Wednesday, January 4, 2012

The Fight Continues in Arizona

I just wanted to give a quick update on the lawsuit challenging Arizona's rush to privatize its prison system, as the state had submitted a Request for Proposals (RFP) to build 5,000 new private beds.  The AFSC in Arizona sued the state because for the past 2 decades the state has had private prisons, it has failed to conduct a single cost evaluation, which is required by law, to see if the private facilities actually save any money.

An initial review found that private prisons can cost up to $5 per prisoner, per day more for the state than its own prisons; further reviews seem to support the notion that private prisons simply don't offer any cost-savings at all for the state.  However, the lawsuit AFSC has against the state was dismissed on a technicality, and the state continued to proceed with its RFP (more on that in the near future).

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