Since last Friday's Prison Population Taskforce meeting, which we covered in Prison Population Taskforce explores justice, addiction treatment & mental health issues and Orange is the new green: The Uptake to live stream Prison Population Taskforce at 9 a.m., there's been much coverage of criminal justice issues Minnesota is facing.
The Uptake: Clergy respond to CCA re-opening
At The Uptake, Bill Sorem and Michael McIntee report in Religious Leaders Don’t Want A For-Profit Prison In Minnesota:
Religious leaders are wary that Minnesota is going to start paying corporations again to imprison people — a disproportionate number of them minorities. Doing so, says Rev. Grant Stevensen of ISAIAH is comparable to “government sponsored human trafficking.”
The group held a prayer vigil before the first meeting of Minnesota’s Prison Population Task Force which is discussing solutions to Minnesota’s prison overpopulation problem. Minnesota is using county jails to house more than 500 inmates because the state prisons are full. One possible solution ISAIAH is against is re-opening a long-shuttered prison in Appleton, Minnesota owned by the for-profit Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).
CCA “has a horrible track record of abuse and neglect of prisoners and so we’re especially opposed to any reopening of that facility, says Lars Negstad, Strategic Campaigns Coordinator for ISAIAH.
A Grassroots Leadership report on CCA’s 30 years of operation details the company’s problems, including sexual abuse of prisoners, and incompetent guards who are paid very little.
“We think we should start scaling back the number of prisons,” says Stevensen. “One of the things that we know is that if you build it they will come. So if we build prisons, especially for-profit prisons, they will be filled up because someone needs to fill those beds in order to make a profit.” . . .
Here's Sorem's video:
At the City Pages Wednesday, Susan Du picked up on the clergy's concerns in Minnesota's prison overcrowding raises a dreaded name: CCA:
A legislative task force is now looking at what it’ll take to remedy the overcrowding – build a new facility in Rush City for $141 million, or reopen the abandoned private prison in Appleton that is still owned by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).
The very mention of the dreaded CCA, America’s largest for-profit corrections company, sends chills down the spines of many, including local religious leaders. With good reason. The very thought of making a buck off human detention is a dystopian sort of philosophy. CCA has made it so much worse by amassing a trail of horror stories of cutting corners in order to do just that.
Check out what she's uncovered at the City Pages.
News of the Taskforce and Appleton
At CBS Minnesota, Pat Kessler played stenographer for Swift County's lobbyists and CCA in Minn. Lawmakers To Debate Growing State Prison Population.
Forum News Service Don Davis took a more even-handed, in-depth look in a pair of articles published in the West Central Tribune, Minnesota prisons overcrowded, but have lower rates than most states and Appleton prison supporters want state inmates.
Minnesota Public Radio's Tom Scheck reported on the informal meeting in With Minnesota prisons full, panel seeks answers.
Bluestem's earlier coverage
We've been scrutinizing the proposal to re-open the CCA-owned prison in Appleton since mid-summer. Here are our earlier posts:
Prison Population Taskforce explores justice, addiction treatment & mental health issues
Orange is the new green: The Uptake to live stream Prison Population Taskforce at 9 a.m.
Swift Co hires Goff Public to work on reopening CCA private prison to solve state's inmate binge
Union's Director of Public Affairs & Public Policy says AFSCME opposes re-opening private prison
W. Central residents speak out for broadband, while guy who's not King of MN favors CCA.
Campaigned against it in 2014: in legislative update, Miller joins choir for rural broadband
MN17A lawmakers meet privately with Swift Co, CCA & lobbyists about private prison lease
Orange is the new green, regulatory capture edition: Hill Capitol bid on county CCA lobbying
Orange is the new green, task force ed: informal Prison Population Taskforce to be audiotaped
Faith-based social justice group asks Goff Public to drop Swift Co lobbying to reopen CCA prison
ISAIAH MN organizes prayer vigil before Prison Population TaskForce meeting, creates petition
Goff Public: re-opened PCF will be "public prison at existing correctional facility in Appleton"
Photo: Prairie Correctional Facility, the shuttered CCA prison in Appleton, which is being proposed as an alternative to expanding the state-owned and operated facility in Rush City. The public affairs/lobbying firm hired by Swift County insists that if re-opened, the Appleton prison would be operated by the state.
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