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“One of CCA’s goals is to be a positive force in the community by providing jobs and tax dollars and producing social and business opportunities that did not exist before its presence.”

—Statement before the D.C. City Council Committee on the Judiciary by John Ray, Washington Counsel for the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), February 4, 1999

Most readers of the Washington Peace Letter are familiar with the evils of the current trend in privatizing public services, particularly as it pertains to the management of prisons (see, for instance S. Donkin, “Corporations Assault D.C.’s Inmates,” Washington Peace Letter, May 1998, and E. Schlosser, “The Prison-Industrial Complex,” Atlantic Monthly, December 1998). While the current incarceration frenzy (with a prison population nationally approaching two million), and the complimentary drive towards turning imprisonment into a private profit-making venture for a few enterprising entrepreneurs, may appear unstoppable, D.C. activists have a chance now to stop prison privatization in its tracks locally.
The prison-industrial complex has plans for the District in the form of two proposed correctional facilities that CCA wants to build here under the motto of “Bring Them Home.” “Them” refers to the D.C. felons who recently have been sent to facilities across the country in preparation for the impending closing of the local prison in Lorton, Virginia, which has been targeted by developers looking for more lucrative uses for the land.

The problem is, when these inmates come home, they’ll be housed in facilities run by the corporation responsible for numerous inmate deaths across the country brought about by negligence, mismanagement, and cost-cutting in the name of profit maximization. Last year, for instance, within the span of one month, two D.C. inmates at CCA’s Youngstown, Ohio, facility were murdered. Several others died from inadequate health care. When imprisonment becomes a private venture, the bottom line is making money, and this drives all other management decisions, including those related to safety and basic medical services.

The term “prison-industrial complex” brings to mind the phrase “military-industrial complex,” first used by President Eisenhower in his farewell address in 1960. Throughout the so-called Cold War, military contractors bilked billions of dollars out of the U.S. government by creating the illusion of a threat that we now know was not nearly as great as we were led to believe. After creating this artificial crisis, those contractors conveniently stepped in and offered the government their solution, which was to award enormous contracts, funded with public dollars, to build missiles, ships, and aircraft that we didn’t need.

The current prison-industrial complex works the same way. We are experiencing a crisis in prison space nationwide, a result not of an increase in violent crime—the violent crime rate has in fact been going down—but of such legislative nonsense as “three strikes and you’re out,” so-called “truth in sentencing” laws, and the “War on Drugs.” These have resulted in an explosion of the inmate population—most of whom are non-violent offenders—and a general lengthening of sentences served.

Who’s been leading the charge on lobbying for these initiatives? Of course it’s the private prison profiteers, such as the Corrections Corporation of America, who are waiting in the wings to provide their incarceration services to an overburdened public prison system. CCA is even building prisons in California “on spec,” meaning before any occupancy contract is in place. They’re that sure that if they simply build a prison, the inmates will appear to fill it.

Here in D.C. the wheels have been generously greased by the corporate prison profiteers for some time. Ward 8 Councilmember Sandy Allen received in her 1996 campaign $400 from Joseph F. Johnson, Jr., a Director at CCA, and $400 from the National Corrections and Rehabilitation Corporation (NCRC), a CCA subsidiary of which Johnson is the CEO. Of course her ward is now the target for CCA’s proposed private prison. Councilmember Jack Evan’s 1998 mayoral bid was bolstered by a $1,000 contribution from the NCRC. Perhaps this was his reward for railroading through the Truth in Sentencing Act last year when he chaired the Judiciary Committee.

On April 15, the D.C. Zoning Commission will convene hearings at One Judiciary Square on CCA’s proposal to build two private prisons-for-profit in the District. Momentum has increased against this prison as community education and awareness has intensified. It’s time for the residents of D.C to stand up against the prison profiteers and demand a drastic shift in priorities. As John Ray indicated in the quote cited at the beginning of this article, CCA can take advantage of the desperation of D.C.’s poor communities because no other social or business opportunities exist. We need to change this scenario by first stopping the prison, then demanding real opportunities for people and real alternatives to incarceration. The prison-industrial complex must be destroyed.

Steve Donkin is with the Green Party of D.C., which is a member of the Ward 8 Coalition Against the Prison. Persons interested in becoming active with the fight against the prison can reach him at (202) 986-9438.

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