in any way for a new prison project located inside, or outside, of Globe City Limits.



The minimum number of signatures required to place these Initiatives on the ballot was 582.



Citizens Opposed to Becoming a Prison Town launched a 10-Day Campaign over a week ago. Tomorrow they will submit 1,000 Official Petition Signatures for Each Initiative, to Globe's City Clerk, to begin the Certification process. The signatures must be validated to make sure signers are registered to vote AND reside within Globe City Limits. The Volunteers who collected signatures were careful about making sure these criteria were satisfied, so the Campaign Committee is confident that a very high percentage of the signatures will be validated.



The number of signatures collected represents approximately 25% of registered voters residing within Globe City Limits. If the Campaign had been extended for a couple more weeks, the number of signatures collected could have easily doubled to 2,000. Very, very few Globe residents opted not to sign when given the opportunity. Hundreds of disappointed area residents living in the Canyon, or just outside the City limits, wanted to sign the Initiative Petitions. In fact, many were downright upset that their voice could not be counted. But, since these two Ballot Initiatives will appear on a Municipal Ballot, only City residents were eligible to sign.



Over the past 10 days, the City of Globe witnessed democracy in action. This year's July 4 Celebration will have an extra special meaning for all who participated in this community endeavor!

AZ Private prison Bids in: March 2011

This is actually old news...all these prison profiteers are horrible - especially CCA. Just Google their abuses in Eloy this past year. We need the legislature to order some kind of oversight committee for these private prison, folks...

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Prison bids are in; Emerald Corrections bids to build in Globe

Modified: Friday, Mar 4th, 2011
Arizona Silver Belt
BY: Holly Sow/Staff Reporter

PHOENIX — Five bidders have submitted proposals to the Arizona Department of Corrections to build and manage private prisons to be contracted with the state of Arizona. Last month, a second, revised Request for Proposals for 5,000 beds to be contracted out through privately-run correctional facilities was announced by the ADOC. The RFP closed on Thursday, Feb. 24 at 3 p.m. with five companies making bids, one more than during the first round of bids, which was cancelled after three convicted murderers escaped from a private prison in Kingman on July 30, 2010.

According to the DOC these bidders are:

- CCA (Correction Corporations of America), founded in 1983, is the largest private corrections company in America with more than 60 prisons in numerous states across America, of which the company owns 44 outright. Based out of Nashville, Tenn., CCA runs private prisons in Florence and Eloy in Arizona.

- GEO Group, Inc., founded in 1984 and based in Boca Raton, Fla., currently runs private prisons in both Phoenix and Florence and manages and/or owns 118 correctional, detention, and residential treatment facilities nationwide.

MTC (Management and Training Corporation), founded in 1981, is headquartered in Centerville, Utah. MTC holds 24 government contracts to operate correctional facilities in seven states, including the prison in Kingman, Ariz. from which three convicts escaped in July of last year, and a prison in Marana, Ariz. MTC is also a leading Job Corps management contractor with the U.S. Department of Labor at centers across the United States. MTC is the third largest operator of private adult correctional facilities.

Emerald Correctional Management, founded in 1996, with corporate headquarters in Lafayette, La., runs six private prisons in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and in San Luis, Ariz. Emerald is proposing to build a 1,000-bed medium-security prison near the Gila County Fairgrounds in Globe City limits.

LaSalle Southwest Corrections, founded in 1997, currently runs 10 private prisons in Texas and Louisiana. Company headquarters are located in Ruston, La. LaSalle did not bid in the first round of the RFP.

Although the bidding has now closed, no further information is being released by the DOC until the bids have been awarded. Before the bids are awarded state law requires the DOC to hold a public hearing at each/any of the chosen sites for a proposed prison. This meeting will be conducted by the DOC, giving the community the opportunity to voice their support or opposition and provide input.

