TENNESSEE ARTWORK BY FORMER CURRENT OR FORMER INMATES

TENNESSEE [ARTWORK BY FORMER CURRENT OR FORMER INMATES] PRISON PROFITEERING IN A NUCLEAR SHADOW

A HISTORY OF INCARCERATION IN TENNESSEE • Convict lease system and the Coal Creek Rebellion • Trends since boom in incarceration (1980 s) • Race, gender • (Types of crimes)

A PORTRAIT OF THE TROUSDALE TURNER CORRECTIONAL FACILITY • qualitative and quantitative data about the Facility and the site, (nuclear reactor) • CCA Contract details- bed guarantees, per diem rates, training for staff, educational opportunities for prisoners, law library and general reading library, visitation for families, will there be solitary confinement, who will provide mental and physical health care • details about the facility and the building process

A PORTRAIT OF TROUSDALE COUNTY Speculate on motivations for the positioning of facility at this particular site • the decision-making process that led into the final plan for the facility • relationship between CCA and Trousdale specifically (cofounder of CCA) Reports by local newspapers and articles • Headlines re: Trousdale Turner and general public’s response • Protesting the power plant vs. protesting the prison (possibly) Analyze the distribution of power – governing bodies of county • Who has a direct connection to the local/state policy? • Focus on economic impact of the power plant on the community

“POWER TO GO, ROOM TO GROW” Important dates and facts regarding the acquisition and planning for Power. Com • Four Lakes, Tennessee Central Economic Alliance What was Power. Com meant to be? What was its goal? • Who was to benefit? • What was the proposed effect on Trousdale County • Interviews, testimonies from residents (do people see the park in the same way Power. Com does? ) Why didn’t it work? Mention the recreation of the power vacuum. Mention briefly at the end that it was purchased by CCA as a transition into the next group

HARTSVILLE NUCLEAR COMPLEX History of the Hartsville Nuclear Power Plant The purpose of the power plant and why its construction was canceled The influence of the power plant on the nearby population

COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT THROUGH ACTIVISM AGAINST THE HARTSVILLE NUCLEAR PLANT Catfish Alliance--balloon release protest--regional protest in Tennessee Decreasing community support for nuclear plant Faith Young’s activism as a particular example Community Empowerment

NUCLEAR AFTERMATH Economic scenario after the plant closed What physically happened to the plant after closure Reactions to the closure of the plant Remaining smokestack as a bleak symbol to prisoners and others The Vacuum left from not having the plant and how a new project was needed (This used to lead into the discussion of powercom and to tie into desperate origin story of prison)

POWERCOM BUSINESS INDUSTRIAL PARK In 2002, the Tennessee Valley Authority sold over 500 acres of the site for the creation of a business industrial park called Power. Com, whose slogan is “power to go, room to grow. ” - How did this come about? Who benefits? Has it contributed anything to regional development? - Search annual reports of the Four Lakes Regional Authority for relevant details - http: //tennesseecentral. org/ and http: //tennesseecentral. org/about_ us/reports_studies - Maybe interview Charly Lyons, exec director of 4 Lakes Regional Authority? https: //www. linkedin. com/pub/charl y-lyons/16/333/75 a

FROM WAREHOUSING THINGS TO WAREHOUSING PEOPLE (CCA BUYS PART OF POWERCOM) This growth took a new form in 2008, when CCA bought a portion of Power. Com for the construction of a 2, 552 bed prison. We have shifted from warehousing things to warehousing people. - How did this deal come about? And how can we find out more? Research local newspapers, plus Power. Com website - Look at the contracts for details - Critically analyze the shift from warehousing things to warehousing people - Think about the power of the cooling tower as a symbol of toxicity or waste. Few people would voluntarily live here; you wouldn’t situate a resort or a day spa here…

HISTORY OF PRIVATE PRISONS (IN GENERAL)

HISTORY OF CCA IN TENNESSEE • Origins of the company – Compare their own narrative – https: //www. cca. com/our-history with more critical narratives - http: //www. goodjobsfirst. org/sites/default/files/docs/pdf/CCA%20 Anniversary%20 Report. pdf and http: //aclu-tn. org/whoisccainfographic. html • Tom Beasley, one of the co-founders of CCA, is from the area around Hartsville and has invested money in the community. He also went to Vanderbilt Law School • CCA has tried to buy the entire TN prison system twice. (Why did this deal not go through? ) • The Nashville Scene has done some great journalism on CCA - http: //www. nashvillescene. com/nashville/Search? cx=017793458 706336421686%3 Axnq 1 hg 66 scc&cof=FORID%3 A 9&q=cca+pris on&sa=Search

CCA’S BUSINESS MODEL • Explain basic business model: How does CCA make its money? • Lawsuits in TN (and elsewhere? ) • Political lobbying (see Nashville Scene article - http: //www. nashvillescene. com/nashville/cca-has-eightlobbyists-on-capitol-hill-andmdash-and-yet-it-says-it-doesntlobby-on-incarceration-issues-maybe-it-doesnt-haveto/Content? oid=4171659 and ACLU’s “Who is CCA? ”) • CCA's strategy of circumventing the law in TN that restricts private prisons to one in the entire state by contracting with local counties • Interview CCA representative? • Interview Alex Friedmann?

ETHICAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES RAISED BY PRIVATE PRISONS • Incl transparency and accountability • Maybe also economic issues: Is it actually cheaper to contract with private prison corporations? What is the cost to the taxpayer? • Maybe also reflect on the implications of contracting out state services to private companies: at what point is state sovereignty eroded? I have been collecting some law journal articles on these issues, but here’s a sample of the legal scholarship - https: //scholar. google. com/scholar? q=history+of+CCA+private+p risons • Maybe structure as arguments for and against private prisons? • Maybe look at bipartisan support for addressing mass incarceration?

BUILDING THE TROUSDALE TURNER PRISON - This probably sounds boring, but it’s actually fascinating to see the photos of the cells under construction, from cage to concrete block to motel-like strips of cells to the actual prison building. I have some creepy images of weeds and trees growing up among the prefab cells, which I can share - There also interesting connections between the projects undertaken by the building contractors: prisons and “Secure housing” -- locking in and locking out. Glimpse into global neoliberalism - Why was construction put on hold in 2008, and why did it resume in 2015? See, for example, http: //www. hartsvillevidette. com/article/hvnews/111255

POTENTIAL IMPACT OF THE PRISON ON TROUSDALE COUNTY - Jobs – how many? What will they pay? Who will get them? There are lots of articles about this in the local newspapers about this right now. - Track the projects that CCA has funded in the area: New water plant, gravel parking lot for community college, new roads, donations to local organizations, etc. Info about this in local newspapers - Is the economic impact likely to be positive or negative? What about the social impact? And the impact on the nonincarcerated population’s voting power (prison gerrymandering)? How might we “model” this impact?

PRISON GERRYMANDERING How will the prison affect the voting power of non-incarcerated people in Trousdale County? See this on “Prison Gerrymandering” - http: //www. prisonersofthecensus. org/news/2011/09/26/tn-memo/ And http: //www. prisonersofthecensus. org/tncounties/ This issue could be integrated into the previous page, or developed on its own page, along with a political analysis of prison gerrymandering more generally - https: //scholar. google. com/scholar? q=prison+gerrymandering

POTENTIAL IMPACT ON PRISONERS AND THEIR FAMILIES - How will the rural location of the prison affect access? - What sort of transportation will be available to the prison? Who will profit? - What will happen to prisoners post-release? How will the location affect re-entry services? Interview people at Project Return http: //www. projectreturninc. org/, Family Reconciliation Center - http: //familyreconciliationcenter. com/ , Families Acting in Resistance - https: //www. facebook. com/groups/1618682081752409/ and perhaps also some defense lawyers who may have a harder time accessing their clients given the distance - http: //tnpcdo. net/ - Maybe look into the closure of Charles Bass prison in Nashville, which was much more centrally located for families in the city. TDOC denies a connection, but there may be more to the storyhttp: //www. timesfreepress. com/news/local/story/2014/dec/06/tenness ee-says-prison-closing-not-tied-to-cca/277135/ - Interview formerly and currently incarcerated people and their families to hear their perspective on the prison and its location

CONNECTION TO OTHER FORMS OF DISPLACEMENT FOR POOR PEOPLE OF COLOR • Our goals are to examine the incarceration in Tennessee in the broader context of racial/ethnic injustices; to reveal the invisible carceralassistential complex behind the visible prison facilities • The school-to-prison pipeline/ cradle-to-prison pipeline in Tennessee • • facts, statistics and possibly words from high schoolers Gentrification • • people of color being gentrified out of urban center, replaced by welloff white people; case study of Cayce Homes Police discrimination in Nashville • • Injustices in policing: How Nashville has divested its resources from black, brown, and poor communities while punishing the same communities through disproportionate punitive policing and incarceration Possibly some sort of distorted space artwork representing the idea of carceral-assistential complex or gentrification

ALTERNATIVES FOR COMMUNITYBUILDING AND EMPOWERMENT • The current plan is to build 3, 400 beds in next 5 years. Alternatives? • The best alternative: investing in the community and empowering people at risk. • Cayce United, Gideon’s Army, Project Return, Children’s Defense Fund Nashville, Ban the Box Initiative CCA protests by Worker’s Dignity, No Exceptions Collective • Evidence of how community-building and empowerment elsewhere has succeeded and how it could be applied in TN • • Decarcerate PA Solutions to similar problems in Western Australia California United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) Conclusions of success and failures of similar prison movements

EMPOWERMENT FOR ALL! • I’d start with the previously proposed idea to modify the Tennessee Valley Authority logo from “Energy for All” to “Empowerment for All. ” In addition, I want to incorporate a larger image to dominate the final slide. I’d try to collaborate with a local Nashville artist who has been largely affected by the prison system (and hopefully CCA in particular) to make the image more powerful. • Some potential ideas: Silhouette of a person with wrists shackled breaking the chains, set to a backdrop of a nuclear cooling tower. A bird symbolically flying from its cage, the cage potentially shaped like a nuclear cooling tower (Damien brought up the bird flying from a cage since Critical Resistance uses similar imagery • While I like these ideas, I really don’t want to restrict the artistic freedom of the artist so there will definitely be a discussion and collaboration either way. • Below the picture would be a short note giving credit to both artists, and short background on the second artist. If the artist is comfortable, I’d possibly ask for a short and powerful quote to end the project with at the bottom of the page.