Grassroots Leadership Blog

Humpday Hall of Shame: Idaho set to send prisoners out-of-state again?

July 4, 2012 by Bob Libal

Welcome to The Hump Day Hall of Shame:  Every Wednesday we highlight the private prison industry’s influence on public policy through campaign contributions, lobbying, and the revolving door of public and private corrections.

This week we return to Idaho, a familiar location for the Humpday Hall of Shame.  Back in April, we reported that Idaho, despite a long run of horror stories and lawsuits involving private prison corporations, continues to contract with private prison companies like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).   CCA operates the Idaho Correctional Center, a facility with a reputation so violent that it has earned the nickname “Gladiator School” from people incarcerated there.

Now, Idaho is looking to export prisoners to a CCA prison in Colorado.  See more from an AP article after the jump.

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New Leader for Grassroots Leadership

June 22, 2012 by Anonymous

 

Beginning July 1st,  Bob Libal will be Grassroots Leadership’s new Interim Executive Director.

Bob, currently our Senior Organizer, brings with him more than a decade of work around the issues of prison and immigrant detention privatization.  He has worked in leadership positions with Grassroots Leadership for almost ten years, managing some of our most successful program.  Please direct all Grassroots Leadership communication to him at blibal@grassrootsleadership.org.

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Humpday Hall of Shame: NJ Governor Chris Christie & Community Education Centers

June 20, 2012 by Bob Libal

Welcome to The Hump Day Hall of Shame:  Every Wednesday we highlight the private prison industry’s influence on public policy through campaign contributions, lobbying, and the revolving door of public and private corrections.

For today's Humpday Hall of Shame we induct both New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and private prison corporation Community Education Centers (CEC). CEC was subject to a three-part expose in the New York Times this week on its half-way houses in New Jersey.

The reports detail a stunningly flawed half-way house system with little-to-no security, prisoners subject to sexual assaults, theft, and murder, and more than 5,000 prisoners who simply walked away from the facility.

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The for-profit corrections corporations' loss is society's gain

June 18, 2012 by Anonymous

"It makes no sense to expel talented young persons who are, for all intents and purposes, Americans."
  And with that message, President Barack Obama announced a policy that gives legal status to nearly a million young immigrants who meet the DREAM Act requirements, and, for the moment, stops their deportation and grants work authorization.

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Humpday Hall of Shame: Private prison "insanity" in Arizona

May 9, 2012 by Bob Libal

Welcome to The Hump Day Hall of Shame:  Every Wednesday we highlight the private prison industry’s influence on public policy through campaign contributions, lobbying, and the revolving door of public and private corrections.

This week, we return to familiar territory - Arizona.  Earlier this week, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a "compromise" budget agreement.  Included in that budget were 500 maximum security state-run prison beds and 1,000 private prison beds.  In fact, Arizona doesn't need more prison beds due to the state's declining prison population.

What's more the budget includes a provision that would remove a requirement to study the quality and cost of public vs. private prisons.  That provision is convenient for the private prison industry after a front-page NY Times report found that private prisons in Arizona were actually costing the state more than public facilities.

If this situation makes you think Arizona is going insane, you're not alone.  See what Arizona House Minority Leader Chad Campbell said of the new provision after the jump.

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Dennis DeConcini - Resign from CCA Now

April 25, 2012 by Bob Libal

Welcome to The Hump Day Hall of Shame:  Every Wednesday we highlight the private prison industry’s influence on public policy through campaign contributions, lobbying, and the revolving door of public and private corrections.

Today's Humpday Hall of Shame inductee is former Democratic Arizona Senator Dennis DeConcini.  DeConcini, who served in the Senate from 1977 until 1995, sits on the board of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).

DeConcini's membership on the CCA board makes him complicit in the anti-immigrant actions of CCA.   See what the Fuerza Coalition has to say after the jump.

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Who's pushing private prisons in New Hampshire?

April 11, 2012 by Bob Libal

Welcome to The Hump Day Hall of Shame:  Every Wednesday we highlight the private prison industry’s influence on public policy through campaign contributions, lobbying, and the revolving door of public and private corrections.

For today's Humpday Hall of Shame, we go back to New Hampshire to look at who is being paid to push private prisons in the "Live Free or Die State."  They include the current mayor of Concord and several well-connected lobbyists.

According the New Hampshire Business Review, the current Request for Proposals to privatize the state's entire prison system would reach historic proportions:

"Will New Hampshire become the first state in the nation to hand over its entire prison population to a corporation based out of state? And is it in the middle of doing so right now?  The New Hampshire Department of Corrections has put out a request for proposal that would essentially hand over the keys to a future penitentiary to an outside contractor for 20 years. Though the RFP still has to clear several hurdles, four companies have responded with plans to build, and probably run, a new prison for all of New Hampshire's male (and perhaps female) inmates."  ("Proposal under review would put all New Hampshire prisoners in private, for-profit facilities -- the first state to do so," April 6) [node:read-more:link]

Corrections Corp. of America Pours Money into Idaho Republican Coffers

April 4, 2012 by Anonymous

Welcome to The Hump Day Hall of Shame:  Every Wednesday we highlight the private prison industry’s influence on public policy through campaign contributions, lobbying, and the revolving door of public and private corrections.

This is the second in a two-part piece on the history of the State of Idaho’s contracting with private prison corporations.

Last week we reported that Idaho, despite a long run of horror stories and lawsuits involving private prison corporations, continues to contract with private prison companies like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).   CCA operates the Idaho Correctional Center, a facility with the reputation so violent that it has earned the nickname “Gladiator School” from people incarcerated there.

This week, we will explore a possible explanation for Idaho's continued contracts with private prison corporations in Idaho - campaign contributions to influential politicians in the state.  According to data from InfluenceExplorer.com, Corrections Corporation of America has donated more than $119,000 in campaign contributions to Idaho politicians since 2002.   GEO Group donated another $14,400 in just two election cycles - 2006 and 2008.  See who has profitted the most from this lobbying money after the jump. [node:read-more:link]

All Eyes on Crete, Illinois, As Senate Takes Steps Against Privatization of All Prisons and Detention Centers

March 29, 2012 by Anonymous

Grassroots Leadership applauds the passage of Illinois SB 1064, which would prohibit the state from contracting “…with a private contractor or private vendor for the provision of services relating to the operation of a correctional or detention facility." The bill passed in 34-17 vote, and now  goes to the Illinois House.

In 1990, the State of Illinois banned most privately run detention centers and prisons through its Moratorium Act, which passed with bipartisan support.  The law has kept private prison giants like Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group out of the Land of Lincoln ever since.

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