The initial RFP was canceled on Sept. 1, 2010 over concerns raised about the design of privately operated prisons after a July 30 breakout of a private prison in Kingman made national headlines. Emerald Correctional Management submittted a proposal in the first round to build a private prison northeast of Globe on state land. According to representatives of the Southern Gila County Economic Development Corporation (EDC), which has supported the bid for a private prison in Globe in both RFPs, the original bid was for a 1,000-bed prison complex. To date no drawings of the proposed Globe prison complex, site plans or other documentation as to the size of the facility have been released to the Globe-Miami public by Emerald or the EDC.

Emerald Corrections currently runs six medium-security prisons at Epps, La. with a 732 inmate capacity; San Luis, Ariz. with a 450 inmate capacity; LaSalle County Regional Detention Center at Encinal, Texas with a 566 inmate capacity; Sierra Blanca, Texas with a 1,000 inmate capacity; Haskell, Texas with a 548 inmate capacity; and Carrizozo, N.M. with a 120 inmate capacity.

ADC still eager to build those private prisons!.

Heads up from the Private Corrections Working Group. Considering the allegations at Saguaro Correctional Center and the Gladiator School that CCA has been running in Idaho all this time, I'd hope more stringent requirements are put into place for protecting those prisoners, including mechanisms assuring transparency so the community can accurately gauge how their prison is performing on all counts.**God only knows what happened at Red Rock in Eloy- there's been a news blackout due to the investigation there.

Just a reminder to those of you still thinking about collectively adopting a prison - the ADC doesn't even tell the public when there's been an escape attempt from a state facility (Christmas Day 2010) or a homicide in one of the prisons. What makes you think CCA/MTC/GEO/et al will tell you what they really do with and to their prisoners, since they have even less accountability to the rest of us - even though those may soon be YOUR prisoners.

The ADC can't basically be trusted to take care of their own prisoners' health and safety needs - or even the plant security - how are they going to do so once they farm the poorest of our prisoners out to profiteers just looking to make a buck off of warehousing incarcerated bodies until they die or grow too old to pose anyone a threat?

Oops? We've had someone here for 35 years who is innocent? Not a fluke, I'm afraid - there are too many wrongfully convicted people in prison. The ones who are most innocent seem to get the worst sentences, too - for the crime of challenging their case in court, that is. Prisoners are a pretty diverse group, not at all what you think they are from out here. By and large, they are ordinary people who did bad or desperate things. A handful are serious sociopaths, It's really not that hard to tell the difference. They should never be lumped in together as they are.

You just can't go into this business and keep your hands clean, folks - not even if you just live in town and turn away from all signs of human suffering. It just isn't possible. You will benefit with school books and roads and maybe even an extra legislative seat by propping up the status quo. Meanwhile, many mothers and fathers waste their lives away doing dead time that far exceeds what may have been reasonable for their actual crime. You have to dehumanize them all a bit in order to justify your job of keeping them confined. You have to beleive that the justice system is infallible, too. Pretty soon you'll be believing that anyone who has been criminalized (you won't even care what for) "deserves whatever they have coming to them", no matter how brutal or extra-judiciary that articular penalty is doled out.

It's not the big, bad thugs who get abused in prison, by the way - it's the weaker, more vulnerable prisoner who are extorted, threatened, raped, forced into sex slavery and gang activity...it's your 19 year old boy, or 22 year old girl, or 66 year old mother who just couldn't beat her pill addiction after the surgery. And the one who kill themselves tend to be seriously mentally ill already - they should have been sent to a hospital, not a prison where they would be traumatized further.

Think about whether or not that's something you want to pass on to younger generations as the legacy your town has to offer. Will you - they- really be able offer the care necessary for those in your custody? It's more than doing counts and locking doors. The prisoners are at risk these days, by the way, for many of the same reason the staff is. Overcrowding, short-staffing, crumbling facilities, poor policy directives, neglect of the mentally ill, and so on...

------------------------------------------------

Arizona to Re-issue 5,000-bed RFP

Correctional News
(01/13/2011)

PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Corrections plans to re-issue a Request for Proposals for the construction and management of 5,000 prison beds in the near future, but it is not yet known when.

“There is no date, but it will be soon,” said the agency’s director of communications Barrett Marson. “We are still trying to figure it out, but we are hopeful that it will be soon.”

