Pennsylvania is a Leader in Prisons
| Total Number of Federal Prisons Currently Operating in U.S = 98 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| On top of this, Pennsylvania has 3 proposed new federal prisons. Pennsylvania has 28 state prisons, 2 of which (SCI Forest and SCI Fayette) were built recently (around 2003). There are also numerous state youth prisons and county prisons. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Proposed Prisons in PA / Opposition Groups
Pennsylvania Prison Industry / Incarceration Info
In 2003, the prison was scheduled to open in 2004, according to the Houston Business Journal: Cornell to move forward with Pennsylvania prison (March 2003) and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Private prison to open in 2004 (March 2003).
As of 2004, construction is expected to start in the spring and the prison is slated to open in 2005, creating as many as 350 jobs, according to the Centre Daily Times: Future is now for Philipsburg as prison work set to begin (2/1/2004)
Pennsylvania also is home to 26 (soon to be 28) state prisons. In the early 1990s, a community group called "Citizens for Progress, Community Life & Environment" in northwest Pennsylvania fought and lost against the construction of the women's prison at SCI Cambridge Springs. There's been no known organized opposition to the 2 new state prisons which are currently under construction (SCI Forest and SCI Fayette).
Toxic Computer Recycling Operations Enter U.S. Prison Labor Factories
Proposed Prisons in PA / Opposition Groups
There are 3 new federal prisons proposed for Pennsylvania. All of these prisons have been fought locally on environmental grounds.
Was fought by the Organization of Concerned Citizens of Wayne County
www.penweb.org/occ/ and www.farmsnotjails.com.
Prison was built despite strong local objections, but hasn't yet opened for lack of funds.
Being fought by Brush Valley Preservation Association: www.penweb.org/bvpa/
Prison wasn't built.
Being fought by Citizens Advisory Committee on Private Prisons (more info). The PA Attorney General held up the project for a while, claiming that private prisons were not considered legal within Pennsylvania, but a federal court ruling allowed the project to proceed.
U.S. Prison Labor
While U.S. politicians criticize China for their use of prison labor, U.S. federal and state prisons have been using prison labor for some time. Even companies like Microsoft have used prison labor. Many states have furniture made for their state institutions (including public universities) in their state prisons. Prison factories compete with jobs on the "outside," deny worker rights and provide cheap labor to private corporations.
One computer monitor can contain 4-6 pounds of lead. Do we really want these toxic, hazardous jobs to be held by people who have no rights to unionize or protest dangerous working conditions? If we want prisoners to be able to be rehabilitated, why enable them to be brain damaged by exposing themselves to toxic metals like lead?
In their brochure, they admit the hazardous nature of computers when they state "Computers contain many potentially hazardous materials (lead, mercury, cadmium, etc.). Landfilling your computer poses a threat to the environment, along with health concerns."
General Prison Info & Links
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Last modified: 15 July 2004
http://www.actionpa.org/prisons/