Louisiana Voice

As predicted by LouisianaVoice (a prediction any observer with half a brain could have made), HB 850 by Rep. Henry Burns (R-Haughton), otherwise known as the prison sellout bill, passed in the House Appropriations Committee. The close vote (13-11), however, was something of a surprise.

Still, the fix was in all along and few on the committee listened to pleas and protestations against the privatization of Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport.

Even more surprising was four of the committee members who between them, received $64,000 from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), went contrary to ALEC’s—and Jindal’s—wishes and voted against privatizing Avoyelles, closing the J. Levy Dabadie Correctional Center in Pineville and transferring its 330 low-risk offenders to Avoyelles and for closing the Forcht Wade residential substance abuse facility in Caddo Parish and moving its inmates to the David Wade Correctional Center in Homer.

Four of the 11 who voted against the bill, including two Republicans and two Democrats, received $2,500 each from Jindal in campaign contributions but apparently felt that keeping the prisons and their guards employed outweighed the Jindal campaign contributions. They included Democrats Walt Leger and Jared Brossett, both of New Orleans, and Republicans James Morris of Oil City and Brett Geymann of Lake Charles. Morris and Geymann were the only Republicans to vote no.

One has to wonder if Jindal will demand a rebate on his investments since there were no committee chairmanships among the four to take away.

Four of five Democrats on the committee who receive contributions from neither ALEC nor Jindal voted no. They were Patricia Haynes Smith and Edward James of Baton Rouge, Helena Moreno of New Orleans and Roy Burrell of Shreveport. Robert Billiot of Westwego broke ranks with his fellow Democrats and voted in favor of the bill.

Also predictably, Rep. Jim Fannin (D-Jonesboro) held onto his committee chairmanship by metaphorically kissing Jindal’s ring (some may have a lower opinion, anatomically speaking) by voting in favor of the bill. The memory of the removal of Rep. Harold Richie (D-Bogalusa) as vice-chairman of the House Committee on Insurance had to be fresh on Fannin’s mind. Richie, sitting on the House Ways and Means Committee, voted against a proposed tax rebate for those who donate money for scholarships to private and parochial schools and was promptly stripped of his vice chairmanship of the Committee on Insurance.

The only other Democrat besides Fannin to vote for the measure was Robert Billiot of Westwego.

Jindal’s contributions to committee members and each members’ final vote included:

• Rep. Jim Fannin (D-Jonesboro)—$2500 (Y);

• Rep. Cameron Henry (R-Metairie)—$2500 (Y);

• Rep. Simone Champagne (R-Erath)—$2500 (Y);

• Rep. Charles Chaney (R-Rayville)—$2500 (Y);

• Rep. Patrick Connick (R-Marrero)—$2500 (Y);

• Rep. Franklin Foil (R-Baton Rouge)—$2500 (Y);

• Rep. Brett Geymann (R-Lake Charles)—$2500 (N);

• Rep. Joe Harrison (R-Gray)—$2500 (DID NOT VOTE);

• Rep. Bob Hensgens (R-Abbeville)—$2500 (Y);

• Rep. James Morris (R-Oil City)—$2500 (N);

• Rogers Pope (R-Denham Springs)—$2500 (Y);

• Rep. John Schroder (R-Covington)—$2500 (Y);

• Rep. John Berthelot (R-Gonzales)—$5000 (Y);

• Rep. Anthony Ligi (R-Metairie)—$5000 (Y);

• Rep. Henry Burns—$5000 (Y);

• Rep. Jared Brossett (D-New Orleans)—$2500 (N);

• Rep. Walt Leger (D-New Orleans)—$2500 (N).

Those who received contributions from ALEC’s corporate members include:

• Fannin—$6500;

• Rep. James Armes (D-Leesville)—$4500 (N);

• Champagne—$16,000;

• Geymann—$38,000;

• Harrison—$2000;

• Ligi—$20,700;

• Rep. Jack Montoucet (D-Crowley)—$6000 (N);

• Schroder—$2000;

• Rep. Ledricka Thierry (D-Opelousas)—$15,500 (N).

Two corporate members of ALEC are Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) of Nashville, Tenn. and G4S (formerly Wackenhut) of Jupiter, Fla. CCA is presently contracted to run Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield for the state while Global Expertise in Outsourcing, Inc. (GEO Group) of Boca Raton, Fla.

In addition, LaSalle Management Co. of Ruston operates eight facilities in Louisiana.

LaSalle Management, the GEO Group, and Wackenhut each contributed $10,000 to Jindal’s campaigns in 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008 and CCA gave the governor’s campaign $5000 in 2008 and 2009.

