Pining for the Almighty Prison Dollar

Termination for convenience Clause

18.2 In addition to and notwithstanding any other provisions of the Agreement, this Agreement may be terminated by the CITY for convenience upon providing the TOWN with nine (9) months written notice as provided for herein.

[The Fire/EMS/Water termination is on the agenda at the Pembroke Pines Commission meeting on Wednesday, March 7th.  Three votes are needed to cancel the agreement. Contact your city commissioners and mayor now.  Please advise them that they have had 4 months since the original deferring of the motion to terminate the Fire ILA to do their homework on the cost and legal rammifications of terminating.  We believe the costs are minimal as compared to the liablity of a prison and we believe that two independent counsel reviews demonstrate solid legal grounds to exercise a provison to terminate that is contained in the contract itself.  The contact information is:

• Iris Siple, isiple@ppines.com, 954-436-3266
• Frank Ortis, fortis@ppines.com, 954-435-6505 
• Angelo Castillo, acastillo@ppines.com, 954-436-3266
• Jay Schwartz, jschwartz@ppines.com, 954-436-3266
• Carl Shechter, cshechter@ppines.com, 954-436-3266
• Charlie Dodge, cdodge@ppines.com, 954-431-4884

Phone calls are much preferable to email.  Offices open on Monday for calls, email works over the weekend.]

DONATE MONEY: http://www.noprisonswr.org/p/donate-now.html

DONATE TIME: http://www.noprisonswr.org/p/help.html

If you like what you see, please support our cause.

Pembroke Pines has justifiably been ground zero for the fiery and withering anti prison movement made up of moms and dads, men and women, residents, and everybody else who simply don't want an immigrant prison in their back yards.  Pembroke Pines' true actions regarding the planned immigrant deportation prison in Southwest Ranches have been in conflict with their very vocal denouncements of the prison and of the process the Town of Southwest Ranches has used to try and birth their very own immigrant deportation processing center.

Is this disingenuous on their part? Politifact highlighted Pines' actions regarding the prison: http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2011/nov/10/frank-ortis/pembroke-pines-vote-southwest-ranches/

Jesse Jackson Jr. Rejects Crete Immigrant Prison

In addition to the Republican party at the state level being in the pocket of Big Prison through their darling, Mike Haridopolos, our Democratic "Legislative Leaders" are completely in the pocket of CCA. Much to everybody's dismay, both Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Congrsswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) signed a letter of endorsement of what they believed would be the biggest immigrant deportation processing center / prison in the country.

Mike Haridopolos--President of Florida Senate or Snake Oil Salesman?

Ms. Schultz's other job is as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. She was directly hired by the President to fill this position where the primary objective is to get the Democratic POTUS reelected. So, with a goal of gathering up to a billion dollars in campaign contributions, it's no surprise to see the Congresswoman maintaining a very cozy and unhealthy relationship with Corrections Corporation of America, LLC.   CCA is a form of a sugar daddy spending millions and millions of dollars on politicians.

Crete Strikes Back with Their Mailer

Crete CCA.pdf

Our Future -- The Big Gamble

Why gamble our future and the future of the very Town of Southwest Ranches on the words of  a bunch of snake oil salesmen and corporate pitchmen? Are we that strapped for cash that we would entertain such a risky proposition from Prison, Inc.?  Just look at the existing contract between SWR and CCA and see what shady business is all about.

It Depends on What the Meaning of Remote Is...

And now from somehwere in rural Southwest Ranches, former operating base of psychic Ms. Cleo, situated along the banks of Canal 11 on the edge of the Everglades, we ask you to take a step away from your locally filmed salacious Spanish novela and enjoy this episode of What's My Lie? 

Martha Stewart's Jailhouse Decorating Secrets!

Gussy Up Your Wastebasket with the Latest In CCA Propaganda!

Krome Detainee Murders 15 Yr. Old Girl and Two Others

Detainee released from Krome Avenue Detention Facility kills vibrant young 15 year old Ashley Chow, a 25 year old family friend and her boyfriend.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/18/2649101/nearly-700-haitian-convicts-released.html

Kesler Dufrene, who last year slaughtered three people in North Miami after being let out of immigration custody, wasn’t the only convict released to the streets because of a moratorium on deportations to Haiti.

