Category Archives: Community

Audio of WVGA 105.9 Drive Away CCA Interview

5PM today, Drive Away CCA, from the prison site at East US 84 and Inner Perimeter Road, honk at Valdosta City Hall, and march at the Industrial Authority office.

Chris Beckham’s show has put audio on the web of his interview with me this morning.
Update: Here’s LAKE video of the interview.

John Quarterman, who is with a group informally called “Drive Away CCA” visited The Morning Drive to discuss the group’s displeasure with a possible private prison that is being discussed in Lowndes County. A possible extension for the company to continue its plans here is up for renewal and the group feels its location here would be bad for area businesses and citizens alike.
Follow the link for the audio. Video up shortly.

-jsq

Private companies are not subject to sunshine laws —VDT

The VDT reminds us of an important distinction in yesterday’s editorial, Citizens entitled to open government,
All governmental entities supported by tax dollars are subject to the laws. Private companies are not.
As the VDT knows better than anybody else around here, getting informaiton out of Valdosta State Prison or the Georgia Department of Correcions (GDOC) is very hard. The VDT has been trying to find out what’s going on at Valdosta State Prison for years now, and getting the runaround and hitting stone walls.

Florida has a law that says private prison operators have to comply with Continue reading →

Keep an eye on the Land Bank Authority —Barbara Stratton

Today the Georgia Senate Rules Committee votes on Sen. Tim Golden’s SB 284 “Georgia Land Bank Act; governing creation/operation of land banks; provision”. Received 24 February 2012. -jsq
A citizen’s committee needs to be formed to keep an eye on the Land Bank Authority because they seem to think they are exempt from state Sunshine Law rules. In addition Sen. Golden has a bill SB 284 introduced into the state senate that will allow the establishment of regional land bank authorities. We citizens never consented to all this regional government that is being forced on us. If we can’t keep up with what the local land bank authority is doing just imagine what a regional land bank authority will be able to accomplish with zero public knowledge and input. This is one of the most dangerous pseudo-government entities ever and it needs to be addressed from the citizen level immediately. I applied for a citizen vacancy on the Land Bank Authority, but of course those positions are reserved for politically supportive individuals. Per the sunshine laws, which Sam Olens has sworn allegiance to, a citizen review committee would have to be advised of the meetings that are currently never publicized.

-Barbara Stratton

SB 284 already passed Monday a week ago in the Senate Finance Committee, according to Nelson Mullins, Gold Dome Report – 2-27-2012, Continue reading →

Georgia prison population plummetting

In two years, the legislature went from denial to doing something about the unsupportable costs of Georgia’s prison system. The Georgia prison population is already plumetting, and will drop more. This makes a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia an even worse business deal. If it ever opens, it probably will close.

Two years ago the Georgia legislature was in denial, as Carrie Teegardin wrote for the AJC 4 April 2010, Georgia prison population, costs on rise,

As Georgia lawmakers desperately search for ways to slash spending, they are not debating an option taken by other states: cutting the prison population.

Georgia operates the fifth-largest prison system in the nation, at a cost of $1 billion a year. The job of overseeing 60,000 inmates and 150,000 felons on probation consumes 1 of every 17 state dollars.

The state’s prison population has jumped by more than a quarter in the past decade and officials expect the number of state inmates to continue to creep upward. Georgia has resorted to measures other than reducing the prison population to keep corrections spending under control.

19 months later, things had changed, as the Atlanta Business Chronic reported 15 December 2011, BJS: Georgia prison population drops in 2010, Continue reading →

Monticello, FL prison maybe not yet closing, but at what cost?

Monticello and Jefferson County, Florida, have become dependent on a prison that opened in 1990. Why? According to Rick Stone of WUSF 1 Feb 2012,
Late in the 80s, with crime rising and prisons filling up, Florida needed new prison sites but few counties wanted to be one. Jefferson
because of the state’s declining inmate population.
County, just east of Tallahassee, was different. Then, as now, underpopulated and desperately poor, it saw an opportunity and it did something unusual.

“We welcomed them with open arms,” said Kirk Reams, Jefferson County’s court clerk and chief financial officer.

That’s not our situation. Crime is as low as it has been since the 1960s, prison populations have peaked, and we do have other sources of employment. Or are we really that desperate?

Jefferson County thinks it has lucked out again, but only at the expense of Florida taxpayers, and against the prison population trend.

John Kennedy wrote for the Palm Beach Post 8 February 2012, Condemned Florida prison gets second chance at life in House, Continue reading →

ACLU and 60 policy and religious groups ask states to reject CCA’s prison privatization offer

What do the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, The Sentencing Project, the NAACP, and the Southern Poverty Law Center have in common? They all want states to reject CCA’s offer to 48 states to buy prisons. Right here in Lowndes County, our Industrial Authority wants to go one better for CCA and help build a shiny fresh new private prison with our tax dollars.

PR from yesterday, ACLU Urges States to Reject CCA Offer to Privatize Prisons,

The American Civil Liberties Union and a broad coalition of 60 policy and religious groups today urged states to reject a recent offer by the nation’s largest private prison company to buy and privatize state prisons.