Additionally, GEO Group contributed $1000 to Fannin in 2010 and 2011.

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If you live under a rock and might be wondering how Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed sale of Avoyelles Correction Center might fare in the House Appropriations Committee, consider this: of the 25 members of the committee, 20 received campaign contributions from corporate members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) or Jindal—or both.

The committee will consider HB 850 by Rep. Henry Burns (R-Haughton) at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

The bill calls for the sale of Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport, closure of the J. Levy Dabadie Correctional Center in Pineville and transferring its 330 low-risk offenders to Avoyelles and for closing the Forcht Wade residential substance abuse facility in Caddo Parish and moving its inmates to the David Wade Correctional Center in Homer.

Those opposed to the sale might find comfort in knowing that the Florida State Senate in February voted 21-19 against the single largest prison privatization attempt in U.S. history. Nine Republicans united with a dozen Democrats to defeat the massive sell off of the state’s prison that would have cost 3,500 correctional officers their jobs.

In this case, rebellious Republicans apparently grew collective spines and rose up to say no to Gov. Rick Scott.

But don’t expect that to happen here.

Nine of the 10 committee members who are members of ALEC received contributions totaling more than $111,000 from corporate members of the “non-partisan” organization which meets regularly with legislators from all over the country to draft legislation for lawmakers to take back home for introduction and, hopefully, passage.

Some of those proposed laws include legislation like “Stand Your Ground,” which eventually became law in Florida and has come under considerable national criticism following the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla.

The furor over the shooting and Zimmerman’s immunity from prosecution, thanks to the “Stand Your Ground” law, has led Pepsico, Coca-Cola and Kraft Foods to withdraw from ALEC membership.

Other legislation pushed by ALEC includes school vouchers, charter and virtual schools, public retirement reform, Medicaid reform, public employee health benefits reform and sweeping privatization—all part and parcel of Jindal’s legislative agenda.

Jindal contributed nearly $50,000 to 16 of the Appropriations Committee members, including 14 of 15 Republican members.

Jindal’s contributions to committee members included:

• Rep. Jim Fannin (D-Jonesboro)—$2500;

• Rep. Cameron Henry (R-Metairie)—$2500;

• Rep. Simone Champagne (R-Erath)—$2500;

• Rep. Charles Chaney (R-Rayville)—$2500;

• Rep. Patrick Connick (R-Marrero)—$2500;

• Rep. Franklin Foil (R-Baton Rouge)—$2500;

• Rep. Brett Geymann (R-Lake Charles)—$2500;

• Rep. Joe Harrison (R-Gray)—$2500;

• Rep. Bob Hensgens (R-Abbeville)—$2500;

• Rep. James Morris (R-Oil City)—$2500;

• Rep. John Schroder (R-Covington)—$2500;

• Rep. John Berthelot (R-Gonzales)—$5000;

• Rep. Anthony Ligi (R-Metairie)—$5000;

• Rep. Henry Burns—$5000;

• Rep. Jared Brossett (D-New Orleans)—$2500;

• Rep. Walt Leger (D-New Orleans)—$2500.

Those who received contributions from ALEC’s corporate members include:

• Fannin—$6500;

• Rep. James Armes (D-Leesville)—$4500;

• Champagne—$16,000;

• Geymann—$38,000;

• Harrison—$2000;

• Ligi—$20,700;

• Rep. Jack Montoucet (D-Crowley)—$6000;

• Schroder—$2000;

• Rep. Ledricka Thierry (D-Opelousas)—$15,500.

Two corporate members of ALEC are Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) of Nashville, Tenn. and G4S (formerly Wackenhut) of Jupiter, Fla. CCA is presently contracted to run Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield for the state while Global Expertise in Outsourcing, Inc. (GEO Group) of Boca Raton, Fla.

In addition, LaSalle Management Co. of Ruston operates eight facilities in Louisiana.

If more convincing is necessary that the proposed sale of Avoyelles is all but a done deal, consider that Jindal apparently welshed on his promise to Rep. Robert Johnson (D-Marksville) when he told the lawmaker that the sale was not going to be taken up until public testimony on the budget on April 16-17.

The notice, however, went out last Thursday that the matter would be taken up today.

Johnson said he felt the timing was intentional because Tuesday is a scheduled training day and the two shifts that would normally be off duty will be undergoing training, guards who have been unable to perform the mandatory 40 hours of training are unable to travel to the Capitol to testify against the bill.

Mistie Dubroc, whose husband is employed at the Avoyelles facility, said guards are hesitant to voice their opinions on the governor’s plan for fear of reprisals, including termination. Such has been the case in several instances where employees of other state agencies have disagreed with Jindal’s policies.

