Drive Away CCA Today!

Today at 5PM, help Drive Away CCA! Join the motorcade from the private prison site to honk at Valdosta City Hall and march at the Industrial Authority office.

I'll be on Chris Beckham's show on WVGA 105.9 FM this morning at 7:30 AM to talk about it.
Update: audio of the interview.
Update 2: Here's video of the interview.

Here's the case against a private prison:

• It's bad business. It wouldn't increase employment because it would drive away other jobs. It wouldn't even save the state money because private prisons aren't actually cheaper. They pretend to be cheaper by paying fewer guards per prisoner, which increases risk of inmate violence and escapes. Even if it opened, it would be at risk of closing, because we can no longer afford to lock up so many people. The Georgia legislature is considering sentencing reform, and the Georgia prison population is already plummetting.
• It competes with education. It costs far more to imprison somebody than it would to educate them. Georgia spends $1 billion a year on the prison system. We the taxpayers can't afford to pay for that while public education is under increasing budgetary pressure.
• Public policy and religious groups from the ACLU to the NAACP to Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform oppose CCA's attempt to buy state prisons. As a wide array of religious groups put it:

  The undersigned faith organizations urge you to decline this dangerous and costly invitation.

  We can oppose CCA's attempt to build a new private prison here.
• If you will graduate from VSU soon, do you want to work for a prison? If you have children, do you want them to work for a good business instead? Do you want to live in a prison colony?

If you don't want the private prison, here are some things you can do:

• Join us today at 5PM on Dasher-Johnson Road at the corner of US 84 East and Inner Perimeter. Bring your car, truck, motorcycle, or bicycle, and help us drive the point home to the Industrial Authority.
• Sign the petition.
• Speak at the Valdosta City Council meeting Thursday or at the Lowndes County Commission meeting next Tuesday. They're both implicated in this private prison decision.
• Write a letter to the editor.
• I'm sure other people can think of many other things.

CCA cares about "public acceptance of the Company's services". If we show enough public opposition, we can Drive Away CCA!

-jsq