csmonitor--2020-08-23--Belarus protests continue. Why this isn't like Ukraine 2014

The authoritarian president of Belarus made a dramatic show of defiance Sunday against the massive protests demanding his resignation , toting a rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest as he strode off a helicopter that landed at his residence while demonstrators massed nearby .
In the 15th day of the largest and most determined protests ever in independent Belarus , a crowd of about 200,000 rallied against President Alexander Lukashenko in a square in Minsk , the capital .
They then marched to another rally and approached the Independence Palace , the president ’ s working residence .
Video from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government helicopter landing on the grounds and Lukashenko getting off holding what appeared to be a Kalashnikov-type automatic rifle .
No ammunition clip was visible in the weapon , suggesting that Lukashenko , who cultivates an aura of machismo , aimed only to make a show of aggression .
Protests started Aug. 9 after a presidential election that officials say handed the 65-year-old Lukashenko his sixth term in office with 80 % voter approval .
Opponents claim the results are fraudulent .
The size and duration of the protests have been unprecedented for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 9.5 million people that Lukashenko has ruled harshly for 26 years .
On Sunday afternoon , an opposition rally overflowed Minsk ’ s sprawling 7-hectare ( 17-acre ) Independence Square .
There were no official figures on crowd size , but it appeared to be about 200,000 people or more .
The demonstrators then marched to another square about 2.5 kilometers ( 1 1.2 miles ) away and approached the edges of the presidential residence grounds , where police in full riot gear stood shoulder-to-shoulder , holding large shields .
The protesters dispersed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were no immediate reports of arrests .
Earlier this month , some 7,000 people were arrested at protests , many of them badly beaten with clubs or wounded by rubber bullets , violence that only caused public outrage to swell .
Lukashenko appears to be flailing about for a strategy to counter the anti-government demonstrations .
He has repeatedly blamed Western interference , claimed the protests were backed by the United States and accuses NATO of building up troop concentrations in Poland and Lithuania on Belarus ' western border , which the alliance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ President Vladimir Putin was willing to offer security assistance to his government to quell the protests if he asked for it .
Lukashenko has consistently repressed opposition during his time in office and weariness with his hardline rule , as well as dismay over the country 's deteriorating economy and Lukashenko 's cavalier dismissal of the coronavirus pandemic , appear to have galvanized opponents .
“ Belarus has changed .
Lukashenko has been able to unify everybody , from workers to intelligentsia , in the demand for change , ” said protester Slava @ @ @ @ @ @ @ demonstration with his wife and son .
They held a sign declaring “ Lukashenko , your milk has gone sour , ” referencing Lukashenko ’ s former job as the director of a Soviet-era collective farm .
A similarly enormous crowd turned out for a protest a week ago and daily demonstrations have taken place since the vote .
Several of the country 's key factories have been hit with protest strikes by workers fed up with government polices .
Those strikes not only threaten the already-ailing economy , but show that opposition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and into his traditional blue-collar base .
“ Are you going to work for a dictator ?
Strike — that 's our answer , ” Sergei Dilevsky , leader of the strike committee at the Minsk Tractor Works , one of Belarus ' largest industrial enterprises , told protesters at Sunday 's second rally site .
Lukashenko 's main election challenger , Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya , fled to Lithuania the day after the election .
Several other possible challengers fled the country even before the election .
An opposition Coordination Council was created last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ transition of power , but authorities in Belarus have opened a criminal probe into its formation .
Also Sunday , more than 50,000 Lithuanians joined hands in a human chain stretching 30 kilometers ( 20 miles ) from the capital of Vilnius to the Belarus border to express solidarity with the protesters .
While Belarus is a former Soviet republic on the fault line between Russia and Europe , Belarus 2020 isn ’ t Ukraine 2014 , and that ’ s why it ’ s hard to predict what will happen next .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ s different this time , and why it matters : The uprising in Belarus erupted last week in a democratic vacuum , in a country where challengers to President Alexander Lukashenko are jailed or exiled and where there is no experienced parliamentary opposition .
So those at the forefront of Minsk protest marches have been ordinary Belarusians , instead of established political leaders like those who helped galvanize crowds and funding for Ukraine ’ s 2014 protest movement , centered around the Maidan independence square in Kyiv .
In Belarus , “ the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protests ...
Leaders bring awareness , ” independent political analyst Valery Karbalevich said .
So Belarusian protesters formed a new Advisory Council this week to try to “ offer the street a clear plan and agenda , ” he said .
However , opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova argues that the mass protests this month in Minsk , which came together in decentralized clusters via messaging app Telegram , show that Belarusians no longer need a vertical hierarchy telling them what to do .
And a leaderless protest has one key advantage , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beheaded.