In Dufrene’s case, he was not required to wear any sort of electronic monitoring system. Instead, Dufrene simply had to present himself to immigration authorities in person once a month, which he did not do — although he did call immigration agents to reschedule shortly before the murders.

Of the hundreds of convicts currently released to the streets, only 55 are required to wear electronic monitors, according to ICE.

A convicted burglar from Manatee County, Dufrene was sentenced to five years in prison in 2005. While in prison, an immigration judge ordered that he be deported to Haiti. 

When his prison term was up in September 2010, Dufrene was transferred to immigration custody and housed at the Krome Detention Center in West Miami-Dade.

But ICE released him one month later — and two months after that, he fatally shot the Ashley Chow, 15, a family friend, Harlen Peralta, 25, and her boyfriend, Israel Rincon, 35, inside a North Miami house. 

Eighteen days after the Jan. 2, 2011 murders, Manatee County deputies shot and killed him after an unrelated break-in and shooting there.

Dufrene killed his victims nearly 30 miles from Krome.  So, any person living in Pembroke Pines, Weston, Cooper City, Southwest Ranches and even as far as Fort Lauderdale could potentially be victim to a released detainee.

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Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/18/2649101_p2/nearly-700-haitian-convicts-released.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/18/2649101_p2/nearly-700-haitian-convicts-released.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/18/2649101/nearly-700-haitian-convicts-released.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/18/2649101/nearly-700-haitian-convicts-released.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/18/2649101/nearly-700-haitian-convicts-released.html#storylink=cpy

Of the hundreds of convicts currently released to the streets, only 55 are required to wear electronic monitors, according to ICE.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/18/2649101/nearly-700-haitian-convicts-released.html#storylink=cpyEighteen days after the Jan. 2, 2011 murders, Manatee County deputies shot and killed him after an unrelated break-in and shooting there.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/02/18/2649101_p2/nearly-700-haitian-convicts-released.html#storylink=cpy

Better Than Andy Griffith Reruns

RAID is happy to bring you our favorite rerun episode of  Southwest Ranches Fed Up With Pines.  In this episode, the hapless cast portrays a bunch of country bumpkins who don't like their neighbors in Pembroke Pines going to church on Sunday by road.  It originally aired in June of 2006.

To get back at these marauding Pines church goers, the Po' Country Folk of Southwest Ranches moved their $450,000 Winnebagos, $1000 barbecue setups, $40,000 tractors, $30,000 SUVs and of course, horses, in front of their $500,000 homes into the middle of public roads to have a block party. This happened, coincidentally, just as people were using that road on their way church! They also put up physical barriers to block through traffic elsewhere too!

Avon Calling

Hello...  We are from Residents Against Inappropriate Development (RAID).  Do you know about the prison that Mayor Nelson and all the members on our Town Council including Freddy Fisikelli, Steve Breitkreuz, Doug McKay and Gary Jablonski want to put in our rural enclave?

The Empire Strikes Back

The Corporate/Bankster/Government Empire has stepped up their attack on our community. Going for broke, CCA backed by Bank of America and Wells Fargo working in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security / Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Town of Southwest Ranches is stepping up their attack on our communities in both the rural enclave of Southwest Ranches, and the All America City of Pembroke Pines.

Resistance is Futile. You WILL be Assimilated.

We suppose that Prison, Inc., knew a few days ago that their darling sellouts in the Florida legislature weren't going to bring home the bacon to sugar daddy.  Tonight, we are pleased to announce the bill to privatize South Florida state prisons, SB2038, died 19 to 21 votes at the hands of the Senate.  A related bill, SB2036 is still kicking along and needs to be monitored.

With the immense success in the local residents group's opposition to CCA /SWR / ICE prisons, we've now come under a counter attack from some Borg like entity.

What's In a Name?

Control the language, control the thought.  Control the thought, control the people.

In 1948 when George Orwell penned Ninteen Eighty-Four (notice the relationship between the date written and the title, in case you ever wondered where it came from?), he introduced constructs known as Newspeak and Doublspeak.  (It's a classic read and a quick read.  We urge anybody who hasn't read it to do so.  Even if you have, it will only take an hour or two to reread it.  It provides great context for the battle we have undertaken against the placement of this prison among our homes.)

