The motorcade went well and
you can still help
Drive Away CCA!
Turning radio into TV, here’s LAKE video of Tuesday morning’s interview
with Chris Beckham about
Drive Away CCA, the motorcade against the private prison.
Listen for the mentions of
Sheriff Chris Prine (he is
opposed to the private prison “I want him in my jail, not a private jail”)
Winn Roberson (the
motorcade was his idea),
Matt Flumerfelt (he filed the open records request that revealed
the contracts with the March 13th),
Bobbi Anne Hancock (she
dug up a history of CCA that reveals problems for many years
and she had a
very funny interview with VLCIA executive director Andrea Schruijer),
George Boston Rhynes (he’s been following incarceration and especially
jail issues for many years),
and former sheriff and current Lowndes County Commission Chairman
Ashley Paulk (he listed a number of hurdles the prison project
would have to leap before it could happen), and also the VDT.
Too many other people are involved to name here.
Here’s the video:
Video: Drive Away CCA radio (John S. Quarterman interviewed by Chris Beckham)
No private prison in Lowndes County,
Radio WVGA 105.9 FM with Chris Beckham, Drive Away CCA (DAC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 March 2012.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
Audio from WVGA 105.9 Also, audio from WVGA 105.9 is available.
There are plently of things you can still do to help Drive Away CCA:
- Sign the petition.
- Speak at the Valdosta City Council meeting Thursday or at the Lowndes County Commission meeting next Tuesday. They’re both implicated in this private prison decision.
- Write a letter to the editor.
- I’m sure other people can think of many other things.
-jsq
Short Link:
Kudos To Winn Roberson for organizing the motorcade! It was an awesome experience!
Go away CCA…NO PRIVATE PRISONS!
Great job on the radio interview John!! Way to represent and get the word out to the community!
Great interview John. The comment about employees not wanting to work at a facility in the same county they live in was an interesting thought relative to the proposed local employment benefits. When I worked for CCA in the inmate Mental Health unit at the Valdosta Correctional Institute we were always warned that keeping pictures of our families or anything personal on our desks was possibly dangerous and therefore not recommended. I loved my job there because being inside the prison meant we had to form close working relationships with each other and I love teamwork on the job and it was never boring. We had almost constant training hours warning us about the dangers of being in close contact with inmates and all the rules about interacting. For instance we had one inmate who was a brilliant artist. He like to gift us with his artwork, which we were allowed to accept as a non-personal gift to be placed on the office walls. He was a very well behaved prisoner especially to females, but his beautiful artwork always consisted of some form of predator watching prey such as a cat watching a bird. We loved the artwork, but took note of the inuendos.
Prisoners were always given strict instructions that they were never to come near or contact any prison employee after they were released. Right after I left to help open Gold’s Gym in V-Town one of the MH professionals started having problems with a released inmate that immediately began contacting him and stalking by purposely attending the church where he was a member. The professional had to leave the church where he had been a long time teacher.
I could give other examples of why employees might not want to work too close to home and I’m glad you entered that thought into the proposed jobs equation. I loved my job and would never have left except outside financial benefits were better, but it’s definitely not for everyone.
As a sideline question – If the CCA deal is retracted will the Industrial Authority buy back the parcel they sold to Mr. Bassford since he won’t be making his million plus profit from the parcel sale to CCA?