The DOC cancelled the original RFP last September in the wake of an investigation into security issues raised by the July escape of three inmates from the privately operated Arizona State Prison-Kingman — a 3,508-bed minimum-to medium-security complex operated by Utah-based firm Management and Training Corp.

The original Arizona RFP resulted in bids from four firms. In addition to MTC, private prison firms Corrections Corporation of America, based in Nashville, Tenn.; Emerald Correctional Management Co., based in Lafayette, La.; and GEO Group, based in Boca Raton, Fla., submitted proposals.

The RFP cancellation and overhaul of provisions is designed “to ensure that private prison contractors can meet security and operational requirements and to eliminate or reduce unfavorable occurrences within Arizona’s contracted private prisons,” according to the findings of the investigation. The DOC has four other in-state private prisons under its jurisdiction — ASP-Central Arizona Correctional Facility, ASP-Florence-West, ASP-Marana, and ASP-Phoenix-West.

Future contracts, which will include additional monetary offset provisions and sanctions, will also stipulate enhanced contract performance auditing guidelines, and stringent performance outcome and measurement and reporting requirements. **

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

--------------------------------

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.

No New Private Prisons in AZ - for now.

Sorry to be slow on getting this out, folks...this isn't over yet, though - it looks like they're just tweaking the design of the next generation of prisons in Arizona. Follow the link for the whole article.

----------------------

Globe prison bid and others officially rejected

Posted: Wednesday, Sep 15th, 2010

BY: Ted Lake/Staff Writer AZ Silver Belt (Globe)

"The Arizona Department of Corrections has made it official. Four bids to build new private prison complexes in the state for up to 5,000 beds for DOC inmates, including a 1,000 inmate prison in Globe, all have been formally rejected..."

(Thank you, Silver Belt)

There may be hope for Globe yet.

This is the best news I've had today. Note how this group isn't just looking at economics - they're seriously questioning the ethics and effect on the character of the community if they host a private prison in Globe. You folks are going to do alright by those kids in your town whether or not you win this fight, because at least they will come to value that your reasons for resistance have to do with much more than finding any old means of subsistence. By your example they will learn that it isn't moral - nor is it a blessing from God - to profit off of the perpetual victimization that divesting from treatment and investing in incarceration assures. Rock on, brothers and sisters of Globe. Rock on. You too, Holly Sow - well done.


Citizens become active against prison proposal

Posted: Wednesday, Aug 4th, 2010

BY: Holly Sow/Staff Writer

GLOBE — A group of local citizens have formed to voice their opposition to the proposed 1,000-bed for-profit private prison in Globe city limits near the Gila County Fair Grounds. The group rejects the private prison as an economic development project for the area declaring that “promoting Globe as a ‘Prison Town’ is not in the best interest of the community.”

The group argues against the idea of private prisons based on a number of findings regarding the effects for-profit prisons have on local economies as well as a universal questioning of the ethical motivations of incarcerating people for profit.

From an economic standpoint, for-profit prisons are not comparable to state-run prisons in that private prisons are businesses, which are accountable to shareholders. Although Emerald Corrections, the private prison operating company that has put in the bid to ADOC for a 1,000-bed prison in Globe, has promised competitive, well above minimum wage compensation for its employees, statistics show that most private prisons pay lower wages or at minimum wage in order to cut operating costs and increase profit. One study showed that in order to reduce costs and increase profits, those who are in direct contact with the prisoners (the bulk of the jobs that would be open to the local working force should the prison be built) are the ones who earned the lowest wages.

Moreover, the group finds the profit motive of private prisons at odds with the rehabilitation function desired from such correctional institutions. Many argue that for profit motives may lead to reduced efforts to correct behaviors, treat substance abuse, and offer skills necessary to reintegrate incarcerated persons into the community. For-profit private prisons make money off of prisoners. It is not in their best interest, therefore, to try to reduce the number of prisoners, but rather they welcome the steady flow of incarcerated people in the equation prisoners equal profit. This raises the question of whether private prisons have an incentive to assist people in their efforts not to return to prison.

