Pennsylvania is a Leader in Prisons
| Total Number of Federal Prisons Currently Operating in U.S = 98 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Pennsylvania is #2 in the number of federal prisons in a state (tied with Florida).
| Pennsylvania has half of the 18 federal prisons located in the Bureau of Prisons’ Northeast region of the U.S.
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| On top of this, Pennsylvania has 3 proposed new federal prisons. Pennsylvania has 28 state prisons, 2 of which (SCI Forest and SCI Fayette) were built recently (around 2003). There are also numerous state youth prisons and county prisons. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Quick Links:
Proposed Prisons in PA / Opposition Groups
Pennsylvania Prison Industry / Incarceration Info
Proposed Prisons in PA / Opposition Groups
There are 3 new federal prisons proposed for Pennsylvania. All of these prisons have been fought locally on environmental grounds.
- Wayne County, PA (right near the state prison at SCI Waymart)
Was fought by the Organization of Concerned Citizens of Wayne County
www.penweb.org/occ/ and www.farmsnotjails.com.
Prison was built despite strong local objections, but hasn’t yet opened for lack of funds. - Northumberland County, PA (right next to the state prison at SCI Coal Township)
Being fought by Brush Valley Preservation Association: www.penweb.org/bvpa/
Prison wasn’t built. - Clearfield County, PA – private prison proposed by Cornell Corrections Inc.
Being fought by Citizens Advisory Committee on Private Prisons (more info). The PA Attorney General held up the project for a while, claiming that private prisons were not considered legal within Pennsylvania, but a federal court ruling allowed the project to proceed.
In 2003, the prison was scheduled to open in 2004, according to the Houston Business Journal: Cornell to move forward with Pennsylvania prison (March 2003) and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Private prison to open in 2004 (March 2003).
As of 2004, construction is expected to start in the spring and the prison is slated to open in 2005, creating as many as 350 jobs, according to the Centre Daily Times: Future is now for Philipsburg as prison work set to begin (2/1/2004)
Pennsylvania also is home to 26 (soon to be 28) state prisons. In the early 1990s, a community group called “Citizens for Progress, Community Life & Environment” in northwest Pennsylvania fought and lost against the construction of the women’s prison at SCI Cambridge Springs. There’s been no known organized opposition to the 2 new state prisons which are currently under construction (SCI Forest and SCI Fayette).
U.S. Prison Labor
While U.S. politicians criticize China for their use of prison labor, U.S. federal and state prisons have been using prison labor for some time. Even companies like Microsoft have used prison labor. Many states have furniture made for their state institutions (including public universities) in their state prisons. Prison factories compete with jobs on the “outside,” deny worker rights and provide cheap labor to private corporations.
Toxic Computer Recycling Operations Enter U.S. Prison Labor Factories
One computer monitor can contain 4-6 pounds of lead. Do we really want these toxic, hazardous jobs to be held by people who have no rights to unionize or protest dangerous working conditions? If we want prisoners to be able to be rehabilitated, why enable them to be brain damaged by exposing themselves to toxic metals like lead?
- Factsheet on Prison Labor and Computer Recycling
- Computer Take Back Campaign
- Inmates jump on the high-tech bandwagon (article on computer recycling at Unicor prisons)
- Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (info on toxics in computers/electronics)
- Unicor – the U.S. Government’s Federal Prison Labor Factories
- Unicor’s computer/electronics recycling services
In their brochure, they admit the hazardous nature of computers when they state “Computers contain many potentially hazardous materials (lead, mercury, cadmium, etc.). Landfilling your computer poses a threat to the environment, along with health concerns.” - Locations of Unicor’s computer recycling prison factories:
- Unicor’s computer/electronics recycling services
Pennsylvania Prison Industry / Incarceration Info
- PA Imprisons Blacks at Highest Rate: Study by reform group finds it’s 14 times that of whites (source)
- PA is #2 in growth in prison spending per capita
- PA State Prisons (map and list)
- PA Prison Industries (map of industries at PA state prisons)
- Death Penalty
- Abuse of Asylum Seekers in York County Prison
Refugees seeking political asylum in the U.S. are sent to INS Detention in rented space in county prisons around the country – mostly in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. York County Prison in Pennsylvania has been highlighted by Amnesty International as particularly abusive to asylum-seekers. About half of York County Prison is filled with INS detained asylum-seekers. Other county prisons in PA house INS detainees as well, including Berks & Bradford County Prisons.- Amnesty Report on Asylum Seekers
- Amnesty Report on Abuses at York County Prison (Read over their concerns about the conditions at the York County Prison)
- Coalition for Immigrants’ Rights at the Community LEvel (CIRCLE York)
- Amnesty Report on Asylum Seekers
General Prison Info & Links
- Mother Jones Magazine Feature on Prisons (their Incarceration Atlas has national and state-by-state statistics on incarceration rates, racial disparity, drug sentencing, and government spending on prisons vs. education)
- PrisonSucks.com: Research on the crime control industry (see their extensive list of reports)
- Prison Activist Resource Center
- Sentencing Project
- Prison Moratorium Project
- U.S. Bureau of Prisons (find lists of federal prisons here)
- Privatization Watch (website tracking private prisons – by Florida Police Benevolent Association)
- The Celling of America (read excerpts from the book)
Return to the ACTION Center
Last modified: 15 July 2004
http://actionpa.org/prisons/