Roy Copeland Chairman |
Tom Call |
Mary Gooding |
Norman Bennett |
Jerry Jennett, |
It’s not too late to express your opinion to this tax-funded (1 mil of your property taxes + SPLOST funds, for around $3 million a year) appointed board. Follow this link for contact information for the VLCIA board. Or sign the petition online and your signature gets emailed directly to VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer.
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VLCIA Executive Director Andrea Schruijer clarified on the telephone just now
that
Thursday’s 9AM-2PM board retreat
is an open meeting; the public can attend.
She said the agenda was made by the facilitator, and she had not seen it.
The purpose of the retreat is for board members to talk about their experiences
and roles as board members.
The retreat is not for discussing specific projects.
Regarding the 2PM board meeting Thursday, she said she thought the agenda was on VLCIA’s web pages. When we looked and found it wasn’t there, she said apparently there was some confusion due to the rescheduling of the meeting, and the agenda would be there soon.
I asked her whether the Project Excel Project Excel, the CCA private prison, she said the Preliminary Specifications ( see section 1.6.1) had been received. She said they had been received, and they were simply a site diagram, a copy of which was hanging on VLCIA’s office wall. From discussion with her, it appears to be this site plan: Continue reading
Zaid Jilani wrote for Republic Report 15 February 2012, Minnesota Governor Calls Out Corporate Front Group ALEC, Vetoes Its Bills
It has grown so powerful that it now has nearly one-third of all state legislators under its umbrella.Here’s video: Continue readingALEC has worked with legislators to pass bills ranging from issues as diverse as stripping unionized workers of their rights to making it harder for low-income citizens to vote. It is usually able to do so because it hands its corporate-written template bills to state legislators and gets them passed without any public scrutiny as to the origin of this legislation.
Late last week, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (D)
decided that corporate front groups like ALEC should not be able to write his state’s laws. Dayton decided to veto a series of “tort reform” bills that would’ve restricted the rights of citizens to sue to hold big corporations responsible. In a press conference discussing his vetoes, Dayton condemned ALEC for providing the templates for the bills. “I’ve found that Minnesotans do not want their laws written by the lobbyists of big corporations,” said Dayton.
Several times they’ve moved a regular meeting to a different date, and often they’ve held special called meetings, but I don’t recall them outright cancelling a meeting.Notice: The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Regular Meeting scheduled Tuesday, February 21, 2012 has been CANCELED due to a scheduling conflict and lack of a quorum. The rescheduled date and time of the meeting to be determined.
And so many of us were going to go see them….
You can still sign the petition against CCA’s private prison.
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David Royse wrote for the News Service of Florida yesterday, Scott Will Explore Ways to Privatize Prisons without Law Change,
Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday he will explore opportunities to privatize state prisons on his own following the Senate’s defeat of a bill that would have required some prisons be bid out to private companies.
Speaking to reporters Thursday morning after a public event on insurance fraud, Scott acknowledged that initially he didn’t consider privatizing prisons a priority, but was disappointed the Senate voted down a bill that would have done that, and said he’ll explore what many backers of the Senate plan said was a possibility that the governor could order privatization unilaterally.
The irony:
Scott pointed out that there are fewer inmates than anticipated and that it didn’t make sense to spend state dollars on half-full prisons.Maybe nobody told Gov. Scott CCA wants guaranteed 90% occupancy.
More irony: Continue reading
As always, LAKE is doing a fantastic job of uncovering the shadows.Barbara,However, please note there is a difference in capatalism & crony capitalism. Liberals have their fair share of the crony variety also AKA Soros & Monsanto, GM,etc. Free enterprise & capitalism is why our borders are being crossed legally & illegally, but crony capitalism will destroy us. If the government chooses to privatize there should be clear total delineation between them & the private business, not fascist public/private partnerships like CCA is courting. We need to resist P3s totally, but they are being welcomed with multi grant incentives & blessings of the Dept of Community Development & its Chamber of Commerce conduits. We are on the same team always for transparency in government & we can be on the same team against CCA if we focus on fighting the 3P concept.
Just a reminder, I used to work for CCA & I still love to see bad men in shackles (emphasis on bad). I don’t share most of what I call simplistic liberal views on prison reform, but I am certainly with you against crony capitalism especially the public/private partnership variety. As I’ve said before they are just the good old boy system, legalized, subsidized, & on steroids.
-Barbara Stratton
Thanks for the compliments, and we’re going to get you carrying a camera yet…. See next post for the rest of my response.
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David Royse in wctv.tv yesterday, Florida Senate Kills Prison Privatization,
A bipartisan coalition of senators bucked the chamber’s RepublicanPrivate prison proponents tried to sell it as cost savings. If prison privatization really does save money, why did the legislature previously try to hide it in a general budget bill, which was thrown out by a judge back in September?leadership Tuesday and rejected a proposal to privatize several prisons, but got warnings from leaders that it will have a cost in further budget cuts.
In a dramatic showdown with Senate President Mike Haridopolos and three other top leaders one of whom controls the Senate’s budget, one who controls the calendar and one who will be the next president opponents of the bill managed to kill it on a 19-21 vote.
The odd coalition that lined up against the bill included Republican populists who have become occasional mavericks, Democrats and some members of the GOP caucus that almost always vote with their party, but come from areas laden with corrections officers who opposed the idea.
This time, senators weren’t buying that baloney. Continue reading
You were talking about the private jail system. I’d like to voice my opinion of that. The private jail from our study so far, the cost…. I’m going to use a figure of around 800 inmates; we’re pretty close to 900 in our jail now. We figure around maybe $36 a day to feed the inmate, counting of course the food and our employment.Continue readingAnd looking at the private jail sector. And of course I’m responsible for the inmate whether he is in a private jail or in my jail. If I’m going to be responsible for that inmate, I want him here; I want him in my jail, not a private jail.
[applause]Another thing is the cost factor.
Andrew Jones wrote for Raw Story yesterday, Private prison company offers to buy 48 states’ prisons
In exchange for keeping at least a 90 percent occupancy rate, the private prison company Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has sent a letter to 48 states offering to manage their prisons for theWhat does CCA want in return?low price of $250 million per year, according to a letter obtained by the Huffington Post.
The company says it’s a way for states to help manage their current budget crisis. “We believe this comes at a timely and helpful juncture and hope you will share our belief in the benefits of the purchase-and-manage model,” CCA chief corrections officer Harley Lappin said in the letter.
…a 20-year management contract, plus an assurance that the prison would remain at least 90 percent full….So if a state, such as Georgia, was thinking of sentencing reform, or of getting on with decriminalizing drugs, either would become quite difficult after signing such contracts.
Here’s CCA’s offer letter, complete with a blank to fill in for the state.
Maybe CCA is realizing that it’s coming to the end of its rope on its old tricks, such as these, pointed out by Chris Kirkham in HufffintongPost yesterday, Continue reading
She copied VLCIA’s attorney. Probably he could interpret the termination clauses of the contract that way….
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