http://www.forbes.com/sites/mattstr...le-new-400-million-prison-under-construction/
South Philadelphia High School, taken from Broad Street. Philadelphia schools could be on the chopping block as the city's public schools face a $300 million shortfall.
Is there a a way to justify closing 23 Philadelphia public schools and laying off potentially thousands of teachers in order to build a new $400 million prison complex for Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections (DOC)?
In a word: no.
And the situation may actually be worse than recent breathless media reports might lead people to believe.
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Philadelphia laid off thousands of school employees last week after the state of Pennsylvania continued its austerity measures against public schools. And while the state is essentially destroying Philadelphia public schools through under-funding (claiming budgetary concerns), it somehow found enough money to build a $400 million prison just outside of the city…. The school closures, which (of course) disproportionately affect schools in poor and minority neighborhoods, will force students to venture far outside of their own neighborhoods to attend their closest school.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
In the absence of new funds to cover a $304 million projected shortfall, schools will open in the fall without new books, paper, clubs, counselors, librarians, assistant principals, or secretaries. Athletics, art, and music would be gone. There could be 3,000 layoffs, including some teachers.
And more breathlessly at General Strike USA and Reddit’s conspiracy feed.
Yes, it looks pretty bad. In the simplest terms:
* The largest public school system in the state needs about $300 million to operate without drastically reducing its capabilities.
* The state has about $400 million to offer, but needs a new prison instead.
* The state opts to fund the prison instead of the school system.
What justification could Pennsylvania have for building a new prison right now?
Well, according to the DOC’s most recent population report, the system as a whole is operating at about 105 percent capacity. That means the DOC, as of April 30, housed 2,705 more prisoners than it ideally should’ve. That’s something. And one of the most grossly overpopulated prisons in the state is the State Correctional Institute at Graterford (SCI Graterford), which is by far the largest prison in the state. The new, gleaming, $400 million SCI Phoenix complexes will sit physically near SCI Graterford.
I’ve visited Graterford (as a journalist) a couple times. It is neither state-of-the-art nor pleasant to be in. But Graterford is overcrowded for a logical reason: About one-third of all DOC prisoners (15,052 by my count using this handy tool) committed their crimes in Philadelphia County. Graterford is the closest prison to Philadelphia, therefore a large number of those prisoners (3,885 to be exact) serve time there. This is usually at the request of prisoners themselves; they would rather serve time close to family and friends than in rural Pennsylvania, where most of thestate’s other 27 institutions sit.
By that logic, maybe there is a reason to open a new Philadelphia-area prison complex to house 4,000 prisoners: to keep Philadelphia prisoners near family in Philadelphia. Studies such as this one out of Minnesota (PDF) find that prisoners “who were visited in prison were significantly less likely to recidivate.”
But wait a minute: the DOC doesn’t plan to build the Phoenix complex in additionto Graterford. On the contrary, it plans to close Graterford and replace it with two new complexes (see page 5 of this PDF). So even if we take the DOC at its word that SCI Phoenix will hold 4,100 inmates when it’s complete, the state will still hold about 2,400 more prisoners than it ideally should.
So what’s the point of spending $400 million on a prison again?
Whatever resistance you may give to this, it's clearly just about money, and what is a better investment.
That being said, it makes you think what is the state of Philly (or any other urban city) where money is better spent building a prison than schools.
And once that prison is built, is it not safe to assume they will move strategically to ensure that investment doesn't fail
A system built to encourage your self destruction
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