The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Resistance to private prison is strong
Perry group raises several concerns
Thursday, October 28, 2004
CARLA CROWDER
News staff writer , Birmingham, (Alabama) News
UNIONTOWN - Every Thursday night, a group known as the Concerned Citizens of Perry County gathers at the Stockyard Cafe off U.S. 80. They talk about politics, how to create better jobs and other issues dear to this struggling Black Belt county.

Recently, the hot topic has been the private prison in the works down the road, on brushy, woodsy land adjacent to mobile homes and cow pastures. This group is trying to keep it out.

The Perry County Commission last spring entered into a partnership with the Louisiana-based LCS Corrections, a company that runs for-profit prisons, including one housing some Alabama women. Commissioners say it will bring much-needed jobs.

Construction on Uniontown's 888-bed lockup could start within a couple of weeks.

"Since this is a private prison, we know that we as citizens will have no influence or impact over how that prison is run," Mary Lelia Schaeffer told fellow members of the group last week.

"We have enough problems as it is without bringing prisoners into our community," said Robert James Johnson, another member.

Uniontown has a high crime rate and chronic drug infestations. The largest employer is a catfish plant where wages are low, and the main road through town is flanked by public housing projects.

But Concerned Citizens believes renewal is possible. The group - which counts preachers, teachers, retirees and a former mayor as members - is trying to make an impact before construction starts by raising legal questions and sending petitions to the highest levels of state government.

"We have received complaints and are aware of their concerns," said Joy Patterson, a spokeswoman for Alabama Attorney General Troy King. "We are reviewing them to see if there is any action from this office that's appropriate."

Other correspondence has been directed to Steve Hayes, an assistant to Alabama Corrections Commissioner Donal Campbell.

"This proposal was initiated and approved by the Perry County Commission without allowing for any public comment or public participation in the decision," the citizens' group wrote Sept. 22. "No research, study, investigation, or determination was made about the economic or social impacts of this proposal on our community or our county."

But it's out of Campbell's hands.

There is no formal plan or written agreement between the Alabama Department of Corrections and the Perry prison developers to house state inmates, said prisons spokesman Brian Corbett.

"If the prison is built or not built, it has nothing to do with ADOC," Corbett said. "It is between the Perry County Commission and the company interested in construction."

Residents believe the prison will stigmatize their community, keeping away better businesses. They also fear that importing criminals from other places could jeopardize their safety. They say the few jobs that would go to Perry County residents aren't worth the repercussions.

"To get that little benefit, we're going to have from now on the stigma of a prison," said Robert Bamberg, a Uniontown farmer and Concerned Citizens member.

Study's findings:

At least one study shows their concerns might be justified.

In 2003, researchers with the Sentencing Project, a Washington criminal justice think tank, studied conditions surrounding 32 rural prisons opened since 1982 in New York. They found that counties with prisons did not gain any significant jobs compared with those without prisons.

A premise of the study was the argument that prisons are a tool for economic recovery in poor counties.

"While prisons clearly create new jobs, these benefits do not aid the host county to any substantial degree since local residents are not necessarily in a position to be hired for these jobs," the authors wrote in the 2003 report.

County Commission Chairman Johnny Flowers, who is leading the effort to bring in the Perry prison, is familiar with the residents' complaints, but says Perry County desperately needs jobs. He maintains that the prison is the best bet.

"Their concern is one thing and my motive is another. My motive is jobs," Flowers said. "Their motive is selfish. Most of them already have a job."

He expects that spin-off businesses from the prison - hotels, stores and restaurants to serve families who come to Perry County to visit inmates - would boost the economy. Also, Uniontown would make money supplying water to the prison, Flowers said.

Originally, the plan was to have the prison open next summer. Construction is estimated to take 14 months for the $20 million facility, but the project has fallen behind schedule, Flowers said.

Questions:

Still, questions remain, and that's what concerns the Uniontown residents.

For example, county officials initially described the prison as minimum security. They emphasized the rehabilitation component - drug treatment and education.

But the memorandum of understanding between Perry County and Perry Detention Services, the company formed by county officials and LCS executives to operate the prison, does not require the prisoners to be minimum security. And the staffing plan, which calls for 136 employees, lists no drug treatment personnel and only one teacher/librarian.

Another unknown is where the prisoners will come from. Alabama officials, while agreeing they need more prison space, have made no agreement to use the prison. The memorandum of understanding says the prison could house federal prisoners, including illegal immigrants, and prisoners from other states.

The company is planning to build the multimillion-dollar facility without a contract to fill it. "It doesn't make sense," said Perry County Commissioner Brett Harrison, the lone voice on the commission raising a lot of questions about the arrangement.

He and members of Perry County Concerned Citizens also worry about the county's liability. Residents worry that the county would have to pay lawyers and legal costs to defend itself against lawsuits that spring from prison settings. Now, LCS is fighting off a lawsuit from an Alabama prisoner who claims she was sexually assaulted at one of its prisons.

Efforts to reach LCS failed.

"Perry County doesn't need to be held in any way liable for a private business," Bamberg said at Thursday's meeting.

Members of his group have found sections of state law they argue forbid the state from using private prisons. The statutes prohibit the transfer or lease of state prison facilities to nongovernmental entities without consent from the Legislature.

The attorney general's office found that the planned prison is not under state control. Also, the prison will be administered under a capital improvement cooperative district, which Alabama law allows, according to the AG opinion.

The citizens are not deterred. Their most recent letter to Gov. Bob Riley was six pages long plus 20 pages of petitions.

However, since the state is not involved in the venture, Riley has not gotten involved, said spokesman Jeff Emerson.

E-mail: ccrowder@bhamnews.com
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