| LOUISVILLE —
The Advisory Committee
on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) took a break from its discussion
of the “Transforming Families” paper on Jan. 23 for
a celebration of the publication of a General Assembly “Resolution
Calling for the Abolition of For-Profit Private Prisons.”
The resolution opposing the management of public prisons by
profit-making companies was authored by ACSWP and approved by
last year’s 215th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
(USA) in Denver.
On hand for its unveiling were the Rev. Vernon Broyles, associate
director for social justice in the National Ministries Division,
and Si Kahn, executive director of Grassroots Leadership, a 22-year-old
civil-rights organization that works for “long-term positive
change” in the South and in American culture as a whole.
Kahn, holding up a copy of the booklet, said: “This is
a resolution of extraordinary importance. It is the model that
we have been looking for in the faith community for a very long
time. It recognizes that at heart this is a moral issue. It calls
us to our ethical selves, and says that there are some things
that cannot be for sale.”
Kahn distributed copies of another new publication, a study
titled “Corrections Corporation of America: The First 20
Years.” CCA, one of the oldest and largest for-profit prison
companies, manages about 3 percent of U.S. jails and prisons and
reported $962 million in revenue in 2002.
CCA, which claims to be the sixth-largest prison system in the
United States, has been criticized for poor business management
and for abuse, violence and escapes at the 59 facilities it runs
in 20 states and the District of Columbia.
The study of CCA was a joint project of Grassroots Leadership,
the Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First in Washington,
DC, and Prison Privatization Report International, of London,
England.
The CCA study concluded, as did the PC(USA) resolution, that
“the existence of an industry based on incarceration for
profit creates a commercial incentive in favor of government policies
that keep more people behind bars for longer periods of time.”
The PC(USA) publication unveiled last week comes with a “study
and action guide” for individual Presbyterians and church
groups.
The resolution is prefaced by a letter from the Rev. Clifton
Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the PC(USA), who points out that
the appropriate goal of the criminal-justice system is “restorative
justice” and commends the document to PC(USA) governing
bodies “for prayerful study, dialogue and action.”
The resolution says, in part: “Since the goal of for-profit
private prisons is earning a profit for their shareholders, there
is a basic and fundamental conflict with the concept of rehabilitation
as the ultimate goal of the prison system. We believe that this
is a glaring and significant flaw in our justice system and that
for-profit prisons should be abolished.”
The document is available online at www.pcusa.org/acswp/wwd/wwd-prisons.htm.
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