Editor’s note: This commentary is by Brenda Lynn Siegel, of Newfane, is the executive director of the Southern Vermont Dance Festival, which developed as a long-term economic driver for the community. She is the vice chair of the Newfane Democratic Committee and delegate to the Windham County Committee.
[A] “for profit” or “private” prison, as evident in the name, is designed to make a profit. What are they profiting on? People. They are profiting on the buying and selling of human beings. They have motivation to keep their costs low, cut corners and not follow regulations to increase their profit. They also have great incentive to keep prisoners locked up as long as they can. These prisons, run by corporations that answer to their investors, are in the business of making money. These corporations can donate to and lobby legislators and they have been found to have committed abuses throughout this country in the past many years.
The concept of a private prison is in and of itself morally corrupt and is antithetical to the goal of reducing the racial disparity in the prison system.
In 2015 according the Bureau of Statistics, 7 percent of state prisoners and 18 percent of federal prisoners across the country were held in private prisons. It is important to note that while the crime rate in the United States went down in the last 25 years, prison populations have gone up. There are many reasons why this has happened and a lot has to do with unfair discrimination and treatment of people of color and the poor when it comes to non-violent crimes. Additionally, there is incentive. States make contracts with the private prisons to keep a certain number of their beds filled at all times.
That means that they have to put and keep a certain number of inmates in jail in order to meet a quota. We are meeting a quota with human beings? We are, and what is worse, these private prisons have histories of abuse and violations that go unchecked and unnoticed.
Private prisons amount to modern day slavery because of the abuse, the lack of regard for regulations and the treatment of prisoners. The profits do not stop at buying and selling people. They do not stop at making sure a large percentage of beds are filled. These prisoners are used for labor with contracts for companies like Whole Foods, while other companies are underbid by private prisons thus hurting the economy as well. These prisoners are paid cents per hour and the prisons sell the goods to turn a gigantic profit.
Gov. Phil Scott has proposed having one of these for-profit prisons build a 925-bed prison in Franklin County. By claiming that we could keep more prisoners in state, he ignores the contract we already have with out-of-state prisons and attempts to create a false divide between those who want to see Vermont inmates stay in state and those who would be against for-profit prisons, the same Vermonters fight both of those issues and we can’t be divided.
When you, Gov. Scott, propose that we bring a corporation whose goal is to turn a profit on human beings into this state, that is hardly convincing that you have the best interest for all Vermonters in mind.
Just about two years ago, then-President Barack Obama proposed the ending of for-profit prisons. We cannot allow a for-profit prison now to build in our state. If Phil Scott had the same level of excitement about improving our school system, growing healthy children who become healthy adults, if he had the same level of creative thinking about our economy and jobs, then perhaps we would no longer need the prisons we have today.
It is time for our state to own the racial disparity in our prison system and begin to invest in education and jobs, not jails and incarceration. If we can spend $150 million on a prison campus to keep people locked up, we certainly can fully fund our schools and make sure that we don’t need prisons to house our citizens. This proposal is not just irresponsible and reprehensible, but, it shows a lack of regard for the citizens of this state.
I hope other Vermonters will choose to stand side by side with me and tell Phil Scott that we will not fall for false divides, we will stand together to move forward and become a stronger state that leads the nation in progress, in economic development and in civil rights. I hope that Vermonters will stand with me and say that we will not allow some of our citizens to be marginalized for the profit of others. Together we stand as Vermonters prepared to lift all of us up because we know that it is not necessary to knock any population down for the gain of another. We know that when we stand together that is when we make real meaningful change.
We will not allow our governor to abuse our citizens for the shiny profits of a corporation who is known for this behavior. We can do better and we must.
