Keeping Privateers at Bay
AFSCME Corrections United activists are blunting the drive for privatization.
By Jon Melegrito
Privatized prisons were virtually unknown in America until the early 1990s, and even then only 47 private facilities could be found in 16 states. The trend to deregulation and privatization started the movement, and the founding of the Corrections Corporation of America in 1983 gave it a major push. Today, 158 privately run facilities operate in 30 states and the District of Columbia.
Then and now, privatization is portrayed as a means of creating a cheaper, more-efficient system. But the practice continues to face stiff resistance. At the forefront of the movement are AFSCME Corrections United (ACU) activists who maintain that incarceration of convicted felons is a public duty.
In Puerto Rico, union-led opposition to privatization has gained widespread support over the last seven years. The main prisons in Bayamón, Guayama and Ponce reverted to public control in 2001. Today, all 52 facilities on the island are in government hands.
Then-Gov. Pedro Roselló sparked the anti-privatization mood in 1997 by selling the public telephone company to a U.S. corporation, signaling also to privatize prison management. Tens of thousands of workers struck in protest. Public officials then froze all attempts at privatization. Gov. Sila María Calderón's subsequent administration responded to ACU's proposals and took back the existing private prisons. And in last year's election, all three political parties adopted planks opposing prison privatization.
Servidores Públicos Unidos (SPU)/AFSCME Council 95 has undertaken a grassroots campaign to keep those planks in place. Members flood legislators with information about the perils and hidden costs of private prisons to taxpayers.
"Before the government took over, we had serious problems — poor staff training, low pay and poor morale," says María Mauras, president of Local 3500. "Today, our corrections officers are better trained. We've experienced only a few minor incidents involving inmates."
POLITICAL MUSCLING. Equally noteworthy are AFSCME's efforts to stop prison privatization in such states as Illinois, Iowa and Connecticut. In 1995, Council 31 mounted a strong lobby to stop the Illinois legislature from passing a bill to privatize the state's prisons. In 2002, the council successfully fought Gov. George Ryan (R) in court and through street demonstrations when he tried to privatize hundreds of state prison jobs. AFSCME then basically wrote the Illinois law that makes "incarceration of convicted felons ... an inherently public function."
In Iowa, all nine corrections facilities have always been in the public sector and Council 61 has been successful in turning back recent state attempts to send inmates to privatized prisons in Missouri. Council 4 in Connecticut is also flexing its political muscle by thwarting state attempts to privatize the state's prison food services.
