\Many credible and responsible national studies…\ — There are just as many that show private prisons are no bargain for taxpayers or governments.

\Also, unlike public prisons, private prisons in Arizona pay property taxes and contribute to the tax base of local communities, resulting in reduced tax bills for Arizona homeowners.\ — So basically, AZ homeowners get their tax money back from a private prison but still get to pay the private prison its profit. I am sure AZ taxpayers are ahead of that game via public prisons.

\I would encourage those opposed to private prisons to talk to folks in communities that have facilities in their own backyards and ask them how the industry has been received.\ — Private prisons purposely put their facilities in economically depressed communities. Its hard to get a person to understand a thing when their salary depends upon it to paraphrase George Orwell.

\If Arizona was to modernize all of its existing facilities, the cost to the state’s taxpayers would likely be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. That cost savings alone justifies the value proposition of public-private partnerships.\ — There has been much public spending on prisons. Are you saying Sheriff Joe should replace tent city with a sparkling new private prison? Considering how much his empire has grown I doubt he will want to include you.

Which brings me to my final point. I am not crazy about paying taxes, but I would much rather my taxes go to my fellow citizens than to profit a corporation and its executives and partisans. No more corporate welfare. No more corporate involvement in government. Corporations are not people and are chartered at the pleasure of government. Government is people and has every right to regulate and tax its corporate creations.

I am a retired Arizona State Correctional Officer 20 years service.

When opponents mention “horror” stories about things that happen in private prisons, we can match them horror-story-for-horror-story with an incident or series of incidents that have happened repeatedly in public prisons, especially in Arizona. Marcia Powell’s death is but one example. Tony Lester’s suicide death is yet another. There are many, many examples of enormous failures within state-operated/public prisons.

Private prisons must be monitored and contract compliance is of utmost importance. There must be serious and swift sanctions for non-compliance. The state personnel who are assigned to monitor contract compliance must be diligent and thorough in their inspections, reporting, and reviews at all times. What happens in private prisons should not be kept in private prisons — their riots, work stoppages, inmate sexual assaults, deaths, injuries to staff or inmates MUST be reportable and available for scrutiny.

The private prison industry is not going away. If we utilize private prisons to house low-risk to medium-risk offenders, accountability is key to public assurance that they are getting the most benefit from this arrangement while not compromising public safety. Inmate constitutional rights must be honored no matter what agency or who is supervising them.