” ORDERLY , AND OK WITH RUSSIA When unprecedented crowds of 200,000 people marched through the tidy , broad avenues of Minsk on Sunday , they came to a halt at red traffic lights , waiting obediently until they turned green .
In Ukraine , by contrast , “ protesters burned tires and threw Molotov cocktails , ” said Syarzhuk Chyslau , leader of the Belarusian White Legion organization .
That ’ s in part because the Minsk marches lack the kind of far-right and neo-Nazi militant groups that joined Ukraine ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It 's also because Belarusians aren ’ t driven by the deep-seated anger at Russian influence that fueled Ukraine ’ s uprisings in 2004 and 2014 , or Georgia ’ s ground-breaking Rose Revolution in 2003 .
While Ukraine has been geopolitically split between pro-West and pro-Russian camps since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 , Belarusians are broadly Moscow-friendly .
Not a single European Union flag has appeared at the Minsk rallies , and the protesters aren ’ t pursuing NATO membership at the Kremlin ’ s expense ; they just want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an election they believe was stolen from them .
Pavel Latushko , a former Lukashenko loyalist now on the protesters ’ Advisory Council , hopes this could allow Belarusians to count on help from both Brussels and Moscow to settle the current tensions .
“ If the EU and Russia together acted as a mediator in resolving the Belarusian crisis , this would be an ideal option , ” Latushko told The Associated Press .
While Ukraine ’ s protest movement built a huge tent camp in the center of Kyiv , complete @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the only perks for protesters in Belarus so far are bottles of water .
“ There are no oligarchs in Belarus who would give money for hot meals , medical treatment and tents .
Even to pay police fines , Belarusian protesters collect money themselves , ” analyst Alexander Klaskouski said .
Unlike Ukraine 's largely privatized economy , Belarus ’ economy remains 80 % state-run , and little has evolved since the Soviet era .
That makes it even more remarkable that workers at state-run factories have joined this week ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the economy allowed Ukrainians not to be afraid of the state , which in Belarus could throw any person out on the street with nothing at all , ” said Klaskouski .
The EU and U.S. also had economic interests in Ukraine before its 2014 uprising , but have only a marginal role in the largely closed-off Belarusian economy .
Given that , the Kremlin can ’ t easily portray Belarus ’ protests as a Western-backed effort to sow chaos in its backyard the way it could in Ukraine .
Russia used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Crimean Peninsula and backing for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine in a war that still simmers , six years on .
But Russia ’ s role in Belarus is pivotal , as the country ’ s top trade partner and main military ally .
So far , Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear to Germany and France that they should steer clear of any interference , but hasn ’ t revealed how he wants to deal with the protesters or with Lukashenko , the only leader in the former Soviet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ longer than Putin himself .
Ukraine has been a cacophonous democracy for much of the 29 years since winning independence from the USSR , and Belarus is dubbed Europe ’ s last dictatorship — but they share some similarities .
“ Lukashenko made the same mistake as ( former Ukrainian President Viktor ) Yanukovych — he began to brutally beat peaceful protesters , which sparked a tsunami of popular protest , insulted dignity and triggered a revolution , ” said analyst Vladimir Fesenko , director of the Penta Center in Kyiv .
Belarusian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Kyiv protests on the Maidan , and now goes out to Minsk ’ s Independence Square every evening .
“ Maidan woke up Belarusians and showed that we need to fight for freedom , ” he said .
“ It took the calm Belarusians a long time to muster the courage to say no to the dictator.
” _Jim Heintz in Moscow and Luida Dapkus in Vilnius , Lithuania , and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.contributed to this story

The authoritarian president of Belarus made a dramatic show of defiance Sunday against the massive protests demanding his resignation, toting a rifle and wearing a bulletproof vest as he strode off a helicopter that landed at his residence while demonstrators massed nearby.
In the 15th day of the largest and most determined protests ever in independent Belarus, a crowd of about 200,000 rallied against President Alexander Lukashenko in a square in Minsk, the capital. They then marched to another rally and approached the Independence Palace, the president’s working residence.
Video from the state news agency Belta showed a government helicopter landing on the grounds and Lukashenko getting off holding what appeared to be a Kalashnikov-type automatic rifle. No ammunition clip was visible in the weapon, suggesting that Lukashenko, who cultivates an aura of machismo, aimed only to make a show of aggression.
Protests started Aug. 9 after a presidential election that officials say handed the 65-year-old Lukashenko his sixth term in office with 80% voter approval. Opponents claim the results are fraudulent.
The size and duration of the protests have been unprecedented for Belarus, a former Soviet republic of 9.5 million people that Lukashenko has ruled harshly for 26 years.
On Sunday afternoon, an opposition rally overflowed Minsk’s sprawling 7-hectare (17-acre) Independence Square. There were no official figures on crowd size, but it appeared to be about 200,000 people or more.
