PRESCOTT VALLEY - Opponents of a private prison that might be located in Prescott Valley have launched a website to fight it.
Former Town Councilman Tom Steele and Michael Hendricks, formerly of Prescott Valley, recently launched www.noprisoninpv.com to mobilize opposition. Steele said he established the domain name a day after the Prescott Valley Economic Development Foundation issued a press release Dec. 17 announcing civic leaders had met privately with representatives of Corrections Corporation of America.
Steele, a Prescott Valley resident for six and a half years, said he launched the site to educate the public, adding, "We are passing out fliers in neighborhoods and businesses."
The website contains a link to a newspaper story, the phone numbers of Town Council members, a YouTube video, other information and an e-mail address for Steele.
Mayor Harvey Skoog commented Wednesday, "I have not seen it." However, he acknowledged some constituents might have called him after they logged onto the website.
"Right now, we are not debating the issue," Skoog said. "(Steele) is. But he has been on the wrong side of many issues."
Town Manager Larry Tarkowski declined to comment on the website. He said two weeks ago that the town government plans to commission a telephone survey after CCA, based in Nashville, Tenn., conducts a public meeting locally to discuss its plans.
CCA spokesman Steve Owen said he is unaware of the anti-prison website and indicated his company is considering multiple sites for a prison to house a maximum of 5,000 inmates, not just a proposed site off Fain Road.
He added opposition to prisons often comes from a "vocal minority."
Meanwhile, Steele is using the website to urge people to attend the first regularly scheduled meeting of the council in 2010, on Jan. 14. He also filed a public records request at Town Clerk Diane Russell's office to obtain e-mail documentation of contacts between the council and CCA officials as well as other correspondence.
Steele said he met Hendricks through the Prescott Tea Party, which is part of a nationwide movement that has spoken out against the federal bailouts of auto manufacturers and banks, health care reform and international regulations to curb global warming.
Hendricks, who now lives in Paulden but maintains two businesses in Prescott Valley as well as having family here, said he has done extensive research on private prisons.
"A lot of people that live in Prescott Valley are retired," he said. "They came to Prescott Valley to get away from big-city life."
Hendricks said he is upset that Councilman Patty Lasker penned a Talk of the Town commentary in the Daily Courier in which she cited the benefits a private prison would bring, such as jobs. He added he helped to get her elected to the council in 2009.
Lasker and Gary Marks, executive director of the economic development foundation, were unavailable for comment.
Posted: Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Article comment by:
Gerald Schnaible
Before anyone, including the secret board meeting members and mayor, perhaps you should read the article that the below quote has been taken from:
"CCA has been especially adept at expansion via political payoffs. The first prison the company managed was the Silverdale Workhouse in Hamilton County, Tennessee. After commissioner Bob Long voted to accept CCA's bid for the project, the company awarded Long's pest control firm a lucrative contract. When Long decided the time was right to quit public life, CCA hired him to lobby on its behalf. CCA has been a major financial supporter of Lamar Alexander, the former Tennessee governor and failed presidential candidate. In one of a number of sweetheart deals, Lamar's wife, Honey Alexander, made more than $130,000 on a $5,000 investment in CCA. Tennessee Governor Ned McWherter is another CCA stockholder and is quoted in the company's 1995 annual report as saying that "the federal government would be well served to privatize all of their corrections."
The entire article is at:
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=867
Is this really what PV wants?
Posted: Monday, January 04, 2010
Article comment by:
No name provided
I'd like to see what would happen to the town if everyone who moved here in the last 20 years just upped and moved. Talk about a blow to the economy. And, by the way, isn't the discussion supposed to be about the prison?
Posted: Monday, January 04, 2010
Article comment by:
JG
What a horrible website, with some distubing comedy. That should tell you alot about those who but it together. They need help.
Posted: Monday, January 04, 2010
Article comment by:
BOB TATEM
Along with the new prison comes the 15,000 or so family members of the 5000 prisoners. So where do you house the family members of these crooks? Do all the council members and mayor have spare bedrooms?
Posted: Sunday, January 03, 2010
Article comment by:
Audrey Parker
Hold your horses Steve Owen. Don't explain opposition to the location of a prison here as "a vocal minority." Let's first see how many of the majority know what is going on behind closed doors. There should be no secret meetings behind closed doors!We are still a democracy and that thrives in Prescott Valley. A survey of as many as possible should be made immediately.This is not simply a matter of some who think a prison is okay and some who do not, no matter the percentage. It is a question of an OPEN DISCUSSION, information FOR ALL TO CONSIDER, and a decision made on the basis of the majority response.
Posted: Sunday, January 03, 2010
Article comment by:
JEBoyce
Mr. Steele would do well to make sure who his friends are.
Posted: Saturday, January 02, 2010
Article comment by:
No name provided
Please Mr Steele stop!!
If all the people who moved here to get a way from big cities would leave we would still have plenty of jobs for the people who were born, raised, and like it here. Is there anything that you do besides complain and try to scrutinize the council you once served on?
