Pearls of Information
About Us
BLOG
Opinions
Information
Forums
Local Elections
Local Issues
Links
Guestbook & Feedback
Contact
us
This work is licensed under a
Creative
Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Concerned Citizens for Integrity
Points presented to the County Commission
Mission Statement - Our purpose is to oppose any prison(s) to be built in San Angelo or within a 10 mile radius of the city limits of San Angelo, to seek and share advice from other city and county officials where prisons have been built; and by organizing a petition drive, we voice our protest of this matter to the officials whom we have elected.
Prison Comparisons (Bobbie Bolander)
How does the faith based program for CCI’s proposed prison compare with the Chuck Colson’s InnerChange Freedom Initiative Christian prison program at the Carol Vance Unit near Houston?
I personally toured the unit with administrators, and a prisoner presented the program to me. Allow me to make some comparisons:
The Chuck Colson InnerChange Freedom Initiative program is a 24 hour, 7 day a week Christian prison program with prisoners screened by the Texas Department of Corrections. Groups of 40-60 prisoners arrive and proceed through the entire curriculum as one group. Their schedule includes 7-12 hours daily of living skills classes, school work to attain a GED and leadership training classes with daily evening classes including personal faith, mentoring, substance abuse, family series and community Bible study. Their literature stresses it to be “A place to discover the transforming love of Jesus Christ.” I have xeroxed a handout of their daily schedule for you.
If CCI bases its faith-based program after Florida’s faith-based Lawtey prison, which was aired on local TV June 30, prison officials say 26 different religions are represented, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Wicca, Native American spirituality and some atheists.
How is CCI going to address the diversity of religious viewpoints?
If CCI’s faith-based program is bringing God to these prisoners, how much time will be devoted to religious study and life skills versus working for a corporation that is outsourcing its labor to inmates?
The Carol Vance Unit with three other units were built several miles from the town of Richmond on 1238 acres.
Your steering committee has proposed to place the proposed prison with four mammoth prison buildings on 150-200 acres within a mile of the city limits and in close proximity of two existing neighborhoods.
How can one compare apples with oranges?
Economic Impact (Weldon Hampton)
According to private prison economic impact studies, there is (quote) “no evidence that prison expansion has stimulated economic growth.” What’s more, they provide evidence that in slow-growing counties, new prisons do more harm to the economy than good. I have xeroxed a handout of the conclusion of one study for your review.
Jobs: You speak of new jobs. The estimate of new jobs is being publicized at 153 jobs. However, industry companies located within the prison will hold “40” of those jobs, leaving an actual total of 113 new jobs. Only 30% (or 34) of those 113 new jobs will be sourced locally. Will these local jobs be “service” or “professional” positions? Are these 34 jobs worth the county’s risks?
Many of our local contractors are thinking they will have a chance to bid jobs. However, CCI has contracted with Abrams Construction Co. of Atlanta, Georgia, to construct the facilities.
Regarding the work program inside the prison - how many jobs will be lost locally and in neighboring towns because of the cheap labor provided by the prisoners?
Will our court system be affected? Yes. Because the prison is a private business operating on county property, any crimes committed inside the prison fall within the jurisdiction of the Tom Green County court. Prisoners file a lot of lawsuits, and these lawsuits will likely go through the local court system. Some towns report their court caseload increased 50% to 100% after building a prison.
Will our property taxes increase? Yes, very likely. County officials will tell you that bonds are paying for the prison and that taxes will not go up—and that’s true, with respect to prison construction and operation. But, possibly the city and the county will have increased costs in law enforcement, the courts, and the schools; and the county could have increased hospital costs. Increased costs to the city and county will translate into increased taxes in the future. Remember, these services are usually paid for with property taxes—but the prison, which adds over 600 people to our population, pays no property tax. You can’t add a 600-person burden to our municipality without someone paying for it.
Will the prison built on either of the present sites affect the future of Goodfellow Base?