The demonstrators then marched to another square about 2.5 kilometers (1 1.2 miles) away and approached the edges of the presidential residence grounds, where police in full riot gear stood shoulder-to-shoulder, holding large shields.
The protesters dispersed in the evening amid rain.
There were no immediate reports of arrests. Earlier this month, some 7,000 people were arrested at protests, many of them badly beaten with clubs or wounded by rubber bullets, violence that only caused public outrage to swell.
Lukashenko appears to be flailing about for a strategy to counter the anti-government demonstrations.
He has repeatedly blamed Western interference, claimed the protests were backed by the United States and accuses NATO of building up troop concentrations in Poland and Lithuania on Belarus' western border, which the alliance denies. He also claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was willing to offer security assistance to his government to quell the protests if he asked for it.
Lukashenko has consistently repressed opposition during his time in office and weariness with his hardline rule, as well as dismay over the country's deteriorating economy and Lukashenko's cavalier dismissal of the coronavirus pandemic, appear to have galvanized opponents.
“Belarus has changed. Lukashenko has been able to unify everybody, from workers to intelligentsia, in the demand for change,” said protester Slava Chirkov, who attended Sunday’s demonstration with his wife and son.
They held a sign declaring “Lukashenko, your milk has gone sour,” referencing Lukashenko’s former job as the director of a Soviet-era collective farm.
A similarly enormous crowd turned out for a protest a week ago and daily demonstrations have taken place since the vote. Several of the country's key factories have been hit with protest strikes by workers fed up with government polices. Those strikes not only threaten the already-ailing economy, but show that opposition to Lukashenko extends beyond educated white-collar circles and into his traditional blue-collar base.
“Are you going to work for a dictator? Strike — that's our answer,” Sergei Dilevsky, leader of the strike committee at the Minsk Tractor Works, one of Belarus' largest industrial enterprises, told protesters at Sunday's second rally site.
Lukashenko's main election challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, fled to Lithuania the day after the election. Several other possible challengers fled the country even before the election.
An opposition Coordination Council was created last week to develop a strategy for a transition of power, but authorities in Belarus have opened a criminal probe into its formation.
Also Sunday, more than 50,000 Lithuanians joined hands in a human chain stretching 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital of Vilnius to the Belarus border to express solidarity with the protesters.
While Belarus is a former Soviet republic on the fault line between Russia and Europe, Belarus 2020 isn’t Ukraine 2014, and that’s why it’s hard to predict what will happen next.
Here is a look at what’s different this time, and why it matters:
LEADERLESS RESISTANCE
The uprising in Belarus erupted last week in a democratic vacuum, in a country where challengers to President Alexander Lukashenko are jailed or exiled and where there is no experienced parliamentary opposition.
So those at the forefront of Minsk protest marches have been ordinary Belarusians, instead of established political leaders like those who helped galvanize crowds and funding for Ukraine’s 2014 protest movement, centered around the Maidan independence square in Kyiv.
In Belarus, “the absence of bright leaders undoubtedly weakens the protests ... Leaders bring awareness,” independent political analyst Valery Karbalevich said.
So Belarusian protesters formed a new Advisory Council this week to try to “offer the street a clear plan and agenda,” he said.
However, opposition figure Maria Kolesnikova argues that the mass protests this month in Minsk, which came together in decentralized clusters via messaging app Telegram, show that Belarusians no longer need a vertical hierarchy telling them what to do.
And a leaderless protest has one key advantage, she said: “It cannot be beheaded.”
ORDERLY, AND OK WITH RUSSIA
When unprecedented crowds of 200,000 people marched through the tidy, broad avenues of Minsk on Sunday, they came to a halt at red traffic lights, waiting obediently until they turned green.
In Ukraine, by contrast, “protesters burned tires and threw Molotov cocktails,” said Syarzhuk Chyslau, leader of the Belarusian White Legion organization.
That’s in part because the Minsk marches lack the kind of far-right and neo-Nazi militant groups that joined Ukraine’s uprising and fanned the violence.
It's also because Belarusians aren’t driven by the deep-seated anger at Russian influence that fueled Ukraine’s uprisings in 2004 and 2014, or Georgia’s ground-breaking Rose Revolution in 2003.
While Ukraine has been geopolitically split between pro-West and pro-Russian camps since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Belarusians are broadly Moscow-friendly.
Not a single European Union flag has appeared at the Minsk rallies, and the protesters aren’t pursuing NATO membership at the Kremlin’s expense; they just want to freely choose their own leader after an election they believe was stolen from them.
Pavel Latushko, a former Lukashenko loyalist now on the protesters’ Advisory Council, hopes this could allow Belarusians to count on help from both Brussels and Moscow to settle the current tensions.