Newspeak and Doublespeak were mechanisms of propaganda which allowed the state to control the language; hence, control the thought.  Of course, thought control is people control.

We are presented with the federal government and their hand picked corporate toadies at Prison, Inc., along with their hapless minions in our federal and local governments trying to control the language.

At the last Southwest Ranches Town Council meeting, one of the proponents of the prison took the lectern to chide us all that this prison is not really a prison but is a detention center.

Let's look at terms used to describe this monstrosity that Janet Napolitano and Barack Obama in the executive branch, working with their accomplices in the legislative branch, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Bill Nelson, want to jam down our throats and defile our community with.

• The anti prison residents are calling this an immigrant prison.
• The pro prison faction are calling it a detention center.
• The Town of Southwest Ranches and ICE are calling it a processing center.
• CCA calls a similar facility in Taylor, TX called the T. Don. Hutto (named after CCA co founder Hutto)  residential center.  
• They formerly called it a family residential center.

The facts are that the SWR facility will be bounded by two rows of 15 foot high fences, concertina (razor) wire, microwave intrusion devices, "technology that has not yet been invented (according to CCA official at 11/5 "Informational Meeting.", armed guards, and internally will have maximum security holding cells.  Access will be controlled.  People will be prohibited from entering or leaving the facility by their own will.  Did I mention that there will be armed guards?

SWR Prison Drawing Obtained by Public Records Request

Also, this place will be used to hold immigrants for up to two months or longer.

We believe that this is a prison.  Further, we believe it is a prison for immigrants.  Now you can see where we get the phrase we are using, "immigrant prison", comes from.

If you still disagree, please read the detailed wikipedia entry on what a prison is.

Do the terms "detention center" or "processing center" connote anything remotely resembling the reality of what we described here as the plans for this prison?  Or, are these phrases an attempt to minimize what these things really are and to soften the imagery in your mind?  Are these phrases a purposeful manipulation of the English language for the sole purpose of reducing resistance to the siting of this prison and to get the general population accepting of these as features in ALL of our back yards?  They have these planned Aldento to Aurora, Crete to Essex County NJ, Henderson to Karnes County TX, Ocilla to Orange County CA, and Southwest Ranches to Waco.  From sea to shining sea.

It seems to have worked with at least one SWR resident who spoke at the meeting on Thursday.

We'll now introduce another euphemism.  That euphemism is concentration camp.   We all know what a concentration camp is now because we have rightfully associated that phrase with death camps. But, thinking about the words, concentration camp, they seem benign.  What is a concentration camp?  Is it a concentrated camp where you and your family might spend some quality time together in the Everglades?  Absolutely not.

Buchenwald Concentration Camp 

Family residential centers, residential centers, detention centers, or processing centers DO NOT look like prisons just like a concentration camp does not look like a Yogi Bear target for food in Jellystone Park.

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck.  This so-called processing center is a prison.  It's a prison for immigrants, as best we know.

Don't be fooled by the government and corporate propagandists.

The Interlopers Have Arrived to Prey on Residents

LATE BREAKING NEWS... DATELINE FEBRUARY 10, 2012, SOUTHWEST RANCHES, BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA.

THE INTERLOPERS HAVE ARRIVED AND THEY WANT JOBS.  THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT THE IMPACT ON THE NEIGHBORS, THE SCHOOLS, IMMIGRANTS WHO'S LIVES ARE RUINED, OR THEIR BROTHERS IN THE TEAMSTERS WHO SEE THEIR CORRECTIONS OFFICER'S JOBS GOING TO UNDERPAID, NON UNION LABOR.