According to the May issue of ”Incs Magazine”, San Angelo has the distinction of being #25 on the top 100 list of best places to do business in the United States. How will the location of this prison almost within the city limits and in close proximity to the Industrial Park affect new businesses contemplating relocating?
The Issue of Privatization of Prisons (Martha Howell)
As you will hear from all of us today, we are not opposed to the concept of improving the spiritual lives of inmates, nor opposed to decreasing recidivism rates. Our concern, as citizens and voters of Tom Green County, is the appropriateness of an incarceration facility in our home town when other proven means to the same end exist.
I want to address the moral issues of private prisons, whether for profit or not for profit. My comments are drawn from an article from Cornell University that can be found on the Internet (http://government.cce.cornell.Edu/doc/html/PrisonsPrivatization.htm). I have included the text for you in the package, as it cites many useful references to back up the conclusions.
The main issues surrounding the outsourcing of incarceration are Efficiency and Quality; and the effect on Public Values including safety, justice, rehabilitation, and legitimacy.
Regarding Efficiency, proponents of private prisons have produced numerous studies pointing to reduced per diem costs to states over state run facilities. Opponents point to the same studies pointing out failure to include higher overhead costs such as contract negotiation, contract management, and above-the-ordinary health care and legal costs. In 1996 the US General Accounting Office found there was no evidence of efficiency gains from privatization. As to boosts to the local economy, a study in 2002 found little evidence that the prisons caused economic growth.
In the area of Public Values, a 2001 study on safety found there were as many as 50% more violent incidents in private prisons, and a 1998 study found that government run facilities have fewer escapes, less substance abuse, arid greater recreational and rehabilitation measures in place than similar private institutions.
Also in the area of Public Values, the justice of a private system that relies on income per day per prisoner is questionable. The corrections industry heavily funds lobby groups that have supported stiffer sentences. Is the purpose of our justice system to form a pool of cheap labor, or to rehabilitate criminals?
While the public motive for the proposed CCI facility is rehabilitation, at it’s core is a work environment where unnamed companies will exploit prison labor. Profiteering from the incarceration of human beings is a corruption of justice.
Safety (Loretta Burgess)
Definition from Webster:
Safety 1) freedom from danger or hazard.
2) exemption and preservation from hurt, injury or loss
In the presentations we have heard about the proposed prison, we have been told it would be minimum security or perhaps medium security prisoners. Would one of you please define exactly what that means in regards to the type of crimes involved?
The reason I ask is because of the following example:
In 1996, a minimum security CCA prison in Houston, originally designed for illegal aliens, decided to fill beds by importing from another state 240 sex offenders, some of them rapists. In August of that year, two of the sex offenders beat up a CCA officer, stole his car, and escaped. Texas officials were outraged. They had no idea before the escape that violent criminals from another state were being housed in the minimum-security facility. The escapees were recaptured. But they could not be prosecuted because Texas had no law in place for private-prison breakouts. (Http://www.flpba.org/private/texas.htm and www.doc.state.nc.us/news/1996/96news/ESCAPES2.HTM).
Can any of you tell us if this law concerning private prisoners has been changed? If not, who can we ask to find out? Also, can you guarantee, on record, that more violent offenders will not be brought in at a later date just to fill beds?
Enclosed is a handout of interest concerning private prisons in Texas. I ask you today, as elected officials, that you do not bring a facility such as these to be a part of our community.
Thank you for your time.
Water (Diane McWilliams)
The county of LaSalle built a prison 500 feet outside its city limits of Encinal, Texas, and it has depleted their water supply to the point that it is even difficult to get a permit for a new home.
A city official of Bronte, Texas, stated the biggest problem they have entailed with respect to their prison is the lack of water supply.
Each prisoner will use an estimated 100-115 gallons of water per day. That amounts to a total phase 4 consumption of 259,670 gallons per day.
