OCSEA Corrections activists make calls,
write 3,000 letters against private prison plan

June 23, 2010 - OCSEA Corrections Officers and prison employees are mad as hell about proposed state legislation that aims to privatize AT LEAST half of all of Ohio’s state-run prisons.

Last week, OCSEA Corrections activists from around the state went straight to the source and contacted their representatives of the Ohio General Assembly urging them to stand up against the harmful bill. The prison employees made thousands of calls to their Ohio Senators and Representatives and wrote nearly 3,000 letters urging legislators to stand up against S.B. 269.

S.B. 269, authored by Sen. Tim Grendell (R-Chester) – a major advocate of selling state government to the highest bidder – would create a Prison Privatization Commission charged with developing a plan to transfer the operation and management of at least half of the state’s correctional institutions to the private sector by Dec. 31, 2011.

Employees at the Dayton Correctional Institution and the Montgomery Education Pre-Release Center (DCI Chap. 5725) were one of many groups that took part in the massive Corrections call-in day on June 16.

Standing across the street from the prison, corrections activists called their state legislators to speak out against the harmful legislation.

The Dayton Daily News covered the call-in day and interviewed DCI Chap. 5725 President Joanie Hunter. “They [private prisons] are not held to the same standards as a publicly run prison institution, so it would be devastation to our community.”

Hunter went on to tell the press that for-profit prisons diminish safety because they have higher turnover rates and decreased training as the result of the corner cutting that comes with profiteering.

In addition, Hunter said the authors of this legislation have yet to provide substantial proof that privatizing would save the state any money at all.

The DCI activists contacted Rep. Clayton R. Luck (D-Dayton) and Sen. Fred Strahorn (D-Dayton) urging them to stand up for safety and against for-profit prisons that would only bring more financial burden on an already-hurting Ohio.

“At a time when Ohioans are already hurting from the loss of the state’s manufacturing base, it’s the wrong time to eliminate good paying jobs and replace them with lower wage work,” said Parks. “Lower wages mean less money going to Ohio’s local economies at a time when local businesses can ill-afford it.”

For updates, visit www.ocsea.org/badforohio.

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Prison Privatization - Bad for Ohio