Billion-dollar supersize prisons are slated to be built across the U.S.

[demeetreeus]

Deer Negroes,

Act like human beings and you will not go to prison. Keep acting like
niggers and you will be shot dead or thrown into prison. Your choice.

What’s happening
Alabama is building a new supersize prison that will cost over $1
billion – the most expensive incarceration facility in U.S. history.

The Alabama Corrections Institution Finance Authority late last month
approved a final price of $1.08 billion for the 4,000-bed prison now
under construction in Elmore County.

And Alabama isn’t the only state moving forward with plans for larger,
pricier prisons, with proponents of such facilities citing the need to
address issues of overcrowding, poor sanitation conditions and a lack of
mental health resources in the current facilities.

Nebraska is building a new $350 million, 1,500-bed prison to replace the
Nebraska State Penitentiary. Supporters say it will alleviate the
overflow of inmates in the state’s prisons, which hold about 50% more
people than they were designed for.

“This investment is a key part of our community,” Rob Jeffreys, director
of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, told CBS affiliate
KOLN. “It [provides the] ability to keep people safe.”

In Georgia, officials have been tasked by the Fulton County Board of
Commissioners to find the funds for a $1.69 billion facility with 4,500
beds to replace the current Fulton County Jail — known to locals by its
address, Rice Street — which many advocates say is beyond repair.

“It’s an obligation that we have,” Commissioner Bob Ellis told Atlanta
News First.

Why there’s debate
Supporters of the prisons say the new facilities will relieve issues
that have long plagued jails, making them more susceptible to homicides,
virus outbreaks and abusive conditions that, in the most extreme
instances, have prompted the Department of Justice to step in.

“The new prison facilities being built in Alabama are critically
important to public safety, to our criminal justice system and to
Alabama as a whole,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement.

However, prison reform advocates say building newer prisons without
addressing the underlying causes of the problems that plagued the old
facilities will only put a temporary Band-Aid on an issue that needs a
long-term solution.

“No experts have said that newer jails will solve our prison crisis,”
Charlotte Morrison, a senior attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative, a
Montgomery, Ala.-based nonprofit that works to end mass incarceration,
excessive punishment and racial injustice, told Yahoo News.

Morrison and other advocates also argue that the lack of meaningful
rehabilitation in many prisons is a contributing factor to the overall
decline of conditions inside. They suggest that other reforms aimed at
speeding up processing times for inmates and reducing the number of
people incarcerated for minor infractions could also help ease
overcrowding.

“If you have a football team that’s losing year after year, a new
stadium doesn’t make it better. You need new leadership,” Morrison said.

Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, a nonprofit dedicated
to dismantling the prison industry, believes “the more beds there are,
the more people will be put in them.”

“The issue is not the building,” Tylek told Yahoo News. “It’s the system
and the system actors in it.”

Tylek, one of the nation’s foremost experts on the prison industry, adds
that a lack of transparency from jails on inmate deaths and other
serious uprisings conflated with a system that disproportionately locks
up people of color and poor people is reason enough to take a harder
look at the underlying issues.

Other critics have balked at Alabama lawmakers’ willingness to spend $1
billion on a prison when 1 out of 4 children in the state — one of the
poorest in the country — and 17% of adults there struggle with food
insecurity.

“Many in Alabama don’t have access to food, running water, and health
care,” Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell posted on X, formerly known as Twitter,
in September.

“It is unconscionable that state leaders would spend over $1 billion to
construct the most expensive super-prison in the nation,” Sewell’s post
continued. “This should outrage everyone!”

Some have also raised questions about who will pay for the prisons in
Alabama, Nebraska and Georgia, with opponents objecting to making
taxpayers foot the bill.

What’s next
The Alabama prison is expected to be completed in May 2026, according to
the contract terms. In Nebraska, construction is expected to begin in
the fall of 2024. The expected opening date for the Georgia prison, once
plans are approved, is 2029.

At the same time, plans for additional prison construction projects,
including a new jail to replace New York City’s notorious Rikers Island,
are also beginning to take shape.

Perspectives
Real prison reform requires comprehensive change

“Make no mistake about it, the primary purpose of this prison
construction plan is not to efficiently build prisons that will solve
the litany of issues that currently plague our prison system. If that
were the goal, the plan being discussed today would be a hybrid,
comprehensive plan that involved renovations of current facilities, new
construction and upgrades to medical, mental health and job training
facilities.” — Josh Moon, Alabama Political Reporter

New prisons will be better for those living — and working — inside them

“This is about not just creating a safer environment for the inmates.
This is about a safer environment for our corrections officers to work
in.” — State Rep. Rex Reynolds, chairman of the Alabama House General
Fund Budget Committee, to the Associated Press

The Alabama project has been “cloaked in secrecy”

“From the beginning, this project has been cloaked in secrecy. The state
and the firms it has hired have denied public information requests that
could reveal what exactly tax money is buying or who is getting paid.
They have refused to show so much as what this prison would look like,
citing security issues. ... What seems clear now is that no one ever
really knew how much this was going to cost.” — Kyle Whitmire, AL.com

Jailing people in the current facilities is “inhumane”

“At a certain point, we have an ailing correctional facility in the
penitentiary. And it becomes inhumane to incarcerate people in that
facility.” — Sen. Anna Wishart, a member of the Appropriations
Committee, to Nebraska Public Media

New prisons fail to address the real issues

“Let’s begin with the key question: Why is the jail overcrowded in the
first place?” — Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts, the Georgia
Sun

Meaningful change should focus on rehabilitation

“Normalizing prison environments with evidence-based programming,
including cognitive behavioral therapy, education and personal
development, will help incarcerated individuals lead successful lives in
the community as family members, employees and community residents.” —
Christy Visher and John Eason, Brookings

https://www.yahoo.com/news/billion-dollar-prisons-built-across-us-public-
safety-090001432.html