“If the EU and Russia together acted as a mediator in resolving the Belarusian crisis, this would be an ideal option,” Latushko told The Associated Press.
SHOESTRING BUDGET
While Ukraine’s protest movement built a huge tent camp in the center of Kyiv, complete with food delivery and security forces, the only perks for protesters in Belarus so far are bottles of water.
“There are no oligarchs in Belarus who would give money for hot meals, medical treatment and tents. Even to pay police fines, Belarusian protesters collect money themselves,” analyst Alexander Klaskouski said.
Unlike Ukraine's largely privatized economy, Belarus’ economy remains 80% state-run, and little has evolved since the Soviet era. That makes it even more remarkable that workers at state-run factories have joined this week’s protests and strikes.
“The structure of the economy allowed Ukrainians not to be afraid of the state, which in Belarus could throw any person out on the street with nothing at all,” said Klaskouski.
The EU and U.S. also had economic interests in Ukraine before its 2014 uprising, but have only a marginal role in the largely closed-off Belarusian economy.
MOSCOW’S HAND
Given that, the Kremlin can’t easily portray Belarus’ protests as a Western-backed effort to sow chaos in its backyard the way it could in Ukraine. Russia used that argument to justify its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and backing for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine in a war that still simmers, six years on.
But Russia’s role in Belarus is pivotal, as the country’s top trade partner and main military ally.
So far, Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear to Germany and France that they should steer clear of any interference, but hasn’t revealed how he wants to deal with the protesters or with Lukashenko, the only leader in the former Soviet space who’s been in power longer than Putin himself.
POTENTIAL PARALLELS
Ukraine has been a cacophonous democracy for much of the 29 years since winning independence from the USSR, and Belarus is dubbed Europe’s last dictatorship — but they share some similarities.
“Lukashenko made the same mistake as (former Ukrainian President Viktor) Yanukovych — he began to brutally beat peaceful protesters, which sparked a tsunami of popular protest, insulted dignity and triggered a revolution,” said analyst Vladimir Fesenko, director of the Penta Center in Kyiv.
Belarusian economist Dmitry Rusakevich, 46, participated in the Kyiv protests on the Maidan, and now goes out to Minsk’s Independence Square every evening.
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“Maidan woke up Belarusians and showed that we need to fight for freedom,” he said. “It took the calm Belarusians a long time to muster the courage to say no to the dictator.”
_Jim Heintz in Moscow and Luida Dapkus in Vilnius, Lithuania, and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.contributed to this story


csmonitor--2020-08-24--Monday Sunrise Briefing: Gulf Coast braces for twin storms

Residents from Alabama to Texas made emergency plans this weekend with a tropical storm and a hurricane - Marco and Laura - heading for the Gulf Coast .
In New Orleans , the idea of two major storms within 48 hours has residents recalling Hurricane Katrina , which struck in 2005 .
With Marco on track to make landfall in Louisiana Monday evening , the biggest concern is too much water not wind .
Forecasters expect 10 inches of rain and storm surges of 4 to 6 feet .
As of Monday morning , Laura was still a tropical storm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strengthen before reaching the U.S. on Wednesday .
2 .
Reinforcements for California .
Fresh crews from western states , U.S. military aircraft , and National Guard troops poured into California on Sunday to join the fight against two dozen major wildfires .
The second and third largest wildfires in recorded California history were burning in the San Francisco Bay Area , where more than 200,000 people have been told to evacuate..
The California fires , mostly ignited by lightning over the past week , have killed at least six people and destroyed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
All told more than one million acres have been blackened , according to Cal Fire .
President Donald Trump on Saturday declared the fires a major disaster , freeing up federal funds to help residents and businesses in seven counties pay for temporary housing and repairs .
3 .
Courage on display .
On the 15th day of the largest and most determined protests ever in independent Belarus , some 200,000 people rallied Sunday against President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk , the capital .
The size and duration of the protests are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ republic , where Mr. Lukashenko has ruled for 26 years .
But Belarus 2020 isn ’ t the Ukraine 2014 uprising , say analysts .
So far , Belarus protests are more peaceful , mostly leaderless , and are n't seeking to join the E.U.. And unlike Ukraine , Belarus ’ economy remains 80 % state-run .
But that makes it even more remarkable , say observers , that workers at state-run factories have joined the protests and strikes.
“ The structure of the economy allowed Ukrainians not to be afraid of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any person out on the street with nothing at all , ” analyst Alexander Klaskouski told the Associated Press .
Republicans convene .
The Republican National Convention , part-digital , part in-person , begins .
Events will be live streamed during the day , with key speakers on between 8:30pm E.T .
and 11pm , Monday through Thursday .
