Legislators meet at NCSL conference in Chicago

By Mary Botkin, Political Director, Oregon AFSCME Council 75

CHICAGO — Despite intensive lobbying efforts by the "prison privateers," most of the comments about private prisons are negative here at the annual National Council of State Legislators (NCSL).

About 15 of Oregon's 90 state senators and representatives — plus dozens of legislative staffers — are in attendance here. There are almost 10,000 people in attendance when you add in all of the staff, vendors and lobbyists like myself. The NCSL runs through July 21.

One of the most highly attended symposiums was July 17 on the issue of private prisons. As you would expect, representatives of the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut, the two leading prison privateers, spoke in favor of private prisons. Several lawmakers from across the country spoke against them.

Rep. Ben Westlund,

 We can all be very proud of Oregon state Rep. Ben Westlund, a Republican from Bend. Your AFSCME lobbying team — myself, Ralph Groener and Don Loving — have worked with Westlund on this issue for the past four years. He gets it, and Westlund got up and articulately spoke against private prisons before the whole group.

"I have studied private prisons intensely in Oregon," said Westlund. "I have concerns about oversight, about accountability, about everything.

"We're not interested in private prisons in Oregon. I don't see anything in it for us."

Cal Hobson is a Democrat state senator from Oklahoma. Oklahoma has many private prisons, and Hobson is not impressed.

"If you don't have them, you don't want them," he told the crowd. "We have them in Oklahoma, and they've brought a lot of problems. People have succumbed to the simple need for jobs, but the benefits aren't there, they have a big turnover problem and we are having a lot of accountability issues. I certainly would not recommend them to anyone."

A Republican state senator from Utah, Michael Waddoups, appeared a little more on the fence on the issue. He did say he saw "a lot of moral issues to be decided, especially in the area of human rights." Interestingly, he said

Utah is considering its first private prison, but they want to put it in the same county where they have a nuclear waste dumping site! He also said if it comes into being, the Utah private prison would have one full wing for mentally ill inmates.

I was personally put off the most by the presentation from Mike Quinlan, representing CCA. You need to understand my personal history with Quinlan. He formerly worked for the federal Bureau of Prisons. In that role, he and I had many conversations about private prisons, and he was always very much opposed to them.

However, Quinlan retired from the federal government relatively recently, and lo and behold, he was hired by CCA! He says that "now" private prisons "can be OK." I know better, and I know he has simply sold out to CCA. He did NOT think private prisons were OK at all when he worked for the federal government.

The best presentation came from Stephen Chand, the Administrator of the Corrections & Criminal Justice Coalition (CCJC). Chand issued a 100-page report and study on private prisons that was full of excellent information. He walked us through the dozens of pitfalls with contracting prisons, contract issues, how there is no real savings for states, etc.

For example, after all the fanfare about one particular private prison in Tennessee, a recent study concluded that the privateers are saving the state of Tennessee 23 cents per day — that's 23 CENTS — and the state is receiving a whole lot of headaches for that 23 cents.

"Survey after survey taken across the country tell us that citizens expect the government, not a private enterprise, to handle corrections issues from arrest through incarceration," Chand said. "There is no ground swell of support from the public for private prisons."

I will be bringing back much information from Chicago and will be happy to share it with anyone who is interested.