OCSEA Hounds CCA in Tennessee
When executives of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) decided to hold a special shareholders’ meeting in Nashville, they didn’t expect to have the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA)/AFSCME Local 11 as company.
But the union invited itself and some “family” members from Maryland Council 92 and Local 2173, Brushy Mountain Tennessee State Prison Employees. Together, in mid-September, they teamed with the Public Safety and Justice Coalition from Charlotte, N.C., to demonstrate against the prison privateer. Dozens of OCSEA activists descended on Nashville to let CCA know that for-profit prisons need to be eliminated.
The demonstration was the culmination of AFSCME Corrections United’s (ACU) battle against private companies trying to make money from what is a traditional public service. For years, ACU activists have been shadowing CCA and other prison privateers all over the country to impede the spread of more for-profit facilities.
The shareholders’ meeting was called to discuss what appears to be a last-ditch effort — restructuring the firm — to prevent CCA from going bankrupt. The restructuring move blew up in their faces. Prison Realty, CCA’s sister company, borrowed money to erect more facilities and complete others that were under construction. When the real estate investment trust market they were operating under lost steam, Prison Realty lost $200 million and accumulated more than $65 million worth of debt in less than two years.
Since its all-time high stock price (listed on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol PZN) of $44 in 1998, Prison Realty Trust’s shares fell below $2; the share price closed at $1.06 on Sept. 27. The company was “delisted” recently from the exchange.
That action came after the shareholders approved the restructuring. Prison Realty no longer exists, and CCA is now the name of the combined companies. CCA also took a hit from shareholders who sued. In October, the firm agreed to settle the lawsuit for nearly $123 million. Subsequently, CCA’s stock has lost 90 percent of its value and closed at 34 cents a share on Dec. 6.
“We are tickled by that,” admits Tim Shafer, president of OCSEA’s Correction Assembly in Ohio, who led the Nashville demonstration. “This is what happens when you take blood money and try to make profit out of it. They have taken taxpayers’ money and tried to turn a profit in an industry that should never be profit driven.”
The longer inmates stay in prison, Shafer says, the more money companies like CCA, Wackenhut Corrections Corporation and CiviGenics are going to make. This, he explains, passes “the suffering on to the inmates’ families, which in turn, puts suffering back on the state — because the majority of our inmate families rely on some kind of state income — the welfare system, Social Security or whatever. These private prisons do not save money. They hurt the state’s pocketbook and the taxpayers’ pocketbooks. And above, all they drive corruption.”
Tom Higginbottom, a Local 2173 CO, says that attendees at CCA’s meeting were well aware of AFSCME’s presence. “We got a pretty good response from the taxpayers who drove by. They waved and honked their horns.”
“One of the most impressive things that happened was that we had support from the Nashville police,” Shafer adds. “Somebody from CCA had called the police on us demonstrators. We went and talked to a lieutenant, who responded: ‘Well, you guys look like you know what you’re doing. Just enjoy yourselves, and if you guys have any problems, don’t hesitate to call us.’ When the police drove by, they honked their horns at us, too.”
OCSEA has quickly earned a reputation as an organization that will act resolutely to stop the construction of private prisons. Shafer says it will continue that effort.
