The following is testimony in support of H7739 by Representative Joshua Giraldo (Democrat, District 56, Central Falls), which “would repeal the chapter concerning municipal detention facility corporations and enact a new chapter prohibiting the operation of private detention facilities and private public partnerships within the state. Those currently in operation would continue to do so until December 31, 2029. The act would further prohibit the housing of Rhode Island prisoners in other states as well as the holding of out-of-state prisoners in Rhode Island facilities.”

The bill is being heard by the House Committee on State Government and Elections on Wednesday, April 6, 2022 at 4pm in the House Lounge. See link for details on how to submit testimony.

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Uprise RI was at the August 15, 2019 protest against the Wyatt Correctional Facility when Correctional Officer Thomas Woodworth drove his truck into protesters, injuring some and terrorizing the crowd.

But worse than Woodruff’s actions was what immediately followed. A dozen Wyatt Correctional Officers left the prison and came outside to assault and pepper spray protesters.

These correctional officers shoved people, screamed at people injured by the truck to get off the ground, and ultimately pepper sprayed the crowd indiscriminately, sending a 74-year old woman, and several other people, to the hospital. One of the correctional officers misidentified himself as a federal officer.

Watch the video:

I bring this up today because witnessing the behavior of these correctional officers left me with a terrible thought, one that haunts me to this day:

If this is the way Wyatt Correctional Officers behave with civilians, outside the prison when cameras are rolling – can you imagine how bad their behavior might be when they are inside the prison, dealing with people who have few rights under our present immigration system, and there are no cameras and little accountability?

And let’s talk about accountability. No correctional officers were fired following this incident. Attorney General Peter Neronha failed to charge anyone with any of the various crimes witnessed that night and caught on several videos. And when the public part of the public-private partnership, that is, the City of Central Falls, took action to prevent the Wyatt from abusing immigrants and set reasonable limits on the prison’s incarceration policies, the private part of the PPP, that is, the bondholders, went to court, sued city officials personally, and ultimately took full control of the prison away from Central Falls.

The Wyatt now stands revealed to be what it always has been: Not a partnership between private and public entities, but a full on private prison, acting outside the law and worse, shielded from the law, by ineffective state and local public officials. It’s time for this to end.

Public Private Partnerships, PPPs, are not some halfway point between the public and the private, they are privatization on steroids, allowing companies to privatize profits while socializing all costs and responsibilities. And sometimes those costs are the health and safety of everyday Rhode Islanders and the safety of undocumented immigrants seeking betters lives.

This bill will end the brutality of private prisons in Rhode Island, and that is long overdue.