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Great New Books on Organizing:

Prince Edward County is, fairly or unfairly, best known as one of the counties that closed its schools rather than integrate them during the “massive resistance” period. A century before that event, it was one of the many Virginia counties that “bred” human beings to be sold to owners farther south.

Today, captive human beings are once more being seen as a source of wealth for Prince Edward County. The People United, a mostly Virginia-based group that describes itself as a “network of justice-seeking people,” brought this latest plan to public attention at the Richmond “Road To Redemption Conference” on October 11.

In Prince Edward County, local officials are supporting a for-profit prison run to hold undocumented immigrants, having been told it may bring over $700,000 annually in tax revenues to the County and the City of Farmville. The private company involved, according to The People United, “is owned by two real estate developers and the CEO of a company that sells industrial mixers to bakeries.” Infrastructure for the project has already been supported by two grants totaling over $500,000 from a Virginia state fund, the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission.

Shenandoah Valley People United community organizer Patrick Lincoln sees this project as part of a national trend. “It’s no coincidence that alarm about immigration has mirrored a national decrease in crime, a slow-down in the growth of the prison system and a shrinking in the profits of companies like the Corrections Corporation of America,” Lincoln says.

Defenders of the project include Farmville City Manager Gerald Spates, who said, “We’ve been hearing horror stories about detainees being put into prison with other criminals when all they have done is be here without documentation. Our goal is to keep them safe,” Spates continued, “But I want to be honest with you. We do stand to gain financially from this.”

It is true that detained immigrants have been put in terrible situations, as their numbers grow rapidly. Not far from the proposed Farmville site, about 300 immigrants are already being held in the Piedmont Regional Jail, according to the Washington Post.

That site was the subject of a critical article by Reuters News Service in 2002; more recently, in May, Senator Ted Kennedy stated on the U.S. Senate floor that “in the past week, the Washington Post, 60 Minutes, and the New York Times have documented the shameful state of medical care in immigration detention facilities. . . It appears that ICE and the Division of Immigration Health Services, the agency charged with delivering medical care to immigrant detainees, have engaged in a pattern of gross negligence and intentional cover-ups that shock the conscience.”

One of the investors in the Farmville project, Ken Newsome, argued at a public hearing there that the situation for immigrants detained in Virginia would be much better if the facility is built. “You’re taking folks who aren’t criminals and you’re making a jail system house them. You’re treating people who aren’t criminals as criminals.”

Newsome’s statement did acknowledge what many people do not realize, that undocumented immigrants are committing a civil violation, comparable to not filing one’s taxes, not a crime. Still, Teresa Stanley of the faith-based advocacy group Sowers of Justice said of the project, “We are seeing people who have already been hurt by our economic policies victimized again. These people are only trying to work to support their families. They contribute hundreds of millions to the Virginia economy and they are being locked up so that corporations can reap a profit.”

As virginia.organizing went to press, The People United was planning to go to Farmville to learn more about the political situation there, and was also making connections with groups around the nation, like Detention Watch and Grassroots Leadership, that have successfully opposed similar projects.

With the assistance of VOP, The People United called on supporters around the state to contact the Farmville town manager and ask that he agree to meet with The People United and other concerned groups and answer all of their questions at an open meeting.

At the “Road To Redemption Conference,” coordinated by Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged, over 100 African-Americans and Latina/os and whites, families of prisoners and ex-prisoners and activists, shared their concerns and their resolve.

Margarita Gonzales, a native of Oaxaca, told the group, “Even to be here speaking publicly is a risk for me. But you can’t accomplish anything alone in your house. So we are here today because we want to work together with you for the rights of everyone.”

After hearing from each other, the people at the Conference took to the streets, marching to the Richmond City Jail, chanting in both English and Spanish, “Money for Jobs - No New Prisons, Money for Education — No New Prisons, Money for Health Care — No New Prisons, Si se Puede (Yes we can).”

There was a united vision of “rehabilitation through education and earned second chance re-entry programs and of programs that deter criminal behavior before a crime is ever committed,” in the words of the Conference program – an alternative to recent trends of massive incarceration as a supposed solution to crime.

The People United will be tracking the Farmville project, and other prison-industrial projects in Virginia. You can contact The People United through Jeff Winder at (434) 906-0421, or jeff@thepeopleunited.org, or visit their website at http://www.thepeopleunited.org/

Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged can be contacted at P.O. Box 55, Highland Springs, Virginia 23075, by telephone at (804) 562-2123, by e-mail at InMateResource@aol.com, or you can visit their website at http://www.rihd.org/.