Another question raised is whether or not private prisons are in fact as profitable as they like to appear. A 2001 Report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy revealed that for-profit private prisons, especially larger ones with 500+ beds, are often the recipients of economic development subsidies provided by local, state, and federal governments. Combine the government funded subsidies with the relatively low wages and the limited ripple effect of the private prison business, what often appears like an excellent economic development opportunity to a community may not always live up to the promised expectations.

Furthermore, statistics show that many large private prisons tend to be financed through government-issued securities (lease bonds) which do not require voter approval. The issue of lack of oversight is another critique point of private prisons. Because private prisons are accountable to their shareholders, not the public, quality assurance in business practices often lacks transparency. Private prisons are not covered by the Freedom of Information Act.

The local group opposed to becoming a ‘prison town’ is asking citizens of Globe to look deeper into the for-profit prison business and consider the negative effects such large prison would have on further economic development of the city of Globe. They are asking the Globe City Council to pass a new resolution that “unequivocally opposed an Prison Project in or near the City of Globe.”

For more information or to become involved in the group, contact Jim or Kelly Moss at 928-425-9282.

Globe's hospitality plans await state OK.

Personally, I think we should be abandoning our decaying and over-crowded medium and minimum security facilities today, not building new ones. If America evolves as a society, those prison cells will sit empty and Globe will be hurting for cash, wishing we didn't chase all the immigrants away so they could be detained there. If Arizona prisons grow as projected and remain full twenty years out, it will be because the fascists and greed have won (and I will probably be occupying one of those cells).

-------------------

New Globe prison will require state hearing

Posted: Wednesday, Jul 7th, 2010

BY: Ted Lake/Staff Writer

Arizona Silver Belt (GLOBE)

GLOBE — Last Thursday, the Arizona Silver Belt was told, in the event that the Emerald Company was determined to be the successful bidder for the proposed private prison project in Globe, the Arizona Department of Corrections still could not immediately award a 20-year contract to the company to build the medium security complex here. That is because the statutes require as a next step for DOC to come to the city of Globe and conduct its own public hearing to allow any citizen or group to express their views for and against the proposed 1,000-bed prison and its site.

In short, Arizona Revised Statute 41-1609:02 says the Arizona Department of Corrections shall hold its own public hearing in the city or town the new prison is to be located.

The Department shall also publish a notice of the public hearing in a newspaper of general circulation in the area at least 10 days before the state’s hearing here.

Then, after listening to all public comments about the proposed new private prison from local citizens, the Department of Corrections can move forward in determining whether or not it will award a contract to that bidder.

Previously, the Globe city council held two long sessions over the private prison project which resulted in approving a resolution supporting it by a vote of 4 to 2.

Emerald Correctional Management Company is one of four companies who submitted bids May 28 to built up to 5,000-bed private prison complexes in Arizona, including a site near the Gila County fairgrounds in Globe.

Staff members of the Arizona Department of Corrections are continuing to do their due diligence in reviewing the lengthy bid packages, and could not give a completion date as of last week, only saying the process was taking longer than anticipated. They had originally hoped for the awarding of bids by June 30.

Ted Lake can be reached at teddlake@yahoo.com.

Globe: City of Hospitality or Prison Town?

Didn't these legislators do their homework? They should be embarrassed to be having a luncheon with some of these people - and taking them seriously. The Resistance in Globe has at least two new targets now: nail those legislators before they come out publicly with something stupid, or try to pressure ADC into accepting the Corplan / Emerald proposal. Konopnicki should know better, at least.

Make sure your voices are heard with all those other politicians who shared their table as well. And shame on the Gila Community College for supporting the idea of private prisons as a "good" industry for the workforce (they're in it for the $$ too).

-----------Here's a glimpse of Globe,by the way, from their website--------------

"Welcome to the City of Globe: City of Hospitality. We are happy you are interested in our historic city. We are a community with great landscapes, family values, friendly neighborhoods, & a rich history.

Visit this link to find out how to get to Globe.

