Several local news outlets shared our Public Hearing to Deprivatize Delco’s Prison with their readers and listeners. Here are some excerpts:
"Private prisons have perverse interests," (Delaware County Councilman) Zidek said. "Our interest as a community is not to have them make money. Our interest is to incarcerate people who are a danger to our community and hopefully rehabilitate them.
"And it's certainly not to keep the prisons full," he added, noting that GEO explicitly mentioned that objective in its most recent annual report.
Read more from the Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com
“Our first goal is to be able to have more public oversight, but then the next step would be trying to improve what’s going on in there,” said Kabeera Weissman, co-founder of Delaware County Coalition for Prison Reform.
Weissman said there are three main issues the group is focusing on that it believes could be improved with the county retaking the helm: Economics, morality and transparency.
Read more from the Delaware County Daily Times
The 2015 suicide of Janene Wallace, 35, resulted in a $7 million lawsuit settlement… Also included in the settlement were revisions to the facility’s policies around suicide prevention and restricted housing. But Susanne Wallace, Janene’s mother, said the county council and Hill’s operators haven’t been transparent about the implementation.
“Obviously our daughter is not going to be brought back,” said Wallace. “But for her legacy we want to be an agent for change, and to make sure other families don’t have to go through what we did.”
Read more and listen to the report from WHYY