Monday ’ s speakers : Donald Trump Jr. and his partner , Kimberly Guilfoyle , Mark and Patricia McCloskey , Sen. Tim Scott ( R-S.C. ) , Rep. Steve Scalise ( R-La . )
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ former ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley , RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel , and Rep. Jim Jordan ( R-Ohio ) .
There are reports , too , that President Trump will appear each evening .
Postal grilling , part II .
Louis DeJoy , head of the US Postal Service , is schedule to testify at a House hearing today .
Expect him to be asked about cost-saving steps taken ahead of the November election .
Mr. DeJoy testified this past Friday at a Senate hearing .
On Saturday , the House passed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ additional funding for the USPS .
The Senate is unlikely to pass any similar legislation .
The White House also said the president would veto it .
Cementing relations .
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Israel , then heads for Sudan , Bahrain , and the United Arab Emirates to advance the normalization deal between Israel and the U.A.E .
Economic insights .
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell delivers the keynote speech at the Fed ’ s annual gathering of central bankers , normally held in Jackson Hole , Wyoming , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Spy in the sky .
United Launch Alliance ( a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing ) is scheduled to launch a spy satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral , Florida .
ULA and SpaceX were recently awarded federal contracts to build rockets for the new U.S. Space Force .
Historic march revisited .
On the anniversary of the famous 1963 March on Washington , civil rights activists and clergy lead a march in Washington , D.C. protesting police brutality today Anne Nelson of Monee , Illinois , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Last year , the fifth grader set a goal of selling 5,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to win a trip to Disney World .
But the trip wasn ’ t for herself .
It was for a boy with ongoing health issues who attends an elementary school where Anne ’ s mom , Michelle Nelson , teaches .
Anne ( with a little help from her parents ) met the goal and donated the Disney trip to the boy .
Last month , when the local Girl Scouts needed someone to deliver @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Caring program , they called Anne .
The program sends cookie donations mostly to the military , but some are reserved for local groups .
In this case , Anne and her mom delivered about half the cookies to first responders in various suburban Chicago communities .
The other half went to veteran ’ s groups .
South Holland ’ s deputy police Chief Chris Lareau told The Chicago Tribune that Anne ’ s July 31 delivery was a “ special treat for our officers , ” but the gesture means more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ encouraging to see a young child go out of her way to show appreciation for first responders , ” he said .
Anne ’ s mom tells the Monitor , “ We are proud of Anne and her big heart .
She hopes her story will encourage and inspire other kids to help other people in their communities.
” Start your week with a recent story that inspired Monitor readers : In tonight ’ s Daily Edition , watch for our story about the California wildfires .
We have a Q & A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we got here and how we might change the pattern .
Finally , check out the Monitor ’ s selected stories from Friday 's subscription-only Daily Edition : • Power pivot : What happens in states where wind dethrones King Coal ?
• How do you ‘ defund the police ’ in Texas ?
Very carefully .
• Russia ’ s peasant history , once submerged , is brought back into the light You have unlimited access to all our pandemic coverage .
If you value our hopeful , compassionate , and respectful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a beta test - an experiment with an early Monday morning news update .
Please give us your feedback via the link below and let us know what you think .
Thank you !

Residents from Alabama to Texas made emergency plans this weekend with a tropical storm and a hurricane - Marco and Laura - heading for the Gulf Coast. In New Orleans, the idea of two major storms within 48 hours has residents recalling Hurricane Katrina, which struck in 2005. With Marco on track to make landfall in Louisiana Monday evening, the biggest concern is too much water not wind. Forecasters expect 10 inches of rain and storm surges of 4 to 6 feet. As of Monday morning, Laura was still a tropical storm hammering Cuba, but was forecast to strengthen before reaching the U.S. on Wednesday.
2. Reinforcements for California. Fresh crews from western states, U.S. military aircraft, and National Guard troops poured into California on Sunday to join the fight against two dozen major wildfires. The second and third largest wildfires in recorded California history were burning in the San Francisco Bay Area, where more than 200,000 people have been told to evacuate.. The California fires, mostly ignited by lightning over the past week, have killed at least six people and destroyed more than 800 homes and other structures. All told more than one million acres have been blackened, according to Cal Fire. President Donald Trump on Saturday declared the fires a major disaster, freeing up federal funds to help residents and businesses in seven counties pay for temporary housing and repairs.