State Civil Service rules clearly say that state employees may voice opinions on pending legislation that affect their jobs but that has not deterred the administration from taking swift and harsh action against outspoken employees.

Such intimidation is tantamount to an unofficial gag order and is reminiscent of the order that went out to University Medical Center employees a few weeks back that forbade their attending a rally protesting personnel cutbacks at the facility. Rally attendance and the signing of petitions, including recall petititions, is spelled out by Civil Service as being within employees’ rights.

If additional convincing is necessary, consider this: LaSalle Management, the GEO Group, and Wackenhut each contributed $10,000 to Jindal’s campaigns in 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008 and CCA gave the governor’s campaign $5000 in 2008 and 2009.

Additionally, GEO Group contributed $1000 to Fannin in 2010 and 2011.

All of which begs the question: at what price are our legislators willing, even eager, to sell their souls.

A thousand bucks, even $2500 seems awfully cheap for a legislator to sell out his or her constituents. Well, at least three took the maximum $5000 from Jindal.

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So far Gov. Bobby Jindal, flush from his re-election last fall, has chosen two pro-business groups to announce sweeping reform efforts for his second term, unveiling his education reform at the annual meeting of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry and proposed state employee pension plan changes to the Baton Rouge Rotary Club.

Selecting friendly venues for major announcements seems to be the preferred method for Jindal who wisely eschewed teachers groups and state employee gatherings to unveil his agenda. Louisiana Public Service Commission (PCS) Chairman Foster Campbell observed that had he revealed his proposed pension program to state employees, “they’d have booed him out of the room.”

And while he has yet to address state corrections, you can be certain he has state prison privatization squarely in his crosshairs. All those private prison companies did not contribute to his election campaign just for the fun of it.

Only last Wednesday, the Florida Senate Budget Committee, at the urging of Jindal’s fellow Republican Gov. Rick Scott, passed a bill to privatize 29 South Florida prisons—to turn them over to for-profit companies that would be required to produce cost cuts of 7 percent below the cost of state-run facilities.

But there’s a more ominous undercurrent to that bill that gives the Florida governor far-reaching powers to expand privatization to other agencies. Under the latest proposals, an agency would not have to report its privatization of a program until after a contract is signed. The bill also will eliminate the legal requirement to perform a cost-benefit analysis before privatizing any governmental function.

Doing away with the cost-benefit analysis reveals in no uncertain terms just how little concern Scott and his allies have about real savings. Don’t for a minute think that Jindal is not in constant contact with Scott on that particular nuance. After all, Jindal did travel to Florida to campaign for Scott’s election. And don’t for one minute think that Jindal is concerned about savings or of the welfare of state employees. It’s all about money—campaign money.

Jindal’s second effort at privatization is a certainty but it is nevertheless worthwhile to take a look at the dollars and cents of privatizing prisons.

Of the 50 states, Louisiana sits alone at the top with the highest prison incarceration rate in the nation at 858 per 100,000. Mississippi is second at 749 per 100,000.

In absolute numbers, Louisiana ranked 11th in the nation in actual prison population in 2007 (37,341) even though the state was 25th in population. Those numbers likely have only increased in the past five years. From 1990 to 2004, Louisiana’s prison population nearly doubled, increasing by 98.6 percent, from 18,600 to 36,900, federal records show.

The U.S., with more than two million prisoners, ranks highest in the world, nearly half-a-million more than number-two China. The U.S. also has the highest per capita number of prisoners with 715 per 100,000. Russia is a distant second with 584 prisoners per 100,000 population.

So, if the U.S. has the highest rate of imprisonment in the world and Louisiana has the highest rate in the U.S. that gives Louisiana the highest rate of imprisonment in the world.

So, what does all this mean in the terms of costs to house, feed and care for all these prisoners? That, after all, would appear on the surface to be the consideration uppermost in Jindal’s mind: saving the state beaucoup money.

In August of 2011, the Vera Institute of Justice, with offices in Washington, D.C., New Orleans and New York City, conducted a survey to determine the total cost of prisons in fiscal year 2010. Thirty-nine of the 50 states responded to the survey which provided some rather interesting figures. That cost is computed on the basis of what the state spends over and above the amounts budgeted for prisons. The additional costs include, but are not limited to, pension liabilities, medical care, inmate education and training, capital construction, legal and administrative costs.

Louisiana had a per prisoner cost of $17,486 in 2010 ($47.91 per day), fourth lowest of the 39 responding states. By comparison, Kentucky’s annual cost per prisoner was $14,603 and Alabama’s was $17,285.

