Private prisons operator opens wallet for lawmakers
April 22, 2010 | 8:32 am
A company that operates private prisons – and which is hoping to pluck inmates out of California’s overcrowded lockups and into its for-profit prisons – has donated $1,000 each to 10 state lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, in recent days.
Private prisons could be a hot-button issue during this summer’s budget talks. In January, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a constitutional amendment to require the state to spend more on universities than keeping inmates behind bars. Privatizing prisons is one way to do that, the governor has said.
Schwarzenegger, whose ballot measure efforts last year received $100,000 from the Corrections Corp. of America, has been supportive of sending inmates to private prisons. More than 8,000 state inmates are already housed in the company’s out-of-state lockups, with the governor’s proposed budget funding more than 10,000 private prison beds, according to the Department of Finance.
The Tennessee-based company spent more than $175,000 on campaign contributions in 2009. It gave $15,000 to the California Republican Party and $7,500 to the California Democratic Party. Every state legislator – and there are four of them – running to be California’s next attorney general has received at least $1,000 from the prisons operator.
Among the recent recipients of $1,000 in Corrections Corp. of America largess: Assembly: Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco), Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana), Anna Caballero (D-Salinas) and Nathan Fletcher (R-San Diego). State Senate: Alex Padilla (D-Los Angeles), Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), Gloria Negrete-McLeod (D-Chino) and Tony Strickland (R-Moorpark).
Two of the attorney general hopefuls, Assemblymen Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) and Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara), also received $1,000 donations.