3. Courage on display. On the 15th day of the largest and most determined protests ever in independent Belarus, some 200,000 people rallied Sunday against President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, the capital. The size and duration of the protests are unprecedented for Belarus, a former Soviet republic, where Mr. Lukashenko has ruled for 26 years. But Belarus 2020 isn’t the Ukraine 2014 uprising, say analysts. So far, Belarus protests are more peaceful, mostly leaderless, and aren't seeking to join the E.U.. And unlike Ukraine, Belarus’ economy remains 80% state-run. But that makes it even more remarkable, say observers, that workers at state-run factories have joined the protests and strikes.“The structure of the economy allowed Ukrainians not to be afraid of the state, which in Belarus could throw any person out on the street with nothing at all,” analyst Alexander Klaskouski told the Associated Press.
Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports NPSTrans TopPic View caption Hide caption A Brickyard Tradition: Japan's Takuma Sato kisses the bricks after winning the Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Sato won the race for the second time in four years.
Why We Wrote This Good morning! Welcome to your Monday, August 24, 2020, sunrise briefing. Here are three news events from this past weekend (while you may have been practicing archery, spelunking, and enjoying an offline life). Also, what to look for in the news this week.
Look Ahead
Monday, Aug. 24
Republicans convene. The Republican National Convention, part-digital, part in-person, begins. Events will be live streamed during the day, with key speakers on between 8:30pm E.T. and 11pm, Monday through Thursday. Monday’s speakers: Donald Trump Jr. and his partner, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) former ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). There are reports, too, that President Trump will appear each evening.
Postal grilling, part II. Louis DeJoy, head of the US Postal Service ,is schedule to testify at a House hearing today. Expect him to be asked about cost-saving steps taken ahead of the November election. Mr. DeJoy testified this past Friday at a Senate hearing. On Saturday, the House passed a bill authorizing $25 billion in additional funding for the USPS. The Senate is unlikely to pass any similar legislation. The White House also said the president would veto it.
Cementing relations. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visits Israel, then heads for Sudan, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates to advance the normalization deal between Israel and the U.A.E.
Thursday, Aug. 27
Economic insights. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell delivers the keynote speech at the Fed’s annual gathering of central bankers, normally held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but being held virtually this year.
Spy in the sky. United Launch Alliance (a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing) is scheduled to launch a spy satellite for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Cape Canaveral, Florida. ULA and SpaceX were recently awarded federal contracts to build rockets for the new U.S. Space Force.
Friday, Aug. 28
Historic march revisited. On the anniversary of the famous 1963 March on Washington, civil rights activists and clergy lead a march in Washington, D.C. protesting police brutality today
Generosity Watch
Courtesy Nelson family View caption Hide caption Anne Nelson delivers Girl Scout cookies to the South Holland, Illinois Police Department on July 31, 2020.
Anne Nelson of Monee, Illinois, has discovered the joy of giving.
Last year, the fifth grader set a goal of selling 5,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies to win a trip to Disney World. But the trip wasn’t for herself. It was for a boy with ongoing health issues who attends an elementary school where Anne’s mom, Michelle Nelson, teaches.
Anne (with a little help from her parents) met the goal and donated the Disney trip to the boy.
Last month, when the local Girl Scouts needed someone to deliver 2,000 boxes of cookies from the Gift of Caring program, they called Anne. The program sends cookie donations mostly to the military, but some are reserved for local groups. In this case, Anne and her mom delivered about half the cookies to first responders in various suburban Chicago communities. The other half went to veteran’s groups.
South Holland’s deputy police Chief Chris Lareau told The Chicago Tribune that Anne’s July 31 delivery was a “special treat for our officers,” but the gesture means more than just the cookies.“It was encouraging to see a young child go out of her way to show appreciation for first responders,” he said.
Anne’s mom tells the Monitor, “We are proud of Anne and her big heart. She hopes her story will encourage and inspire other kids to help other people in their communities.”
Hidden gem
Start your week with a recent story that inspired Monitor readers:
How South Sudan’s ‘king of music’ beats back despair
Sneak preview
In tonight’s Daily Edition, watch for our story about the California wildfires. We have a Q&A with three fire researchers who share how we got here and how we might change the pattern.
Get stories that
empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
Finally, check out the Monitor’s selected stories from Friday's subscription-only Daily Edition:
You have unlimited access to all our pandemic coverage. If you value our hopeful, compassionate, and respectful approach, please consider subscribing.
This is a beta test - an experiment with an early Monday morning news update. Please give us your feedback via the link below and let us know what you think. Thank you!


csmonitor--2020-08-24--When a private prison company came to small-town Wyoming (audio)

The private prison industry is often held up as an example of the worst ills of mass incarceration .
Reports of unsafe conditions , underpaid employees , and other cost-cutting measures have dogged private corrections for decades .
And yet the industry itself makes up only about 2 % of the $ 182 billion that goes into incarceration in the U.S. every year .
So why do these companies get so much flak ?
And what would closing down private prisons really mean for justice reform in the country ?
In this episode , our reporters take you to Evanston @ @ @ @ @ @ @ near the Utah border .
