Wonderful news today. The private prison company has withdrawn its proposal for the Casa Grande site. People came together and worked to spread the news and generate community support. The local businesses that would have suffered if the proposal went forward, were instrumental in organizing and providing support for our efforts. It is very satisfying to see the power of the people have an effect.
I started a Facebook Group, NO PRISONS in Casa Grande, AZ that allowed people to post relevant information regarding the opposition to the proposal. I posted all the links I could find regarding the private company and its business relationships in other parts of the world, Letters to the Editor from local papers, and meeting notices to gather everyone to organize. I had never created a "group" on Facebook, so I learned a lot during the process. We ended up with almost 200 members in just a short period of time.
It looks like the company had other sites that they were also pursuing and will put their bid in with another city. My condolences.
In light of the recent escapes from the MTC prison in Kingman, AZ, I felt it necessary to reinterate how happy I am that we were able to defeat this company's proposal for a prison here in Casa Grande. The Kingman prison was the model for what they would have built here, complete with the warden (that has since resigned) trying to pitch the proposal to us as so secure and reasonable.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kansas.com/2010/08/19/1453851/ariz-releasing-report-on-escape.html
The above link describes the prison conditions in the last couple paragraphs. Again, I am so relieved the people were able to block it.