Globe is centrally located in Southern Arizona. We are the perfect get away for a day trip or a weekend. We are located along the Historic Old West Highway, which takes you from Apache Junction, Arizona to Lordsburg, New Mexico. Come visit the Salado Indian Ruins at Besh-Ba-Gowah Archeological Park. Walk historic down town and enjoy the Arizona sunshine while visiting our antique shops, or visit The Cobre Valley Center for the Arts and view the works of local artists. If you are looking for beautiful scenery take a short drive to the Pinal Mountains or Roosevelt Lake to see the desert landscape. We are within a two-hour drive to Phoenix or Tucson.

Thanks for visiting our website, we hope to see you soon."

----------------------------

SGCEDC board courts state legislators for prison support
Posted: Wednesday, Jun 30th, 2010
BY: Holly Sow/Staff Writer


GLOBE — Members of the Southern Gila County Economic Development Corporation (SGCEDC) hosted an invitation-only luncheon banquet at the Dream Manor Inn on Thursday, June 24, to further promote and rally support in favor of having a 1,000-bed prison built on state land out
by the County Fair Grounds within Globe City limits. The luncheon cast the prison project in a very positive light, stressing the economic impact it will have for the communities of Southern Gila County.


Opponents of the prison were not invited to attend, however. The press was also excluded, but was given admittance at the door with the request that no pictures be taken and no questions be asked.

(That's SOP for these people. They run prisons- no dissent is allowed. - Peg)

Special guests included Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen and Arizona State Representative Bill Konopnicki, Gila Community College Senior Dean Dr. Stephen Cullen and Dean Patricia Burke, Globe Vice-Mayor Thea Wilshire, City Manager Kane Graves, county supervisors Mike Pastor and Shirley Dawson, County Manager Don McDaniel, Sheriff John Armer, and Emerald Companies Director of Business Development Mike Moore, F.C. Cuny Corporation President Chris Cuny, and Corplan Corrections President James Parkey.


The meeting reiterated many of the same points made in previous presentations at Globe City Council.


The main objective this time was to ask Allen and Konopnicki to make their support of a private prison to be built in Southern Gila County known at the state level. Allen was very receptive of the proposal after watching a DVD put together by the EDC and hearing from the EDC board members and city and county officials.

Konopnicki was eager to hear how the project would benefit the local economy and said he supported the state building the prisons in rural areas throughout the state of Arizona. He did ask for more information about qualified workforce numbers as well as the exact per diem number. Konopnicki further requested more information on the expansion possibility that was touched on, with the option of increasing the facilities from a 1,000 to a 2,000-bed prison. He asked to have information sent to him in a summary form.


Thea Wilshire gave a presentation about the need to diversify the local economy. Pastor commented on the need for expanded services to the region. Finally, Mickie Nye spoke of how the prison will benefit local families and businesses.


Melissa Woodall concluded the presentation part of the luncheon saying “We are only asking for 1,000 beds, only 20 percent of the total amount. That is not too much.”


The three gentlemen from the companies who build and operate the private prison ended with a plea “Is there anything our team can do to help this project? Is that a fair question?”


On June 29, 2010, the Arizona Department of Corrections media relations office reported that the decision regarding the private prisons is still pending legal review and review of the technical logistics suggested in each proposal. There is currently no set date for the announcement.

Globe still courting Corplan?

I can't believe anyone is still taking Corplan seriously. The entire town needs to descend on these decision-makers and set them straight: don't listen to McCreary and get suckered by these guys.

They scammed another town already - what's the puzzle here? Does Globe routinely do business with criminals (ironic that the business is a prison) as long as the state guarantees the town won't take a loss if they do it again? I guess that leaves the rest of us to absorb the hit for Globe's mistakes, if they enter a contract recklessly. "We" are the state.

What kind of ethics is that? What kind of legacy can they possibly be thinking of leaving their kids, doing business like that? What's the agenda behind this push to sell Corplan to Globe?

Stick to your guns, you council members who are questioning this. Challenge that hard sell. Believe that you have the creative potential and human resources to build a healthy economy that isn't based on profits from the perpetuation of crime and punishment...