ORGANIZED LABOR HAS JOINED THE FIGHT **FOR** THE IMMIGRANT PRISON. LATE AFTERNOON YESTERDAY, WE WERE CONTACTED BY WHAT MAY HAVE BEEN AN INSIDER IN THE CARPENTERS LOCAL 79.  THEY INFORMED US THAT LOCAL 79 WAS PAYING FOR ROBOCALLS SCARING RESIDENTS THAT DEFEAT OF THE IMMIGRANT PRISON WOULD RESULT IN TAX INCREASES ON THE ORDER OF $6 MILLION A YEAR FOR PEMBROKE PINES.  THEY DID NOT MENTION THAT THIS FACILITY WILL BE PAID FOR BY FEDERAL TAX DOLLARS AND COST US *ALL* AN ADDITIONAL $25 MILLION DOLLARS IN TAXES A YEAR.  PAY ME NOW, OR PAY ME LATER.

Dear Mr. President...

Dear Mr. President:

We don't want your ICE detention center / Prison in our back yard.  No matter what Senator Bill Nelson, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, or Mayor Jeff Nelson tell you.  We don't want your prison.

Thank you for your consideration.

Residents Against SW Ranches ICE Detention Center.

Private Prisons

Prison Privatization is Crony Capitalism 101

Published Sunday, February 5, 2012 12:08 am

by Dennis Maley

There is an easy emotional response to tap into via the privatization argument. We all have a certain degree of frustration with government, especially at a time when it is so fractious that even the simplest accomplishments seem impossible. It goes like this: If government and those who run it can't even perform their main function – governing – how on earth can they outperform industries that specialize in particular services? If only it were that simple.



To read entire article, click here.

*Link back permission courtesy of Bradenton Times.

Vice Mayor Refuses "Clean" Money - Prefers Dirty Money Instead

Members of The Florida Immigrant Coalition had a message for a flustered Vice Mayor McKay and a very quiet Councilman Jablonski.  The message was that people are not for sale and that CCA is profiting off immigrants.

On January 25, 2012, while our Councilmen were being shuttled from meeting to meeting during Broward Days in Tallahassee, members of FLIC recognized them.  Student members of FLIC also knew that Vice Mayor McKay along with the entire Town Council are courting CCA for money from their partnering with them and ICE to build what may be the biggest immigrant detention center in the country.

The students offered money out of their own pockets as an alternate to CCA's money.

Both Councilmen refused to accept the money and the student group theorized out loud that it was because their money was too clean, unlike CCA's and that the Town only wants dirty money.




 

We urge our elected officials in the strongest possible terms to listen to the near unanimous voice of opposition to this prison.  We don't want our community sold out for a siren song of lots and lots of money.  In the end, it will never generate the money for the Town that was long promised.

The students appear to be under the impression that SW Ranches needs the money and are offering them theirs.  That's really shameful given the level of affluence here.  The perception and completely accurate meaning behind what Town officials are saying and doing is that we can't run our Town without profiting off the incarceration of immigrants and taking dirty money from CCA.

Mr. McKay, you need to learn the real facts.  We are self sufficient and affluent beyond most.  Doesn't it cause you ANY discomfort to reflect on the image that you are presenting of this Town as being beggars for federal dollars and getting richer by exploiting the immigration problem?

Listen to Mr. Mckay's responses.  Can anybody tell us exactly what Vice Mayor McKay said?  We hear the words, but there's no meaning.

No, you obviously don't know the issues or facts.

Seriously?  They say you are doing it for profit.  Sounds like what you say all the time.  Are you denying that you are doing this for profit, Vice Mayor?  What issues or facts don't they know?  Do you know any of the details under negotiation, Vice Mayor?  You are about to sign a contract with ICE and you are all ignorant as to what's being negotiated.  Shame on you for telling others to get their facts straight.  You don't even know the basics of what you've allowed CCA and ICE to negotiate on our behalf.

If you don't get involved in your community, you're not up to speed on events and things that take place.

What?  It sounds like everybody IS involved and up to speed (except you).  These activists are apparently from Miami and they were motivated enough to find you in Tallahassee. They also understand the issues better than you do and and that's in spite of your Town Attorney's Cone-of-Silence that ICE and CCA asked him for and his fear of "circling sharks". You all hid behind the cone for months.

What does that have to do with their observation that you are doing this for profit and holding you accountable for it, anyway?

But as we stand here to day, there is a negotiation going on with ICE.

Yeah, negotiation that you all on the Council know nothing about.  Shame on you.