Louisiana’s annual cost per prisoner paled in comparison to several other states. Florida ($20,553), Georgia ($21,039), Texas ($21,390, Missouri ($22,350), Arkansas ($24,391), Arizona ($24,895), Ohio ($25,814), and North Carolina ($29,965) all had higher annual per-prisoner costs.

But five other states’ annual costs per prisoner really soared. Illinois had an annual per-prisoner cost of $38,268, followed by Pennsylvania ($42,339), California ($47,421), New Jersey ($54,865) and New York ($60,076), nearly three-and-one-half higher than Louisiana’s.

The one statistic that Jindal is almost certain to roll out when he makes his inevitable push to privatize Louisiana’s prisons will be the cost per taxpayer. So, let’s take a look at those numbers as well.

Of the 39 responding states, 21 did in fact have lower costs than Louisiana’s per-taxpayer cost of $698.40 per annum, putting the state almost squarely in the middle of the pack. In North Dakota, for example, the per-taxpayer cost was a paltry $58.10. Others, like Oklahoma ($453.40), Alabama ($462.50) and Missouri ($680.50) were closer to Louisiana’s figures.

But then there are states like Arizona ($1,003.60), Georgia ($1,129.90), North Carolina ($1,204.70), Michigan ($1,268), Ohio ($1,315.50), New Jersey ($1,416.70), Illinois ($1,743.20), Pennsylvania ($2,044.30), Florida ($2,082.50), Texas ($3,306.40), New York ($3,558.70), and California ($7,932.40).

Let those last few numbers sink in: Florida’s annual per-taxpayer cost of housing and caring for prisoners is three times Louisiana’s cost. The yearly per-taxpayer rate for Texas is 4.7 times Louisiana’s rate and New York’s rate is five times Louisiana’s per-taxpayer rate. And then there is California where the per-taxpayer rate of $7,932.40 per year is a whopping 11.3 times that of Louisiana.

So, just how will Jindal sell his economic plan for prisons when so many states have both higher per-prisoner and per-taxpayer costs associated with housing, feeding and caring for prisoners?

That should be the number-one question for anyone to ask of Jindal who by now is so caught up in his own brilliance as to think himself infallible. How do you propose to save money when the state’s costs are already a mere fraction of many other states? It’s a question that demands an answer.

The answer, of course, is for the private companies to cut costs by slashing salaries and benefits, reducing the number of guards and taking a page from the charter school playbook: take only the best of the crop (best being a relative term).

A betting man could make a few bucks by making a wager that sick prisoners requiring expensive medical care and violent prisoners requiring tighter security (read: more guards) will not be taken by the private operators. Those will be left to the state’s care. Bet on it.

Below are the rankings in terms of per-prisoner cost and per-taxpayer cost for the 39 responding states:

ANNUAL PER PRISONER COST (BY STATE)
Kentucky $14,603
Indiana $14,823
Alabama $17,285
Louisiana $17,486
Kansas $18,207
Oklahoma $18,467
Idaho $19,545
Florida $20,553
Nevada $20,656
Georgia $21,039
Texas $21,390
Missouri $22,350
Arkansas $24,391
Arizona $24,895
Virginia $25,129
Ohio $25,814
West Virginia $26,498
Michigan $28,117
Utah $29,349
North Carolina $29,965
Montana $30,227
Iowa $32,925
Delaware $32,967
New Hampshire $34,080
Nebraska $35,950
Wisconsin $37,994
Illinois $38,268
Maryland $38,383
North Dakota $39,271
Minnesota $41,364
Pennsylvania $42,339
California $47,421
Rhode Island $49,133
Vermont $49,502
Connecticut $50,262
Washington State $51,775
New Jersey $54,865
Maine $56,269
New York $60,076

ANNUAL PER TAXPAYER COST (BY STATE)

North Dakota $56.20
Montana $76.00
New Hampshire $80.30
Vermont $111.30
Maine $132.90
Idaho $144.70
Kansas $158.20
Nebraska $163.30
West Virginia $169.20
Rhode Island $172.10
Utah $186.00
Delaware $215.20
Iowa $276.00
Nevada $282.90
Kentucky $311.70
Arkansas $326.10
Minnesota $395.30
Oklahoma $453.40
Alabama $462.50
Indiana $569.50
Missouri $680.50
Louisiana $698.40
Virginia $748.60
Maryland $836.20
Washington State $838.40
Wisconsin $874.40
Connecticut $929.40
Arizona $1,003.60
Georgia $1,129.90
North Carolina $1,204.70
Michigan $1,268.00
Ohio $1,315.50
New Jersey $1,416.70
Illinois $1,743.20
Pennsylvania $2,055.30
Florida $2,082.50
Texas $3,306.40
New York $3,558.70
California $7,932.40

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