Pimps for Private Prisons and Profit

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Introduction: AzScam

In February 1991 a major political scandal rocked the state of Arizona as a grand jury charged seven legislators, five lobbyists and five others with felonies including bribery, money laundering and filing false campaign statements. Scandal In Phoenix – TIME:

The product of a 16-month, $1.4 million investigation by the Phoenix police and the Maricopa County attorney's office, the indictment charged the accused with accepting $370,000 from an undercover agent posing as a Las Vegas "gaming consultant" building support for casino gambling. Police say the sting began as an investigation of an illegal gambling network that had attracted the interest of organized crime. "We didn't know at the time how earth shattering it would be," said Phoenix Police Chief Ruben Ortega, "until the evidence began to grow."

* * *

At the center of Arizona's sting operation — quickly dubbed AzScam — was a flamboyant Las Vegan who called himself J. Anthony Vincent. According to the indictment, Vincent assuaged the legislators' fears about hidden cameras and once reportedly stripped in front of a lobbyist to show he wasn't concealing a microphone. In fact, Vincent was an undercover agent named Joseph C. Stedino. Ortega says that 95% of the evidence comes from audio-and videotapes. In one police videotape, state representative Don Kenney, who faces 28 counts, is seen stuffing $55,000 in cash into a gym bag and joking about cameras being in the room.

AzScam eventually resulted in seven legislators indicted. Six reached plea deals; a seventh was convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery and filing false campaign statements. Several other legislators resigned or chose not to seek reelection.

(h/t open.salon.com for the graphic)

Pimps for Private Prisons and Profit

Today, Arizona has yet another lobbyist scandal "Brewering." Let's call it for what it is, "pimps for private prisons and profit."

The Office of Arizona's Governor is run by lobbyists. That alone should give voters pause for concern. Jan Brewer's staff are lobbyists for private prisons in Arizona (among their other clients). As previously reported, Brewer's fear mongering helps drive tourists away from Arizona — but CCA doesn't mind:

You've gotta love how, when asked about her rhetoric in the segment above, Brewer said she did not want to comment any further and simply fled when confronted with the facts.

KPHO-TV also pursued Brewer in a line of questions about how private prisons stand to benefit from incarcerations of illegal immigrants under SB 1070, in particular Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), and that Brewer's deputy chief of staff Paul Senseman was a lobbyist for CCA, and his wife still is. Brewer's policy advisor Chuck Coughlin owns the lobbying firm High Ground Public Affairs which also represents CCA, a connection to SB 1070 that the governor never disclosed. Again, Brewer fled and refused to answer the reporter's questions.

Brewer must be taking media advice from Sharron Angle in Nevada. When confronted by real reporters who are not part of the conservative media bubble (FAUX News Fraudcasting Network, where Brewer appeared on Sean Hannity Wednesday night), she refuses to answer factual questions and flees the reporter.

UPDATE: For more on the CCA part of this story see: Think Progress » Prison Lobbyists Working For AZ Gov. Brewer Are Set To Profit From Immigration Law She Signed.

The KPHO-TV reporter in this report, KPHO's Morgan Loew, was interviewed this week on the Rachel Maddow Show about his investigation into Governor Brewer's connections to the private prison system. David Safier posted the video here. Rachel Maddow covers Arizona's private prisons.

Morgan Loew went into greater detail about the pimps for private prisons and profit. Thursday, August 12th – msnbc tv – Rachel Maddow show:

Joining us now is the investigative reporter who broke this story, Morgan Loew, from CBS affiliate KPHO in Phoenix, Arizona.

* * *

MADDOW:  Governor Brewer‘s office says that she did not talk about S.B. 1070 with one of the advisers that you mentioned in your piece, who has links to this private prison company that stands to benefit from the legislation.  What have you been able to find out, if anything, about the other adviser that your investigation turned up?

LOEW:  That other adviser‘s name is Chuck Coughlin, and he is really tied into the Brewer administration.  He‘s one of her policy advisers, as we said.  He‘s also a campaign chairman.

We‘ve learned that he did consult with the governor on whether to sign S.B. 1070 into law.  We don‘t know what he proposed to her, what he said to her.  We do know that this was a discussion that they had.  High Ground, his company, is one of the most popular, sought-after consulting—political consulting companies in the state of Arizona.  And they have contracts with all kinds of legislators and lawmakers here in Arizona.

So, very well-connected and he did talk to the governor about whether to sign S.B. 1070.

MADDOW:  Now, obviously, since S.B. 1070 has been signed, there‘s been a lot of further legal action limiting some of the potential impact of that legislation.  But in terms of the – there‘s being a potential financial boon for private prison companies.

