Good news from Leonard, Texas! Residents have successfully stopped a proposed "faith-based" private prison from being built in the small Fannin County community. While the rehabilitative motives of Corrections Concepts Inc, the private prison corporation, may have been be noble enough, the fact that this prison was a speculative lock-up (the company was actively searching for prisoners from different agencies to fill it) means that it would have contributed to the problem of too many prison beds in Texas. Texas needs fewer prisons not more.
According to a source in Leonard, over 250 people packed the city council meeting on January 29th to ask CCI's lawyer questions about the prison. Then, the city council voted 5-0 to not enter into an aggreement with CCI, the faith-based private prison company. According to the source, the room exploded in applause for the decision. Read some of our previous coverage of Leonard and CCI:
The organizing effort in Leonard, combined with the recently defeated private detention center in Caldwell County, should show others that fighting private prisons in Texas can be successful. Congratulations to all involved in this effort!