Will the city’s existing water and sewer systems handle the needs of 600 to 2200 inmates? Will the citizens have to bear increases in rates due to expansion of facilities?
You know, water is the source of life! Shouldn’t additional sources of water for San Angelo be considered before committing to any venture requiring as much water usage as this prison will require?
Commentary (Allie Devereaux)
There are many good people out there embracing this prison proposal on purely ideological grounds. It is important to realize that most who oppose it are not opposed to helping prisoners find their way to a better path, nor do they deny that what offenders might need most is God. What we oppose is the way this is being done, with complete disregard for citizens with homes in the neighborhoods and small rural pockets around the proposed sites on Highways 67 and 380. Structurally, this facility will be as imposing as a Nascar racetrack, and there are safety risks to consider. We are opposed to the facility itself any where near the city limits or near rural habitations, as we are also skeptical about the corporation pushing this agenda. Both instinct and reason suggest that the reputation of CCI is questionable. They have no experience, and many other Texas towns have turned down their proposal.
What industries will employ these prisoners? Will any of them be local? Upon release, will the prisoners be guaranteed a job with the companies they labored for while under incarceration? If not, is the work program really serving its said purpose or is it just an opportunity for corporate interests to acquire more cheap labor, while helping to drive down the value of domestic wages? Why are we so eager to commence a project of this scope with these and so many other unanswered questions?
This facility could be built in other locations without imposing upon law abiding citizens. Have those other proposed sites been so quickly rejected simply because the city wants to sell CCI the land and gain the potential revenue by selling the prison our water? The moment this sort of pragmatic reasoning is applied and a desire for public good becomes intertwined with a desire for profit, judgment becomes inevitably compromised.
And a dangerous form of deception is employed in any attempt to create a religious coalition for this prison. This is not a matter of being for or against Christian principles. It is a matter of looking out for the interests of our community and the people in it. It is also an opportunity to assess whether we value corporate interests over the interests of individuals. In my opinion, to build this prison in the vicinity of homes and businesses is just one step away from acting on the recent, and unconstitutional, Supreme Court ruling, which has granted municipalities the right to force people off their property so that it can in turn be given to more powerful private entities. I wonder if many here today would truly be in favor of this prison being built in their neighborhood....
Summation (Lonnie Vines)
I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE COURT FOR HEARING THE CONCERNS OF OUR CITIZENS. HOWEVER, THERE IS A QUESTION AS TO WHY THE STATE OF TEXAS WILL NOT COMMIT PRISONERS TO THIS PROPOSED PRISON.
Mr. Robinson’s answer to this question as published in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram on May 3,2005,
“He said, state prison officials rejected his plan because it would reduce the number of repeat offenders and lessen the need for more money to add prison cells. There’s no reason they can’t do it; they just don’t want to do it, because it’s going to cut off a huge stream of incoming inmates.”
If this is the reason, then why does the state send prisoners to the Carol Vance Facility that has a very successful “faith-based” program or to the Lockhart Facility that has work programs in place? What is the REAL reason that the State of Texas has not committed any prisoners to Mr. Robinson in 20 years?? Why would another state commit prisoners, when Texas will not? Why would any state contract prisoners to a facility that is not in operation, to a corporation that has no experience in overseeing such a facility, when there are many established correctional facilities seeking prisoners to fill their beds? If it is difficult to get commitments now, will it not be an ongoing problem for the county in the future?
Does the RFP show commitments from businesses? if so, what type of businesses? Where are they relocating from? There are many questions about this work concept. While some call it rehabilitation or training for future employment, others call it slave labor. Ask anyone if prisoners should work to help pay for their expenses, the answer would be “yes”. Ask if they would like for the prison industry to take their jobs or the jobs of their children, you would get a different answer. However, that is exactly what this work program does—takes jobs from law abiding citizens and gives them to the incarcerated.
Is this proposed habilitation facility the best industry that Tom Green County can offer its citizens? We think not and hope you will agree.