-----------------------------------

http://www.silverbelt.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=72&story_id=1570

Prison talks continue

Posted: Wednesday, Jun 16th, 2010

BY: Andrea Marcanti/Editor

GLOBE — At the request of Mayor Fernando Shipley the last item on the agenda was moved to the top of the list at Monday night’s Globe City Council meeting. Consideration of the private prison proposal was revisited to openly discuss the project’s merits. Globe’s council approved a resolution in support of the project back in April, but the onset of new information has left a lot of unanswered questions.

Representatives from Emerald Correctional Management, Corplan and Cuny Corporation first approached Globe’s Council on April 13 regarding an RFP (request for proposals) from the State of Arizona for the construction of private correction facilities that would house up to 5,000 beds. The construction of these prisons would allow the state to transport inmates back to Arizona that are currently doing time out of state.

Plans to construct a maximum security facility to house medium security inmates near the existing prison was all mapped out in a bid that was submitted to the Arizona Department of Corrections on May 28 along with bids from four other companies.

Councilman Terrance Wheeler began the discussion by saying that he received information that the city could end up stuck with defaulted municipal bonds if the project moves forward. After briefly touching on the companies previous history in Hardin, Montana, a small city that was banking on their 450 bed prison bringing in $100,000 in annual per-prisoner revenue. However in Hardin plans didn’t work the way they were proposed and the city ended up with an empty complex and $27 million in defaulted bonds. Both Wheeler and Councilman Dezi Baker felt that the companies behind the project had “major problems” in their mode of operation.

In Globe’s case the state of Arizona has agreed on a 20 year renewable agreement with the successful bidder. “That’s set up so that the state has to come in every two years,” said Wheeler. “They can fund them partially; they can fund them anyway they want to.”

If Emerald Correctional Management does receive the bid for this complex, the RFP dictates that the state must renew this contract every two years.

Several members of the Southern Economic Development Corporation (EDC) were in attendance prepared to speak on behalf of the proposal and the companies behind it. Jerry McCreary, president of the EDC board addressed the council highlighting the positives that a project like this could mean. He reiterated that the project will not cost the city or Gila County anything, the 350 new jobs it will create, and that the developer has made a verbal agreement with the council to provide a new sewer line that will open the Northeast Corridor for future development. McCreary passed out a list of pros that also noted the $40 to $60 million economic impact this project would have on the area. “The only way we could lose money is if the city was to take out money from the general fund and invest it in this project,” said McCreary. “We can’t help what’s happened in the speculative world out there – Hardin didn’t have a state contract to back them.”

Still questions about Corplan’s past seemed to surface. Caroline Isaacs from American Friends Service Committee out of Tucson, made the drive up to Globe to help shed some light on the companies previous acquisitions. Isaacs, who specializes in the privitization of prisons, warned Globe’s council that they were not the only community Emerald and Corplan had their eye on. A similar presentation was also made in Benson, minus the bid from the Department of Corrections. The town of Benson refused the offer saying that there was just not enough information and the companies involved were to “pushy”. Isaacs also touched on the other companies in competition with Emerald for this bid. “It’s a very competitive bid and it’s safe to say that Emerald will not get it.”

The companies who submitted proposals are Management and Training Corporation, GEO Group Corrections, Corrections Corporation of America and Emerald Correctional Management Company. Isaacs talked about the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) a company that has invested in Arizona both by lobbying in the state legislature and by fronting $10,000 toward campaigning for Proposition 100. “Who do you think is going to get this contract? My monies on CCA,” said Isaacs. “When the contract doesn’t happen, Emerald will ask to fill this prison with illegal immigrants.”

Isaacs warned that at any point Emerald can bail or the state of Arizona can bail.

In the end the bid has yet to be awarded and no contracts have been signed, but the EDC remains hopeful that the promises of jobs and a free infrastructure will even out the negatives and all contracts can be finalized under the cities supervision.

“If we are fortunate enough to get on the short list that’s when the negotiations will begin,” said McCreary.