The county ’ s plan to build a private immigration detention center tells the story of the money that flows in and out of our prison system – and the moral dilemma it creates .
Note : This is Episode 4 of Season 2 .
To listen to the other episodes and sign up for the newsletter , please visit the “ Perception Gaps : Locked Up ” main page .
This audio story was designed to be heard .
We strongly encourage you to experience it with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not an option for everybody .
You can find the audio player above .
For those who are unable to listen , we have provided a transcript of the story below .
Samantha Laine Perfas : The private prison is a powerful symbol of mass incarceration in America .
Since emerging in the 1980s , they ’ ve increasingly become a target of criticism for justice reform advocates , politicians , and the public .
Sam : And yet : private prisons make up a much smaller chunk of the American prison @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just shutting them down may not do very much to fix the problems in our justice system .
I ’ m Samantha Laine Perfas , and this is “ Perception Gaps : Locked Up , ” by The Christian Science Monitor .
Welcome back to Season 2 !
If you ’ ve just joined us , this is our fourth episode of the season , which has been all about perceptions of the U.S. criminal justice system .
So if you haven ’ t yet , we encourage you to go back and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can find everything at csmonitor.com/perceptiongaps ( or wherever you get your podcasts ) .
Sam : Let ’ s start with a definition .
When we talk about private prisons , what we ’ re referring to , generally , are prisons , jails , and detention centers run by for-profit companies that contract with the government .
They were originally created to respond to a need – public prisons and jails were overcrowded , and so the private sector stepped in to provide the government more capacity .
Since then , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sam : That ’ s Bernadette Rabuy , a senior policy analyst at the Prison Policy Initiative , a non-profit research and advocacy organization that studies mass incarceration .
In 2017 , Bernadette co-authored a report about the money that flows in and out of the justice system .
The report found that , of the $ 182 billion dollars that goes into incarceration in the U.S. every year , only about 2 % goes to private prison companies .
And just under 9 % of people behind bars are housed in privately @ @ @ @ @ @ @ centers .
So , from a big-picture perspective , closing them down wouldn ’ t really do much to end mass incarceration .
And yet for-profit prisons still face a lot of scrutiny , especially from the left .
[ Audio clip from MSNBC , Bernie Sanders : “ ... We need to make sure that we end private ownership of prisons… ” ] For one thing , size is relative .
Our prison and jail system is so sprawling that in even a fraction of that pie , hundreds of thousands of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are affected in public , government-run facilities .
Private prison companies have also expanded – particularly in immigration .
In 2017 , more than 26,000 people were confined in private immigration detention centers .
That ’ s a 442 % increase since 2002 .
At the same time , reports of unsafe conditions , underpaid employees , and other cost-cutting measures have continued to fuel criticisms against the industry .
And then , Bernadette says : Sam : In this episode , we hear different perspectives about the private prison industry , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Just to be clear : the point of this episode is not to convince you that for-profit facilities are better or worse than public ones .
What we are trying to do is look at the vast amounts of money that go into our criminal justice system – because we wanted to know : if the for-profit industry isn ’ t benefiting the most , then who is ?
And what can this cash flow reveal about how the industry operates ?
We begin in Evanston , Wyoming , a town of less @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an hour and a half drive from Salt Lake City .
My colleagues Henry Gass and Jessica Mendoza visited back in February , because at the time , it was set to be the site of a new privately-run immigration detention center .
Things have changed a lot since then .
But while we were there , we learned just how complicated feelings were in the community about private prison facilities .
Sam : Evanston is an old oil town in Uinta County , one of hundreds across rural America that have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fossil fuel industry .
In 2017 , a private prison company , Management and Training Corporation , or MTC , came to the county with a proposal to build a 500-bed facility meant to house immigrants in the region detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement , or ICE .
ICE contracts with private companies to run detention facilities around the country .
Sam : Mark was elected in 2018 – so after MTC had first made the offer .
But he was born and raised in the small Wyoming town .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he became a county official .
Sam : Voters cared about his answer because it was an issue that divided the community .
Then MTC backed out of the project .
And CoreCivic , one of the biggest private prison companies in the country , stepped in .
For Mark and other county officials , the promise of jobs – both short-term , hourly jobs and long-term , high-salary ones – was hard to dismiss .
Sam : CoreCivic said the sales tax of anything purchased during construction would go to Uinta County @ @ @ @ @ @ @ owners downtown who , like Mark , said that they ’ d welcome anything that might give Evanston an economic boost .
We ’ ll hear from them in a bit .
But there were also plenty of residents who told us the tradeoff just didn ’ t feel worth it .
Sam : Kortney Booth is a member of Wyo Say No , a local advocacy group supported by the ACLU .