In a letter sent to governors in every state, the ACLU and 26 other organizations said a recent offer by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to buy prisons currently run by state officials is a backdoor invitation to take on additional debt while increasing CCA’s profits and impeding the serious criminal justice reforms needed to combat the nation’s mass incarceration crisis.

Two similar letters are also being sent today by religious coalitions to governors. One of the letters, sent by 32 faith groups including the United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society, the United Church of Christ/Justice and Witness Ministries, the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness, says there is a moral imperative in reducing incarceration through evidence-based alternatives to imprisonment and re-entry policies that ease the transition of prisoners back into society. A third letter, from the Presbyterian Criminal Justice Network, argues that the principles of mercy, forgiveness, redemption and reconciliation are largely absent from the private prison industry.

“Selling off prisons to CCA would be a tragic mistake for your state,” the ACLU’s letter reads. “[CCA’s] proposal is an invitation to fiscal irresponsibility, prisoner abuse and decreased public safety. It should be promptly declined.”

You can help decline CCA’s private prison in Lowndes County.

-jsq

Weatherstripping —Paul Wolff, Tybee Island, 2012 02 17

Paul Wolff explains weatherstripping on his door on Tybee Island. Inexpensive and very effective.

Here’s the video:


Weatherstripping —Paul Wolff, Tybee Island, 2012 02 17
renewable energy,
Paul Wolff, The Volta Collaborative (TVC),
Tybee Island, Chatham County, Georgia, 17 February 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Motorcade against CCA, 5PM Tuesday March 6th

Do you want to live in a prison colony? Help us say, CCA Go Away!

Join us 5PM Tuesday March 6th 2012 at the private prison site (Dasher-Johnson Road off US 84 at Inner Perimeter) for a motorcade by Valdosta City Hall to the Industrial Authority offices: for education and against the private prison.

When:5PM (rush hour) Tuesday March 6th
How:Cars, trucks, motorcycles, and bicycles
Who:Everybody is invited
What:Oppose the Private Prison
From:Proposed Private Prison Site
US 84 @ Inner Perimeter Road
(Staging on Dasher-Johnson Road next to US 84)
By way of:Valdosta City Hall
Valdosta City Council Work Session
Honk to say No CCA!
To:Industrial Authority Office
2110 N. Patterson Street
(Patterson at Park Avenue)
Bring a sign: No Private Prisons!
Contact: noprivateprisons@gmail.com
Winn Roberson, 229-630-2339, winnroberson@bellsouth.net
John S. Quarterman, 229-242-0102, politics@quarterman.org



on the web


View Larger Map


Petition

Winn Roberson read the newspaper Friday (February 24th) and realized the prison site was down the street from him, so the news finally sunk in. This motorcade was his idea to drive the point across to the Industrial Authority: we don’t want a private prison!

John S. Quarterman lives about as far away from the prison site as you can get in Lowndes County, but realizes it will affect everybody for many counties around. So let’s say CCA Go Away!

-jsq

PS: If you can’t come, you can still sign the petition to the Industrial Authority, or write a letter to the editor, or…

Georgia Energy Trust Fund —Dr. Sidney Smith 2012 02 17

After the ribbon cutting for a new solar installation in Bryan County, Dr. Sidney Smith talked about a distributed commodity market in solar power, plus large private investment utility-scale solar plants, and then he told LAKE about the Georgia Energy Trust Fund.

Here’s the video:


Georgia Energy Trust Fund —Dr. Sidney Smith 2012 02 17
South Eastern Pathology Associates,
Selling Power, Lower Rates for Customers LLC (LRCLLC),
Richmond Hill, Bryan County, Georgia, 17 February 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

We donate 1.5% of the money we make to this trust fund for the county…. Now we invest that money in Georgia bonds for the county. And then the county only gets half of the interest So the funds we donate for these counties will grow forever as a result of what we’re doing with the trust fund…

It’s invested in us, roads, airplanes, deep water, stuff like that.

And that’s the key actually.

Continue reading →

Gently orienting the Land Bank Authority to Sunshine Law compliance —Barbara Stratton

Received today. -jsq
Is gently orienting the Land Bank Authority to Sunshine Law compliance going to be a joint LAKE transparancy in government venture or am I riding solo? Since their purpose is to acquire, transfer, divest, etc. land for the common good, real time exposure of this public good should be welcomed. I’m sure it is just an oversight that to date I have never seen a posted meeting date and the city web site has never listed anything but “occasionally” for a meeting schedule. Perhaps they think citizens would be bored and not interested in their meetings and we just need to let them know we are interested. Currently I’m interested in the construction for Dupont on St. Augustine.

Also we need to keep watch to make sure SB 284, which would legislate the formation of a regional land bank with greatly enhanced acquisition powers, does not rise from the 2011 session ashes. If getting information from the local land bank authority is so difficult, can you imagine trying to keep up with a regional entity and all the creative land deal possibilities.

-Barbara Stratton

It’s an hours in the day issue. if you want to spearhead this issue, please lead. As you know, LAKE as an organization rarely takes a position on anything. Most topics are pursued by one or two or more individuals and almost all posts are the opinions of the poster, unless otherwise indicated by “for LAKE”. You seem to be the kernel of a syndicate of initiative on this one.

According to The Valdosta City page on the Land Bank Authority “Last updated: 8/23/2010 7:29:18 AM”: Continue reading →