Just a quick recap of a meeting I had yesterday with VLCIA’s Andrea
Schruijer. When asked where we were with the private prison issue, she
responded, “we contractually agreed to a 3rd extension with a term of
365 and CCA has until March 13, 2012 to request that extension.” So I
asked,” if CCA doesn’t request a
3rd extension, then the issue is over,
right?” She replied, “If there’s no response from CCA, then it is up to
the board to determine how to move forward.” When I asked her why they
would even consider honoring a contract extension to CCA knowing some
of the controversy over CCA’s business practices, she replied, “because
there is a partnership between the VLCIA and CCA and we are
contractually bound to a 3rd extension.”
I pointed out that the private prison industry wasn’t interested in
public safety and rehabilitation they simply wanted to make a quick
buck off the lives of others. I informed her of the chronic employee
turnover, understaffing, high rates of violence and extreme cost
cutting which all have been attributed to CCA.
I told her that Lowndes County already had its own share of air
pollution and that amount of air pollution here is directly
proportionate to the amount of lung and bronchial caner in our area. I
encouraged her to consider sustainable businesses for the future
economic growth of our community, not smoke stack business. Her reply,
“so what you are saying is that you think the industrial should just
close its doors?” I actually hadn’t thought about that but the
question did make me ponder.
I left her with
a 91 page research report which takes a critical look
at the first twenty years of CCA’s operations. I requested an email
response of her thoughts about the report and am currently awaiting the
response…
Biomass did come up in the conversation and Mrs. Schruijer was quick to
assert that
CCA’s CEO Damon Hininger stands to benefit should the states provide
him with prisons well-stocked with prisoners. In 2010, for example,
his total compensation equaled $3,266,387.
4. Damon T. Hininger
Corrections Corporation of America
Market cap: $2.83 billion
Age: 40
Industry: Property management
How do you like that euphemism?
“Property management.”
Does that refer to the real estate, or to the prisoners?
Or maybe to captive local government agencies that cede CCA
“absolute discretion”?
Valdosta City Council and Mayor, who may not have been following the private prison issue,
now know about it and are aware that they are all implicated in the private prison
decision, due to events at the Industrial Authority board meeting
and the Valdosta City Council meeting, both Thursday 23 February 2012.
After remarking that I’d rather be talking about the additional solar panels
recently installed on my farm workshop up here in the north end of the county,
I recapped the
case against a private prison
and referred the Valdosta City Council to
my LTE in the VDT of that morning
(Thursday 23 February 2012).
I remarked that I was disappointed the Industrial Authority
hadn’t done anything to stop the prison at its meeting earlier that same day.
Since they might be wondering what all this had to do with them, I pointed out that,
if I could use the word,
they were all implicated as mayor and council
in the private prison decision because
Jay Hollis, CCA’s Manager of Site Acquisition, in his Valdosta-Lowndes County, GA / CCA Partnership: Prepared Remarks of August 2010,
lavishly praised the Lowndes County Commission and Chairman and the
Valdosta City Council and mayor.
Although the mayor was different now, and maybe some of the council,
nonetheless it was the same offices of council and mayor, still implicated.
I asked for their opinions on that subject.
Per their custom, they did not offer any at that time.
So, maybe we’ll hear from them later.
Or maybe the Industrial Authority board will hear from them….
Valdosta Mayor and Council are implicated in the private prison —John S. Quarterman @ VCC 2012 02 23
VSEB, employment,
Regular Session, Valdosta City Council (VCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 23 February 2012.
Videos by George Boston Rhynes for K.V.C.I., the bostongbr on YouTube.
The only thing a board member said about it was Chairman Roy Copeland
reminding me that the board didn’t answer questions in Citizens Wishing
to be Heard.
Col. Ricketts added that in staff’s discussions with CCA,
CCA had indicated they were mulling it over internally, and
VLCIA should “stand by” for CCA’s next move.
That’s right, your local Industrial Authority, whose staff and land purchases
are funded by your tax dollars, should stand by waiting for a private
prison company to tell them what to do.
And the Industrial Authority board’s silence is an answer:
they said nothing different from their previous vote for the contract
to bring in this private prison;
nothing different from their previous acceptance
of the first and second option extensions;
and nothing in objection to what Col. Ricketts said.