See neighbors, these politicians don't understand a bit of what the public is telling them or even the most basic of facts. We want to deliberate the issues with facts and figures and this is what we get in return. What a nonsensical  stream of cliche. It's really sad if this is the best we can do for elected officials. 

The winds of change are howling.

The CCA Advisory Meeting -- A Place of Surrender

Pembroke Pines Commissioner Carl Shechter warned us about inconsistent messages when they debated the resolution to inform the President that we did not want this detention center.  He said that the inclusion of the 10 demands to ICE "should" they insist on building the prison anyway, sent an inconsistent message and telegraphed defeat.

All those involved, from the 4 commissioners and Mayor to every single public speaker were very clear in that we are not going to negotiate terms of surrender.  The resolution included statements from 19 HOAs representing 90,000 (at a bare minimum) of the 150,000 residents of Pembroke Pines that they STAUNCHLY oppose the immigrant prison.

In order to complete the legitimacy of the process of jamming a prison down our throats, private prison company Corrections Corporation of America, LLC, has been conducting closed-to-the-public advisory group meetings which are by invitation only and spearheaded by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz who is also the chair of the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to justify that the public was listened to and she was correct in endorsing the immigrant prison.

These meetings are being used to undermine your opposition to the prison by bringing legitimacy to the negotiations you are engaged in to give us the best prison we can get.  You are writing our terms of surrender and we have made our voices clear.  NO SURRENDER.

If you disagree with this assessment, please read the following letter from Director of Enforcement and Removal, Gary Mead as he responded to Mayor Frank Ortis' demand that Southwest Ranches be taken out of consideration.  He's actually calling these sham advisory meetings "town council meetings."

This is a travesty of representative government.  Again, the advisory meetings you are attending are by invitation only and they EXCLUDE those who refuse to negotiate for the "best prison we can get" including most members of the Residents Against the SW Ranches ICE Detention Center.

HOA presidents, your attendance lends credibility to their process.  Your actions are undermining opposition to the prison. You need to immediately boycott these meetings especially if you signed on to this resolution in opposing the prison.

There are no negotiations.  We will only discuss THEIR concession to leave our communities alone.

Senator Bill Nelson's (D-FL) $2000 CCA Endorsement

Here's a slap at DNC Chairwoman and FL-20 Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).  Debbie was given $1000 by CCA immediately after endorsing the CCA / ICE immigrant prison in Southwest Ranches.

Senator Bill Nelson may have held out for a few months longer than Debbie and then was given twice as much.  His endorsement, apparently was worth $2000.

Compendium of Crete (Chicago), IL Fight

Crete: Detention center debate heats up

Jan. 28, 2012, 8:44 am

By Dimitrios Kalantzis
dkalantzis@daily-journal.com
815-802-5144

As former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson and U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Chicago, both Democrats, head into the March 20 primary, the two veteran lawmakers who publicly clash on the Peotone airport debate, are finding some common ground.

They both oppose the proposed detention center in Crete that would house hundreds of illegal immigrants awaiting deportations.

"You don't want to be known as a prison town," Jackson told The Daily Journal, during a stop in Kankakee last week in his new campaign office. Both are vying for the 2nd Congressional District..

..

Private Prisons, Tax Dodging and Impossible Indemnity

There are two issues that were brought up at the HOA meeting with ICE and CCA that should be discussed. The first is taxes. CCA should contribute their fair share of property taxes, a good portion that would go to our local schools.   CCA says they fully expect to pay their obligation of taxes once the facility is up and operational.   Our research has shown that if past dictates present, CCA will use one or more means of tax avoidance to get out of this obligation.

One example is where they’ve used real estate tax shelters, until they became a hindrance to their growth. Another time, in 2002, the federal government sued CCA for $54 million after they discovered CCA was using tax loopholes to avoid paying federal taxes. In another example, in Cleveland, Ohio, the city and county gave CCA more than a 50% tax abatement for 3 years, but that wasn’t enough for CCA, they wanted more ; the county said no and CCA pulled out of the contract because they didn’t want to pay their share of local taxes.  At a facility in KS CCA paid their taxes under protest, arguing that 90% of the prison should be reclassified as residential.