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REAL FACTS
Politicians supporting this project have received financial donations from CCA. Property Values in a similar neighborhood in AZ dropped 12% after their detention center was built. Coldwell Banker's prison disclosure and hold harmless agreement that applies to ALL properties West of I75, south of Griffin Road and North of Pines Boulevard. "The sharks are beginning to circle," wrote SWR Town Attorney Poliakoff. "We should remain fully quiet" . How is that open and transparent ? As a result of declining prison admissions and excess bed space, the Florida Department of Corrections will be closing 7 prisons by July 1, 2012, including the Womens Prison next to the CCA parcel. This location is part of the Everglades. The negative impact on our ever dwindling water supply is unacceptable. SW Broward is brimming with residential properties and schools. It is no place for a prison. ICE has two other respondents to their RFP who are eager to have their locations selected for this project. Who would you believe first... A multi-million dollar company making money off our tax dollars or your neighbors who have been researching this company since they announced the detention center?"
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One ex CCA employee said : The company brought staff from other facilities to be promoted. We were also forced to work very long hours, in some cases three shifts in a row. We were never allowed to take any lunch breaks, even between shifts. Our paychecks were often several hours late, so when you got off of your shift, you would have to wait two or three hours to get paid on payday. Vacation and overtime pay was frequently left out of our checks, and when it was brought to the attention of HR, there were plenty of excuses on why they didn't have to pay it.
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CCA Says Independent studies have shown no correlation between property values and proximity to a detention center of corrections facility.
At the right youll find that the following clause in the ONLY LEGAL CONTRACT IN EXISTENCE between the Town of Southwest Ranches and CCA . This is SWRs LEGAL and contractual statement of how well they are going to treat our schools through property taxes which are used almost exclusively to fund the schools.
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An Open & Transparent Process. Read the FACTS & YOU decide:
We have been repeatedly told by the Mayor of SWR and other town officials that the reliance on a prison as an integral part of their ability to sustain themselves as an independent municipality has always been A WELL KNOWN part of the plan. Lets look at the plan shall we? First stop is the Town's website and the description. The History Page makes no mention of the dependence of our future on a prison. Given that Vice Mayor Doug McKay has repeatedly admonished us that "we didn't do our homework", we are surprised to find no mention of the corporate partner that will save the town. Next we went to the Home Page which even describes some of the zoning of the Town. There is NO mention of a prison. Looking through various Town budgets which generally contain quite a bit of commentary, we find no mention of a prison and back in 2005 a couple of mentions of "CCA." (If you didn't know what CCA was you'd breeze right past these mentions in spreadsheets.) Only the last budget, 2011, is quite in depth (and worth reading if you have the time). So no mention of a Prison. Well, that's no surprise as promoting the Town as a haven for prisons and as a place where the majority of nonresidential taxes come from a prison is something to be ashamed of, not something to advertise. And Town officials have been complicit in not advertising this. Next, look at the Town's official document describing the plans for the Town's growth and development. This document is called the Town of Southwest Ranches Comprehensive Plan. The document itself states its own purpose and how its basic elements came go be: The Town's first Comprehensive Plan was adopted by the Town Council on May 8, 2003.
Southwest Ranches Town Attorney Keith Poliakoff sent an email urging town leaders to maintain a "cone of silence" about a proposed immigrant detention center in SWR to avoid growing public unrest. "The sharks are beginning to circle," wrote Poliakoff. "We should remain fully quiet" and that "if [Lynn] gets a ton of calls we will issue a carefully crafted press release, but until then, the less we say the better off we will be."
It is dedicated to developing strategies and policies to ensure preserving, protecting and enhancing the quality of the Town's Rural Lifestyle . There is no mention of a prison, correctional facility, jail, "processing center" or anything of the sort expressed or implied in their meaning of rural. Yet, Steve Breitkreuz told us at the December 22, 2011 Council Meeting that a prison was part of preserving our rural lifestyle. A reading of the document only locates two mentions of "prison" as POSSIBLE uses of land within the town. This comprehensive plan SHOULD contain a description of the prison and how our town is dependent on it. It doesn't. It doesn't mention ANY plans for a prison. Let's take a look at one of the first public ordinances related to the prison and let's see how much they wanted you all to know about The infamous Sylvan Pass plat was discussed in Ordinance 2001-08. The only mention of the necessary prison that everybody in the town agreed and banked upon was here:
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WHEREAS, a portion of the West Broward Industrial Park Plat has been sold to a third party; and WHEREAS, Sylvan Pass has not yet been constructed and is requested to be vacated in order to provide a preferred method of access along 202 Avenue; and that "third party" might just be CCA.
It is quite clear that this Town, from its inception, has done practically everything in their power to keep the residents in the dark about their plans for a prison. In order to complete the legitimacy of the process of jamming a prison down our throats, CCA has been conducting closed-to-the-public advisory group meetings which are by invitation only!
Congressman Mario Diaz Balart sent a letter to Director John Morton, the Director of ICE, opposing the placement of the Detention Center. He specifically cites the reasons for apprehension: ... that the facility would affect property value, traffic, and noise to the area, utility consumption, fire department response times, and their overall quality of life. In addition, the potential site is less than five miles from more than a dozen schools
One Last FACT: CCA is a corporation run exclusively for the benefit of its millionaire executives. Compensation, including stock options, stock awards and salaries frequently exceeds a million dollars monthly. This is not to mention perks like corporate jets, at the ready for junketing around the world. Their next priority is to give just enough dividends to stockholders to support a high enough price for the benefit of its own managers and board members who own millions of shares for which they've paid little or nothing. In order to increase dividends by a few cents more than Wall Street expectations they are quick to defer necessary maintenance, for example, jeopardizing the health and safety of the community, its employees and prisoners alike.
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