Tucson Hearing Puts Spotlight on Private Prisons in Arizona

Contact:Penny Pestle, (616) 340-2938, ppestle@cox.net Caroline Isaacs, (520) 256-4146, cisaacs@afsc.org

Tucson Hearing Puts Spotlight on Private Prisons in Arizona
Breaking News Highlights for-profit prison companies’ role in state legislation
Photo: Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham who puts out water for migrants
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TUCSON -- Wednesday night in Tucson, an overflow crowd heard testimony from experts and the public about the risks and suspect practices of the private prison industry across Arizona, the nation and internationally. The Hearing was presided over by a panel of Conveners representing a bipartisan spectrum of county, city and state elected officials.
Testimony was presented by a range of experts, including prison staff and administrators, attorneys, researchers, and even a real estate appraiser. Stephen Nathan, researcher and journalist, traveled all the way from London, England to lend his expertise on the practice of prison privatization worldwide. Members of the audience were also given the opportunity to present testimony to the panel, and included representatives of religious congregations, formerly incarcerated people, and an organization representing prisoners from Hawaii who are incarcerated in for-profit prisons in Arizona. Representatives of the private prison companies and the Arizona Department of Corrections, although invited, were noticeably absent at the event.

This important hearing, designed to prompt dialogue among policy-makers and the public, raised important questions about the perceived cost savings of private prisons, the safety of their facilities, the lack of accountability to the public of for-profit corporations, and the larger ethical concerns associated with profiting from incarceration.

From Mike Wilson of the Tohono O’odham Nation to Joe Glen of the Maricopa & Pima Juvenile Corrections Associations, the theme was the same: Companies such as Corrections Corporation of America, Management Training Corporation, and the GEO group consistently focus on profit over safety and rehabilitation of those who are incarcerated in their facilities.

Coming directly on the heels of the Tucson Hearing was a scathing report from National Public Radio exposing the influence that private prison corporations had in the development of Arizona’s controversial immigration law, SB1070. Corrections Corporation of America, which holds contracts with the federal government to incarcerate immigrants, was a key player in creating a law that would increase the number of immigrants in detention, thus representing the potential for tremendous corporate profits. The report describes how a shadowy organization called ALEC provided opportunities for corporations to meet with state legislators to draft model legislation, which those legislators later took back to their states.

What the NPR report does not reveal is that this practice dates back literally decades, and that ALEC was a driving force behind most of the “tough on crime” legislation passed by Arizona and other states in the 1990’s. These laws, such as truth in sentencing and mandatory minimums laws, sent state prison populations through the roof, and the resulting prison overcrowding crisis proved to be a golden opportunity for private prison operators in Arizona and elsewhere.

Arizona state legislators have been linked to ALEC and for-profit prison corporations for years. A 2006 report by the Institute for Money in State Politics tracks campaign contributions from the private prison corporations to various Arizona state legislators who were ALEC members, and links them to five pieces of legislation during the same period that sought modify Arizona’s sentencing laws, increase the number of private-prison beds in the state, and address overcrowding by requiring the Department of Corrections to transfer prisoners to private prisons.
The Tucson Hearing was the first in a series of statewide hearings on the issue. The next will be held in Kingman, the site of the recent escapes from a privately-operated prison, on November 8th.

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For more information on the hearings, background information on private prison companies, and materials on the issue of prison privatization, go to: www.afsc.org/tucson.

These materials, plus photos from Wednesday night’s hearing are on our blog, Cell-Out Arizona at: http://tucsoncitizen.com/cell-out-arizona/2010/10/28/130-crowd-tucson-public-hearing-on-prison-privatization-in-arizona

LEAGUE OF THEMSELVES: BACON BITS

When Kevin Bacon expressed interest in playing Ray Hueston's comic book superhero "Super Ray" on screen, he brought the show 'Bored To Death' "officially" into Earth Prime-Time - at least by Toobworld Central standards.

Toobworld accepts appearances by members of the League of Themselves. Because they are appearing as fictionalized versions of their real selves, they are just as much TV characters as Joe Friday or Roseanne Roseannadanna.

And the TV Kevin Bacon is (hopefully) different from his real world version. In Toobworld, Kevin Bacon has had the regular kind of chlamydia (not the "oral chlamydia of the mouth), and apparently would have been open to having sex with Ray as part of his artistic process. He could also relate to the fact that Super Ray has a huge plonker, (as 'Only Fools And Horses' puts it.)

That should make the televersion of his wife, Kyra Sedgwick happy, but she probably wasn't too happy about the chlamydia. And she won't be pleased if she ever finds out he probably got lucky in that Brooklyn bar with Ray's crazy ex-girlfriend.

With Bacon's collection of appearances as his own televersion, 'Bored To Death' has tapped into the heart of the Great Link, the tele-mosaic - the heart of the TV Universe. That's because one of the other appearances by Kevin Bacon was in an episode of 'Mad About You' which has official connections to 'Seinfeld' and several other NBC sitcoms.

Here's Kevin Bacon's tally so far:

'Bored To Death'

'The Magic 7' (TV movie)

'Will & Grace'

'Mad About You'

And in the Tooniverse:
'God, The Devil, and Bob'

I think it's O'Bvious that Kevin Bacon is a candidate for membership in the TV Crossover Hall of Fame!

BCnU!

THE HOLMES TRUTH

Apparently, the legal drama 'The Whole Truth' has been cancelled by ABC, but the remaining episodes will be burned off over the coming weeks.

Previews for those episodes were shown after the case that was broadcast this past Wednesday. And at one point, a very "wold newtonesque" connection could be argued from what we saw.

ADA Kathryn Peale exclaimed "The game is afoot!" She was met with a quizzical look by defense lawyer Jimmy Brogan.

"You know... Sherlock Holmes...." she said in explanation.

But when that didn't seem to clear things up for Jimmy, Kathryn grabbed her stuff and left the office: "You don't get me."

Since that was in a preview, there may have been more to that conversation which was edited out. But if the basics hold true, it could be interpreted that Kathryn was quoting the actual Sherlock Holmes!

There was no belaboring the point that Holmes is a fictional character created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A mention of the stories alone wouldn't be a problem as it has been acknowledged that they were chronicled by Dr. Watson. (Conan Doyle served as his literary agent.)

As a connection for Toobworld (which has less stringent rules than the Westphallians and other TV crossover sites), 'The Whole Truth' would then link to the interpretation of Sherlock Holmes assayed by Jeremy Brett, the official version of the Great Detective for Earth Prime-Time.

It would be nice to now link 'The Whole Truth' to another TV series that is firmly connected to the established hub of this version of the TV Universe (but which is shared by the Westphallians). But for now, the general assumption that Kathryn - as well as Terence Edgecomb and Chad Griffin - work for Jack McCoy, the District Attorney for TV-NYC (as seen in 'Law & Order') will have to serve.

BCnU!