The Nisqually Indian Tribe is building a 700 prisoner regional for profit jail in my backyard.
I live near Olympia, Washington on property that I thought belonged to the United States Military.
This land was quietly given to the Nisqually Tribe by an act of Congress in 2010. Our local, state and national elected representatives were aware of this jail, participated in the planning behind closed doors. There was no public discussion. There was no transparency, yet the jail complex was built with 20 million dollars of federal loans and grants and the state of Washington is kicking in 5 million in highway improvements. The jail will eventually have a court house, fire station, and work release center. It is intended to house overflow prisoners from municipal and county jails from across the south sound.
This is a union busting tactic, since our brand new 45 million dollar county jail sits empty for lack of operating funds. We give the land and money to the tribe to build a non union shop and they profit from housing our prisoners. Oh, and did I mention the jail complex is only a mile from Olympia's primary wellfield for drinking water.
The worst part, this was done to us by Democrats.
Democratic Thurston County Commissioners Karen Valenzuela, Sandra Romero, and Cathy Wolf, Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire, Democratic Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell , and Adam Smith is our Democratic representative.
Happy 4th of July everybody! The struggle against Democrats in power who use the Republican playbook has begun.
Here is an excerpt from one of our websites that explains the many reasons why we choose this fight.
http://nisquallyjailimpact.wordpress.com/...
http://stopnisquallyjail.blogspot.com/
We've gotten an email comment on our website that suggests that our group is not worthy of community support because our primary concern is self interest as nearby property owners who are fighting a depreciation of our own property values... and that a capitalistic solution to the problem of crime may be the most efficient and cost effective solution to our underfunded county jail situation.
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Such thoughts couldn't have come at a better time for our group. which is newly formed and building its identity. Our first step has been to get the word out, because the most common response to our message is "What jail?".
People though out our neighborhood, the county and state are unaware that millions of dollars and a major shift in public policy towards incarceration is happening behind closed doors.
This is a most compelling reason to raise awareness. Secrecy in public private partnerships is a cancer.
We are learning that our cause is attracting liberals and conservatives, young and old, rich and poor, local neighbors and out of state folks. It did begin with affected property owners, but it does not end there.
The Local neighborhood- You may think, "this does not matter to me", but think again because you too live in a local neighborhood when one day a private strip club, sewage plant or a rock stadium sprouts up in your backyard with the silent cooperation of state and local officials. As my local neighborhood can be abused so can yours be abused. There is even an argument that the prison will actually create economic stimulus in our neighborhood and someone said, the safest place to live is by a prison. Property value protection is not the only reason for our group.
Setting the NIMBY argument aside, there are many other reasons to oppose the jail.
Financial Conservatives are outraged over a brand new empty jail created by the decisions of our County Commissioners who were also quietly attending planning meetings for the Nisqually complex.
Where is the accountability for wasteful and potentially corrupt government? It seems that county decision makers are bailing themselves out of a bad decision by making a worse one.
The Law Enforcement community is concerned over the lack of oversight and standards in a jail run by a sovereign nation and the resulting liability. The Olympia Police Chief will not use the jail for this reason.
Those who fight for government reform see our government on the national level as deeply corrupted by special interest money. Our elected officials are behaving as if they have been captured by interests outside of those who elected them. Now we are seeing the same thing in our state and local government.
If we don't fight it here, the culture of corruption will only grow, and will eventually impact your neighborhood.
Union jobs are being replaced with lower wages, less training, higher risk, and higher turnover. Money that flowed into Thurston county is now going to the tribe.
Human rights - The studies are clear that the incentives of for-profit incarceration create a lobby for stricter enforcement of tougher laws. For-profit prisons make their money by supplying a cheap service with poorly supported and underpaid workforce leading to increased brutality and human rights abuses. What are we becoming as a nation when harvesting crime is one of our few growing industries? I have worked with at risk youth all of my professional life confronting criminal thinking. It saddens me to see how we are becoming a police state for profit and are no longer helping those who make mistakes to find a better way. The erosion of our civil rights begins with the weakest and most vulnerable. As it was said of another time, "First they came for the Jew and the Gypsy." Thinking of criminals as a class that deserves abusive punishment and shabby care is a slippery slope you may one day find yourself sliding down.
The Environment- If you drink Olympia water, did you know that the jail is being built a half mile from protected land around the McAllister Springs wellfield that will supply most of your pure drinking water? The jail will be followed by a next door housing project and commercial development on HWY 510. The environmental permitting is done through different agencies and county regulation does not apply since the Nisqually Reservation is a sovereign nation.
The Media- Does it bother you that a story of this size and impact was covered by only three lines of print in the Olympian on April 6, 2011? Further coverage has only been initiated by our group contacting newspaper and television reporters. If the media watchdogs are sleeping on this story, then what other important stories are being snoozed over?
The Spiritual Community the world over is opposed to adding to human suffering by a policy of exploiting suffering with the incentive to increase the reasons to incarcerate offenders, lengthen they stay in jail and the profit incentive dictates low cost and harsh conditions.
Diversion of much needed resources- We should be spending this money on education and rebuilding our infrastructure upon which our economy depends. Money wasted on duplicate jails is not going to schools. Look at what the money is being spent on in a time of recession, but also look at what money is not being spent on.
I see the construction activity down the road and think how different it would be if we were building a community college to prepare our citizens for jobs and enlightened participation in our society.
Instead we are building a money making incarceration training center for criminal thinking that has less interest in rehabilitation than generating more customers.
Jails or schools, either way, build it and they will come.
Thank you for helping us focus on the reasons for our group and most of all, thanks for talking with your friends.
This is a big jail project with big social, economic, and political implications for us all and yet nobody knows about it.
What did I miss? There are so many reasons to stop such a bad idea.
My lesson learned from this,
If big money is involved, your elected Democrat may be hard to tell from a Republican.