Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 19, Number 3, 1 March 2002 — No private prisons [ARTICLE]

No private prisons

A private prison treatment facility in Hilo is a big shibai - totally bogus. The time for drug treatment is now, before Hawai'i's children become a product of the private prison industry, before they reach the criminal justice system. Many thousands of Hawai'i's kids are falling through the huge cracks, soon to become prison products and we won't be able to build enough prisons to keep up with the demand. Here are a few horrible tidbits you must know about the private prison industry before you jump on this bandwagon of human misery. Between 1971-1992, U.S. prison spending has gone from $2.3 billion to $331.2 billion. Prison building expenditures have jumped by $926 million while university construction has dropped by $954 million. Corporations are receiving a growing proportion of our tax dollars to operate private prisons, generating an estimated $40 billion a year over the next five years. ,Analysts expect the private share of the prison market to double even though the crime rate is well below what it was 25 years ago. California estimates it will build 20 more prisons; Florida plans 8 more; and Texas, last year, planned one new facility per week over an 18 month period. A vast number of poor people, including Hawaiians, have literally become big business. Call the governor, legislators and county officials, and say no to private prisons, period Sharron Rudolph Hōlualoa