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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Union and Community Groups: Keep Private Prisons Out of MN

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Thursday, October 22, 2015   

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Reopening a private prison in Appleton would be a terrible solution to inmate overcrowding, according to Minnesota labor and community groups.

The state's prisons are overflowing, and Swift County officials want a legislative task force to reconsider an empty private prison there.

But Jennifer Munt, public affairs director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 5, says investigations of the owner's other sites have found terrible conditions – worms in the food, inmates left without medical care, guards committing rape and facilities so understaffed they're essentially run by prison gangs.

"The Corrections Corporation of America is a dreaded name,” she maintains. “And there's a trail of horror stories around the country showing how they cut corners to make a buck."

CCA has fought the accusations and defends corporate-run prisons as providing "long-run taxpayer savings without sacrificing the quality of service."

CCA's 1,600-bed Prairie Correctional Facility was built to house prisoners brought in from other states at a profit.

Munt says Minnesota lawmakers looked at the scheme before mothballing the unused prison five years ago.

Local officials want the jobs they'd get from inviting CCA back. But Munt says the corporation relies on underpaid, under-trained and overworked guards.

She states it would be better to hire staff such as the union members who do a good job at the state's prisons and many of its county jails.

"We need to look at ways to bring good jobs to Swift County,” she stresses. “One option would be for the state to purchase, rather than lease, that facility."

Munt says a corporation's incentives are all wrong when it tries to make a profit off a prison. She says it would be a mistake for the state to even start down that road.

"Criminal justice is a core responsibility of government,” she states. “And public workers should be protecting public safety.

“We shouldn't be turning that responsibility over to someone who makes a profit off of human incarceration."





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