American Friends Service Committee, its partners and volunteers plan a legislative delegation and press conference on the Arizona Capitol House Lawn on Tuesday, Feb. 15, at 11 a.m., to remind lawmakers that prison privatization is a bad investment.
From the press release:
In the same week that one of the Kingman escapees went to New Mexico to face murder charges, the state of Arizona re-issued an RFP for 5,000 more private prison beds. The American Friends Service Committee calls on Governor Brewer and the state legislature to put a stop to this dangerous and irresponsible action.
On Tuesday, February 15th, we 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 at 11:00am 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.
The press conference will also feature Maria Vera-Martin, Executive President of Correctional Professional Officers Association/AZCOPS and Susan Maurer, retired Commissioner of Corrections for the state of New Jersey.
Carpools from Tucson will be organized. Please contact us at 520.623.9141 or email cisaacs@afsc.org to participate!
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.
The use of private prisons is a band aid to a bigger problem. Unfortunately, the state needs private beds right now as it is grossly overcrowded and their incarceration rate is one of the worst in the country if not the worst. Aside from their warehousing concept endangering both the public and the staff who work there, they have no regard for public safety and depend on local, state, and federal authorities to bail them out when something goes wrong. Oh sure, they are going to be held accountable for the financial part of the catastrophe but what about the loss of human lives, the danger they allow communities and cops looking for the fugitives to be in just to save a buck here or there. Litigation will eat this state’s risk management fund and the private prisons can back out anytime they want knowing they have the state by the cojones because they have no beds to put them in. Private prisons are bad business. Change the way Arizona does the prison business, change the culture and change the sentencing laws so we can do what every other state in the nation is doing. Reducing their prison population and saving taxpayers money so they can be re-allocated to education, healthcare and other state functions.