TENNESSEE[ARTWORK BY FORMER CURRENT OR FORMER

INMATES]

PRISON PROFITEERING IN A NUCLEAR SHADOW

A HISTORY OF INCARCERATION IN TENNESSEE • Convict lease system and the Coal Creek Rebellion• Trends since boom in incarceration (1980s)

•  Race, gender• (Types of crimes)

A PORTRAIT OF THE TROUSDALE TURNER CORRECTIONAL FACILITY• qualitative and quantitative data about the Facility and the

site, (nuclear reactor)• CCA Contract details- bed guarantees, per diem rates,

 training for staff, educational opportunities for prisoners, law library and general reading library, visitation for families, will there be solitary confinement, who will provide mental and physical health care

• details about the facility and the building process

A PORTRAIT OF TROUSDALE COUNTYSpeculate on motivations for the positioning of facility at this particular site

• the decision-making process that led into the final plan for the facility

• relationship between CCA and Trousdale specifically (co-founder of CCA)

Reports by local newspapers and articles • Headlines re: Trousdale Turner and general public’s response• Protesting the power plant vs. protesting the prison (possibly)

Analyze the distribution of power – governing bodies of county

• Who has a direct connection to the local/state policy?• Focus on economic impact of the power plant on the

community

POWERCOM: “POWER TO GO, ROOM TO GROW” Important dates and facts regarding the acquisition and planning for PowerCom

• Four Lakes, Tennessee Central Economic AllianceWhat was PowerCom meant to be?  What was its goal?

• Who was to benefit?• What was the proposed effect on Trousdale County

• Interviews, testimonies from residents (do people see the park in the same way PowerCom does?)

Why didn’t it work?  Mention the recreation of the power vacuum.Mention briefly at the end that it was purchased by CCA as a transition into the next group

HARTSVILLE NUCLEAR COMPLEX History of the Hartsville Nuclear Power PlantThe purpose of the power plant and why its construction was canceledThe influence of the power plant on the nearby population

COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ACTIVISM AGAINST THE HARTSVILLE NUCLEAR PLANTCatfish Alliance--balloon release protest--regional protest in TennesseeDecreasing community support for nuclear plantFaith Young’s activism as a particular exampleCommunity Empowerment

NUCLEAR AFTERMATHEconomic scenario after the plant closedWhat physically happened to the plant after closureReactions to the closure of the plantRemaining smokestack as a bleak symbol to prisoners and othersThe Vacuum left from not having the plant and how a new project was needed (This used to lead into the discussion of powercom and to tie into desperate origin story of prison)

FROM WAREHOUSING THINGS TO WAREHOUSING PEOPLE: CCA BUYS POWERCOM -Background behind PowerCom’s sale to CCA-Reasons behind sale to CCA for prison- CCA as a fulfillment of failed attempts at making this area profitable -An analysis of parallels-Immediate reactions to sale and analysis of the shift from the Nuclear Power to people power

WHAT IS CCA? •definition of CCA•Origins of the company – Compare their own narrative with more critical narratives•Spread of the company— how and where have they expanded?•Tom Beasley, one of the co-founders of CCA, is from the area around Hartsville and has invested money in the community.  He also went to Vanderbilt Law School•CCA has tried to buy the entire TN prison system twice.  Why did this deal not go through?

—> use this as a transition into the next page: the history of prison privatization 

HISTORY OF PRIVATE PRISONSWhen did the boom in private prisons occur? Why did prison privatization occur?

• Focus on the War on Drugs, boom in CaliforniaHow do private prisons benefit companies like CCA? What are the incentives? Why do private prisons continue to exist?Who are the shareholders? What are the revenues?...transition into CCA’s business practices

CCA’S BUSINESS PRACTICES•Explain basic business model: How does CCA make its money? (laws about filling beds)

•Lawsuits in TN (and elsewhere?)

•Political lobbying

•confidentiality of much of what they do— difficulty in obtaining records, lots of things that go unrecorded

•CCA's strategy of circumventing the law in TN that restricts private prisons to one in the entire state by contracting with local counties

•What sets apart CCA from other private prisons in terms of human rights violations? What makes CCA particularly egregious?