So your tax-supported Industrial Authority wants a private prison in
Lowndes County, Georgia.
Do you want that?
Do you want a private prison with fewer guards per prisoner
Continue reading →
Do you know why the county sold this property for less than the assessed
price to the current owner in 2007 minus the wetlands that interject? Did
they know it would be considered for a private prison at that time? Now
the current owner will make the million dollar profit instead of the
county. Since this is considered industrial park acerage owned by the
county why would the county sell it if an industry/business was not
promised at that time? What is the 100 acres the development agreement
says the owner will be given? Is that the 119 acres of wetlands? If
the county decides not to allow the private prison what happens to the
earnest money that has been deposited to date since that would not be
an action by the buyer or the seller?
The seller was not the Lowndes County Commission, which would start with
“LOWNDES COUNTY”, and it’s not the City of Valdosta, which wouldn’t be
hyphenated with the county name like that.
Could it be the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority?
Industrial Authority Executive Director Andrea Schruijer told me to expect
their board to say something at their 2PM Thursday board meeting about the
private prison Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) wants to build
on US 84 at Perimeter Road. If they don’t give CCA another extension,
the contract expires March 13th.
There’s still time to contact them, (229) 259-9972.
Or go to their board meeting at 101 North Ashley Street,
2PM Thursday February 23rd.
A private prison would not increase employment in Lowndes County. It
would not even save the state money. And it would have high risk
of closing after or even before it opened, because of escapes and
inmate disturbances, and most importantly because the state and federal
governments can no longer afford to incarcerate so many people. That would
leave us and the state holding the bag for any investment in building it.
Outsourcing public justice for private profit at taxpayer expense is
not only bad business, we the taxpayers can’t afford to pay for it while
public education is under increasing budgetary pressure.
As members of the local community, we do not wish to live in a private
prison colony, with the attendant risks of inmate violence and escape,
and the accompanying public opprobrium that would drive away the
knowledge-based workers we claim to be trying to attract.
Finally, public justice should not be a matter of private profit.
John S. Quarterman
lives in Lowndes County
You may recognize the wording from the
petition.
You can always write your own letter with your own reasons.
The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority is having
a retreat 9AM-2PM today.
They have a facilitator, who is going through what looks like the usual facilitated procedures.
She claims to be camera-shy, but Chairman Roy Copeland tells me he
wants the Industrial Authority to be transparent and to be seen as transparent.
Here the facilitator is
getting the board and staff to answer some initial questions.
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Retreat, 101 N Ashley St., Valdosta, GA
Pictures and videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, 23 February 2012.
After they gave individual answers, they broke into groups each including board
and staff:
Continue reading →
Thursday’s Industrial Authority
retreat and board meeting are both open meetings, which the
public can attend.
And at the 2PM board meeting apparently there will be news about
Project Excel, CCA’s private prison.
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.
The board will entertain proposals at the regularly scheduled meeting
in February. Please email proposals to the following no later than 12:00
p.m. on March 16, 2012:
I asked Andrea Schruijer about those two dates just now on the telephone.
She said they would look at any proposals they have received by the
time of
Thursday’s board meeting,
but they would not vote on them then.
Their March board meeting is scheduled for
20 March 2012,
which is after the March 16th due date.
Schruijer. When asked where we were with the private prison issue, she responded, “we contractually agreed to a 3rd extension with a term of 365 and CCA has until March 13, 2012 to request that extension.” So I asked,” if CCA doesn’t request a 3rd extension, then the issue is over, right?” She replied, “If there’s no response from CCA, then it is up to the board to determine how to move forward.” When I asked her why they would even consider honoring a contract extension to CCA knowing some of the controversy over CCA’s business practices, she replied, “because there is a partnership between the VLCIA and CCA and we are contractually bound to a 3rd extension.”
pollution and that amount of air pollution here is directly proportionate to the amount of lung and bronchial caner in our area. I encouraged her to consider sustainable businesses for the future economic growth of our community, not smoke stack business. Her reply, “so what you are saying is that you think the industrial should just close its doors?” I actually hadn’t thought about that but the question did make me ponder.
