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The Macon Telegraph
May 11, 2002 Saturday
Andy Peters Telegraph Staff Writer
Jail vote came after big money gifts;
Private McRae prison still seeking inmates
DATELINE: ATLANTA
Private companies that build speculative prisons
gave $72,150 to Georgia lawmakers and political parties in 2000, a year
before the state Legislature buried a proposal that would have put severe
restrictions on the prison industry, a research group said in a new report.
Some of that money went to Middle Georgia lawmakers who defeated
legislation in 2000 that would have barred private prisons in Georgia from
accepting convicts from other states. At the time, McRae Correctional
Facility, a new, private prison in Telfair County, was shopping for inmates.
The prison is still vacant and is seeking a federal contract to house
criminal aliens, many of whom would be transported to Georgia from other
states.
In 2000, private prison companies gave more than $1.2
million to the campaign funds of state lawmakers in 14 Southeastern states,
according to the Institute on Money in State Politics, the Montana-based
think tank that issued the report. A large portion of those donations went
to senior lawmakers who sat on committees with oversight of prisons.
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Georgia contributions exceeded donations in Tennessee,
home of for-profit prison giant Corrections Corp. of America. Private
prisons gave $58,631 to Tennessee lawmakers in 2000. Contributions in
other states ranged from $371,000 to lawmakers in North Carolina to
$42,085 in Mississippi.
The report also showed that private prison contributions given
directly to Georgia lawmakers in 2000 increased 15 percent from 1998 -
going from $48,000 to $56,650 two years later.
The 2000 campaign contributions included:
$1,000 to Rep. Terry Coleman, D-Eastman, who represents Telfair County,
from lobbyist Jim Hammock, who at the time represented Corrections Corp.
of America, which owns the McRae prison; $750 to Rep. Larry Walker,
D-Perry, House majority leader, from Cornell Cos. of Houston, which runs
prisons; and $2,250 from CCA to Rep. Mickey Channell of Greensboro.
The Georgia Senate Corrections, Correctional Institutions and Property
Committee in March 2001 voted against a House proposal that would have
prohibited criminals from other states from being brought into Georgia,
and would have banned the construction of new speculative prisons. The
measure had previously passed the House.
"My vote was influenced by 400 jobs," Coleman said, referring to the
possibility of new jobs for Telfair County.
The $45 million, 1,500-bed McRae jail has sat vacant since its
completion. Telfair business and community leaders have promoted the
prison as a way to create jobs for the area, which has been hit hard with
layoffs in recent years. The McRae prison is expected to employ about 455
people.
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The prison contract for which McRae is in the running has not yet
been awarded and there's no timetable for making a decision, said Traci
Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Critics of private prisons say those facilities are more prone to
escapes and violence than publicly operated jails.
"It's really hard to monitor private
prisons and to challenge them," said John Cole-Vodicka, director of the
Prison and Jail Project in Americus, a non-profit group that monitors
corrections facilities in south Georgia. "Historically, private prison
companies have contributed to campaigns in Georgia on the state and local
level in order to get favors from elected officials."
CCA is the largest for-profit operator of jails in the United States,
with about 63 prisons under management. The company said on May 2 in its
first-quarter earnings report that it expects jail populations to rise as a
result of the arrests of illegal immigrants in the wake of the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks, as well as overpopulation in many state prisons.
Georgia, in particular, is expected to see a sharp rise in its prison
population, said CCA Chief Executive Officer John Ferguson.
CCA also operates jails in Coffee and Wheeler counties for the state. |
