WHEREAS:

State and local governments, confronted with prison overcrowding and fiscal constraints, and the promise of jobs and tax revenues in impoverished communities, have been experimenting with prison privatization; and

WHEREAS:

Even though only five percent of all adult prison beds are privately managed, the number of privately managed beds is expected to increase at a rate of approximately 25 percent a year and more than double by the millennium; and

WHEREAS:

Private firms generate profits by understaffing facilities, paying employees inferior wages and benefits, and providing inadequate staff training. This endangers the surrounding communities, leads to dangerous working conditions, erodes the local economies and increases the liability for the contracting jurisdictions; and

WHEREAS:

Despite all of the ways that private management firms cut corners, there is no conclusive evidence that prison privatization saves tax dollars. In a recent government audit, the U.S. General Accounting Office "could not conclude whether privatization saves money" and detected "little difference" and "mixed results" when comparing the operating costs of private and state prisons; and

WHEREAS:

Private prisons, such as the one in Youngstown, Ohio, are not accountable to the public and experience high rates of violence and dangerous conditions inside and surrounding private prisons.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:

That the International Union shall continue to monitor prison privatization developments throughout the country and apprise all AFSCME affiliates of its findings on an ongoing basis; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:

That AFSCME councils and locals shall use such strategies as lobbying government officials, passing legislation, conducting media campaigns and engaging in appropriate legal action to stop prison privatization.

SUBMITTED BY:

Ronald C. Alexander, President and Delegate 
Vanessa Tolliver, Secretary-Treasurer and Delegate 
OCSEA/AFSCME Local 11
Ohio