What sort of impact would the full implementation of S.B. 1070 have had on them?

LOEW:  Well, that‘s a hard question to answer, and if you talk to the people at Corrections Corporation of America or if you hear from Chuck Coughlin, they‘ll say that Corrections Corporation of America has no plans to house any people caught in Arizona by local governments, illegal immigrants, that is.

But Maricopa County, the Phoenix Police Department, we don‘t deport illegal immigrants.  When someone‘s picked up on the side of the road or for a crime, they‘re taken to the jail.  At that point, their immigration status is determined.  If they‘re an illegal immigrant, they‘re reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  Then their taken to one of these private prisons, Corrections Corporation of America.

So, you‘d have to do the math.  But if you increased the number of people who are picked up, illegal immigrants, increase the number that are sent over to ICE, you‘re likely going to increase the number that companies like Corrections Corporation of America are going to be housing.

Right now, they‘re—I think they‘re charging ICE here in Arizona about $11 million a month to have about a 5 percent vacancy rate that they keep sort of for big busts or that kind of thing.  So, obviously, that number would go up and they would have to make extra accommodations to handle more illegal immigrants.

MADDOW:  And given that the—as you explained, that the arrangement already is that people picked up in Arizona on immigration violations already go to CCA—CCA can fairly say, we‘re not pushing or lobbying to have these inmates, these detainees brought to us.  The fact remains that they just—that they just will be.

Morgan, last year, when Arizona pushed to privatize, potentially—essentially, its entire prison system, that made national headlines.  No state had ever tried to do that before.

What kind of influence does the private prison industry have on the legislature in Arizona?

LOEW:  We‘ve spent a lot of time looking into that in the last couple of weeks.  I mean, who would have thought that the private prison industry would have any kind of influence anywhere, but as you mentioned in your piece going in, they have facilities all over the state of Arizona.

What we found is they contribute money to state lawmakers, to the governor, to some of our other key lawmakers.  They engage the most powerful lobbying groups here in Arizona.  These are lobbying groups made up of former state lawmakers, former high-ranking public officials here, people who are close to the governor and other legislatures, pay them a lot of money.  Those lobbyists give money to these legislators.

In addition, in Arizona, we have a mindset among a couple of key legislators that privatizing the prison industry is a good thing.  As you mentioned, they tried to privatize the entire system last year.

The governor did veto that after the state corrections director sent her a letter saying, “Look, we can‘t imagine having death row inmates in private prison systems, and having death row inmates being taken care of by the lowest common bidder.”  They don‘t think that‘s a great idea.  Our state attorney general [Terry Goddard] said he didn‘t think that was a good idea.

But that bill went down.  There are other bills that have moved forward.  We‘ve got a, what is it, a request for proposal out on the table right now for 5,000 additional beds for private prisons to come in here and take up.  That would double the number of inmates we currently have in the private prison system here in Arizona.

There are two sides in this debate here in Arizona, and they‘re sort of locking heads right now.  This escape from Kingman is certainly putting a new shine or a new view on the issue.

MADDOW:  It‘s remarkable that, I guess—I guess it‘s remarkable that even running death row for-profit at this point has to be proposed before people realize that it is a bridge too far.

I have one last question for you, Morgan.  And you mentioned the state attorney general [Terry Goddard]. I know that he‘s actually been quite outspoken on this issue.

Do you feel like, either with this escape in Kingman or with any of these other issues, that the public has a recognizable position on this issue?  Is it becoming a campaign issue at all, political issue for the state?

LOEW:  Well, looking at it from the outside, it‘s clear that it is becoming a campaign issue.  You have a governor with close ties to the private prison industry.  Her opponent, the attorney general, has been very outspoken against this.  He‘s calling for the state to stop putting any dangerous inmates in these private prison systems, account for all the dangerous inmates, and then re-evaluate whether we should move forward with this 5,000-bed request for proposal.

It‘s hard to tell right now whether the population here in Arizona thinks that private prisons are a key, you know, issue for this election coming up.  But I‘ll tell you, we‘ll find out in the next two months.

The Rachel Maddow Show did a follow-up report on the Arizona legislators who are pimps for private prisons and profit alluded to above. KPHO's Morgan Loew identified Arizona's racist-in-chief, Sen. Russell Pearce, at the center of this lobbyist scandal. David Safier posted the video here. Second private prisons segment on the Maddow Show.

Mr. Loew did not "name names" of the other current and former legislators and government officials he alluded to in the first interview. Mr. Loew, I hope that you will disclose the full list of names of politicians and the financial benefits received by all involved. You may be sitting on top of the next "AzScam" lobbyist scandal to rock the state of Arizona.