Action: Arizona Private Prison K

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The American Friends Service Committee (Arizona) was denied a temporary restraining order to halt the Arizona Department of Corrections from awarding contracts for new private prisons. The Dept. of Corrections has said it would award contracts immediately. AFSC has also filed an injunction to halt the award of contracts. The hearing is set for September 20. AFSC needs your help TODAY to ask the Department of Corrections not to award the contracts until we have our day in court! By Monday, it may be too late!


DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS:
NO CONTRACTS BEFORE COURT HEARING!

Citing serious safety concerns with for-profit prisons in Arizona, AFSC filed an injunction last Monday to prevent the Department of Corrections from awarding any contracts for new private prisons until the state completes a statutorily-required review of the performance of for-profit prisons.

The Department of Corrections has said it might award the contracts as [early as last Friday]. The AFSC therefore asked the court to grant a temporary restraining order to halt the contract awards until the court can hold a hearing on the AFSC’s request for the injunction, but the judge denied our request.

The hearing on the injunction has been set for September 20th. But the Department of Corrections could award the contracts on Monday, pre-empting the court hearing for the injunction.

AFSC called on the Department of Corrections to voluntarily hold off on awarding contracts until the hearing can be held.

We need your help TODAY to ask the Department of Corrections not to award the contracts until we have our day in court! By Monday, it may be too late!

What YOU can do….

Contact Governor Brewer and ADC Director Ryan:

Ask them to respect the court process and hold off just two days before awarding contracts until the court hearing on Tuesday September 20th
Tell them you want a judge to independently evaluate the facts of the case
Remind them that it could be costly and embarrassing to the state to have to rescind the contracts later, if the Department is found to have violated state statute

Governor Jan Brewer
602.542.4331 or 800.253.0883 ph,
602.542.1381 fax.

Make a comment online at: http://azgovernor.gov/Contact.asp

Corrections Director Charles Ryan
602.542.5497 ph

cryan@azcorrections.gov

**If you can blind copy or cc us, we will have a better idea how effective this initiative is. If you receive responses, even boiler-plate ones, please forward those to us, if possible.

Caroline Isaacs,
Program Director,
American Friends Service Committee, Arizona
103 N. Park Ave., Ste 111
Tucson, AZ 85719
520.623.9141
520.623.5901 fax

(h/t: Nancy A. Heitzeg)

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  • Kay W

    Very glad to see this post, seeta.  The AFSC folks in Arizona are terrific, and have been working for many years to end the “imprisonment for profit” trend. 

    This was never about justice or safety, but about profit through imprisonment of demonized, criminalized immigrants of color. 

    Thank you.

    • Thank you so much Kay for always being so directly on point.  This was always about profit from and through demonization of “scary brown folk.”  

      I remember the great piece you/CI wrote on ALEC (when most folks had not yet even heard of it), which was behind SB 1070.

      Sending you hugs and warm wishes for a wonderful week ahead, Kay. :-)

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for posting this, Seeta. Too few realize that the potential profits of even more private prisons here in Arizona were a real driving force behind the odious SB 1070, the so called “papers please” law.
    The purpose wasn’t so much to serve the citizens of the State as it was to find lots of brown folks to fill for-profit cells.

     

  • Anonymous

    I have been on this issue but I will keep after this and post my results.   Thanks for covering this here.  I’m out of town right now but I can still do calls and emails.

    • Thanks Aquagranny! Wonderful to see you here.  Would be great if you posted your results here.   Sending you warm wishes for a good week ahead.