Opinion: Globe City Council Has Failed Us

By Jim Moss 9/21/2010 (Edited)

Monday night's City Council meeting may represent a low point in Globe City Council leadership.

The Mayor and the majority of the Council have demonstrated a profound lack of common sense and good judgment about the private prison industry issue from the very beginning. Back in April it took them a mere 7 days to pass a Resolution supporting a plan to bring a big for-profit prison to Globe.

The majority decision on April 19 to support the private prison industry was made with virtually no due dilligence conducted and with virtually no input or feedback from Globe citizens. Five months later, after ample opportunity to review objective research that demonstrates the permanent, negative consequences of a big prison in a small town, and after hearing from hundreds of citizens opposed to their prison project--this Mayor and Council stubbornly refuse to act with common sense, good judgment or to acknowledge the will of their constituents.

Instead, this Mayor and Council have chosen to play games with this critical issue. They want our community to believe the issue is dead, that it is "moot" due to the temporary cancellation of private prison bids by the AZ Dept. of Corrections.

Our "first line of defense" against the private prison industry setting up shop in Globe is our elected City government. The vast majority of citizens do not want another prison in Globe. Our Mayor and Council has failed us. The community remains vulnerable to the prison industry. When will Mayor Shipley and Council listen to the majority of citizens and pass the Resolution that we have been asking for? WHEN?

More:
Opinion: Globe Politicians Still Want a Private Prison!
Globe-City of Hospitality or Prison Town?

Opinion: Globe Politicians Still Want a Private Prison!

(Revised 9/16/2010 PM)

The current proposal for a Globe private prison appears to be dead (for now) but I'm disappointed that local politicians still haven't rejected the idea itself. Even if it could be arranged so that Globe and its taxpayers could be protected from any financial loss, this is still a moral and ethical issue.

To say that ethical arguments should not be part of the discussion is a sign of remarkably shallow and unenlightened leadership. This is not the first time that money and the vague promise of future jobs have been enough to make anything else acceptable.

There's a multitude of information about shady dealings by the private prison industry. (If you yourself haven't done anything wrong, you are not blameless if you know your partner is a crook.) Plus the fact that the more prisoners there are, the more money the prisons make. This leads to the very real possibility that some people may be put in jail who don't really deserve to be there.

It's no coincidence that some strong anti-immigrant politicians have ties to the private prison industry.

If incarcerating human beings for profit is the best idea that our community leaders(?) can come up with, we're in big trouble.


Here's another view from Globe-Miami Times News n Views:

The Emerald City: A Risky Partnership
September 15, 2010
By Linda Gross

Several months ago, the Globe City Council in a 4-2 vote gave the green light to Private Prison developers; the Emerald Companies and James Parkey, to bring a private prison to Globe as part of a DOC plan to build 5000 more beds in the State.

Since then, some who voted for the “green light” have admitted that they have reservations including:

1: They don’t believe the numbers which Parkey and Emerald are presenting in their package. IE: The number of jobs, the amount of revenue, or the ease at which “beds will be filled.”

2: Therefore they concede it is a “risky” venture to those who choose to invest in this project – but they make the distinction between the investors and the “rest of us” who will get all the benefits and none of the risk.

3. Yet, they admit they don’t trust Emerald Companies and James Parkey.

And still, the City Council wants to move forward with bedding down with the very same Emerald Companies & James Parkey.

This determination to build a private prison on our back doorstep with these people appears to confirm a lack of good old fashioned business sense.

Anyone in business who has ever considered bringing on a partner knows how difficult this can be. Most partnerships are formed to fill a need in the business; talent, financial or otherwise. And many a business has made the mistake of taking on a partner because it seemed to be expedient at the time, only to find their problems compound.

While some partnerships do result in a win-win for both parties, others result in ugly ‘divorces’ as business owners discover their new found partner more concerned with what they are getting OUT of the business than what they can put INTO the business.

Historically, this appears to be the blueprint for those selling their services to develop and manage for-profit prisons. It would seem then that all signs point to saying NO to this proposed partnership. It is simply bad business to enter into a business partnership with people you don’t trust from the beginning.

Also read: Globe Citizens Opposed to a Prison Town Pack the House

More on the Web:
Brewer Linked To Private Prisons Housing Illegal Immigrants
The Truth About Private Prisons
America's Private Gulag