•Examination of who owns stock in CCA

• History of political lobbying?

•Its attempt to dominate prison industry in entire state of Tennessee

ETHICAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES IN PRIVATE PRISONS•Analysis of how people are treated as a means to an end (profit)- motivation to incarcerate more people

•Explain how the private model can lead to more violence (staff training practices and turnover)

•Address prison industrial complex and how many politicians get involved by getting money from private prisons

•What are the moral and political implications of contracting state services to private companies?

•Who is truly paying for private prisons?  What is the cost to the taxpayer?

•Discuss bipartisan support for addressing mass incarceration

•What are the effects of private prison lobbying in Congress on mass incarceration?

BUILDING THE TROUSDALE TURNER PRISON · Stages of Construction· Hold in 2008, Why?· Parallelism between housing projects and prisons· Phenomenology of Architecture

POTENTIAL IMPACT OF THE PRISON ON TROUSDALE COUNTYEmployment· CCA Investment in the community (water plant, gravel parking lot etc.)· Self-serving nature of community invest· Socio-politico- economic impact on The County (gerrymandering)

IMPACT ON PRISONERS’ FAMILIES· Economic burden (clothing, food)· Mental Health Care cost of drugs and therapy· rural location so they can't visit (transportation)

POTENTIAL IMPACT ON PRISONERS· 2 Slides, Family and Prison· Finding a Job· Sensory Deprivation· Relearning socialization· Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder· Institutional Dependecy Disorder· Censored Magazines and Newspapers (Education)· Effects on their Daily Lives

CONNECTION TO OTHER FORMS OF DISPLACEMENT FOR POOR PEOPLE OF COLOR• Our goals are to examine the incarceration in Tennessee in the broader

context of racial/ethnic injustices; to reveal the invisible carceral-assistential complex behind the visible prison facilities

• The school-to-prison pipeline/ cradle-to-prison pipeline in Tennessee• facts, statistics and possibly words from high schoolers

• Gentrification• people of color being gentrified out of urban center, replaced by well-off

white people; case study of Cayce Homes• Police discrimination in Nashville

• Injustices in policing: How Nashville has divested its resources from black, brown, and poor communities while punishing the same communities through disproportionate punitive policing and incarceration

• Possibly some sort of distorted space artwork representing the idea of carceral-assistential complex or gentrification

ALTERNATIVES FOR COMMUNITY-BUILDING AND EMPOWERMENT • The current plan is to build 3,400 beds in next 5 years.

Alternatives?• The best alternative: investing in the community and

empowering people at risk.• Cayce United, Gideon’s Army, Project Return, Children’s

Defense Fund Nashville, Ban the Box InitiativeCCA protests by Worker’s Dignity, No Exceptions Collective

• Evidence of how community-building and empowerment elsewhere has succeeded and how it could be applied in TN• Decarcerate PA• Solutions to similar problems in Western Australia• California United for a Responsible Budget (CURB)• Conclusions of success and failures of similar prison movements

EMPOWERMENT FOR ALL!• I’d start with the previously proposed idea to modify the Tennessee Valley

Authority logo from “Energy for All” to “Empowerment for All.”In addition, I want to incorporate a larger image to dominate the final slide. I’d try to collaborate with a local Nashville artist who has been largely affected by the prison system (and hopefully CCA in particular) to make the image more powerful.

• Some potential ideas:Silhouette of a person with wrists shackled breaking the chains, set to a backdrop of a nuclear cooling tower.A bird symbolically flying from its cage, the cage potentially shaped like a nuclear cooling tower (Damien brought up the bird flying from a cage since Critical Resistance uses similar imagery

• While I like these ideas, I really don’t want to restrict the artistic freedom of the artist so there will definitely be a discussion and collaboration either way.

• Below the picture would be a short note giving credit to both artists, and short background on the second artist. If the artist is comfortable, I’d possibly ask for a short and powerful quote to end the project with at the bottom of the page.