She and another local activist , Lupita Palma , said that the project sparked all kinds of fears .
Sam @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the conversations happening in her community .
The two women also pointed to Rawlins , Wyoming , a town not unlike Evanston .
The difference is that Rawlins is home to the Wyoming State Penitentiary .
Sam : But the piece that really stirred up the opposition is the fact that a private company is behind the project .
This was an important point of contention .
Sam : Brenda Richins owns Varsity Ink , a t-shirt printing shop on Main Street .
The store was about what you ’ d expect : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Many featured the logo of the Red Devils , the local high school team .
Sam : Brenda ’ s a mother of three , and has lived most of her life in Evanston .
She loves it there .
Sam : Brenda isn ’ t inclined to call herself an activist .
But she said that when she heard about the detention center , she had to speak up .
Sam : That idea – that incarceration shouldn ’ t be a private enterprise – cut across partisan lines in Evanston .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ prison and , because he was born in Germany , a federal INS facility in Texas – the INS being the Immigration and Naturalization Service , ICE ’ s predecessor .
In all , Pete spent about 11 and a half years behind bars , mostly for drug-related offenses .
The coffee shop he now runs in Evanston is a homey sort of place : cozy , mismatched chairs .
A corner filled with books .
Every imaginable flavor of coffee available on the menu .
But Pete hasn ’ t forgotten his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s got opinions .
Sam : The profit motive .
It ’ s the most enduring criticism against the private prison industry .
Basically , folks like Pete and Brenda say that companies whose main goal is to make money – and whose profits are tied directly to the number of people they incarcerate – can ’ t be trusted .
Not with the rehabilitation of criminal offenders , and not with the humane treatment of people in their custody .
This brings us back to some of the questions we raised at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : What role do private prison companies really play in our justice system today ?
And what does their existence tell us about the system and its flaws ?
To find out , we ’ re going to leave Evanston for a bit and turn , first , to Lauren-Brooke Eisen , director of the Justice Program at New York University ’ s Brennan Center for Justice .
In 2017 , Lauren-Brooke published a book about the history and impact of private prisons in the U.S. She walked us through how private corrections @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came to hold such a prominent place in the debate over mass incarceration .
Sam : Just to put things in perspective : back then , 40 years ago , 329,000 people behind bars was a record .
Today , we ’ ve got 2.3 million people locked up .
But back to what Lauren-Brooke was saying .
Taxpayers in the ‘ 80s didn ’ t like the idea of paying for more prisons .
At the same time , there was a lot of pressure on politicians to crack down on criminal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in and said , ‘ Why don ’ t you let us take care of this ?
’ It seemed like a good solution .
Except… once they were in , they were in .
Sam : Today , these private companies make somewhere between $ 3 to $ 5 billion a year off of prisons and other detention facilities .
And yet – as we said before – those figures represent a relatively small part of incarceration spending .
It ’ s true that private prisons have faced a lot of criticism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ problems , from lack of public oversight to practices that put cost-cutting over quality .
But the data is often complex , and comparing government-run facilities with for-profit ones can be tricky .
And so while it can be tempting to think of private prisons as the cause of mass incarceration , the idea is misleading .
Instead , private prison companies benefit from a flawed , publicly-owned system , which in turn has come to depend on these companies to step in where the government falls short .
Take the growth in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2000s , which happened at the same time that unauthorized immigration into the country ticked up .
Today , about 70 % of immigration detention facilities are privately run .
But the private companies aren ’ t causing those changes .
They ’ re responding to them .
Sam : The Day 1 Alliance is a trade association .
It represents some of the country ’ s biggest private corrections companies , including CoreCivic .
We did reach out to CoreCivic directly to ask about their work in Evanston , Wyoming , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Henry asked Alexandra to address some of the criticisms against the private prison industry in general .
Sam : Alexandra also disputed the profit-motive argument and the idea that private prison companies are steering national policy .
Sam : It is worth noting : over the years , the industry has contributed to political campaigns , including $ 1.9 million in the 2018 election cycle .
At the time , that was a record – they ’ ve already surpassed it in 2020 .
Still , Alexandra makes the point several times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are not the main cause of mass incarceration .
And to be fair , that ’ s true .
But we ’ re realizing that in many ways , they ’ re responding to shifting politics ... by following the money and making themselves available to fuel new services .
And they ’ re not the only ones doing it .
Here , we bring back Bernadette Rabuy .
We heard from her at the beginning of the episode .
She ’ s the co-author of the Prison Policy Initiative report on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system .
Sam : Bernadette added that families also pay for phone calls and video chat services .
And companies can set a pretty steep rate : A dollar per minute in some cases .
Sam : At its core , the problem with private corrections has to do with our notions of what incarceration is for , who should be in charge of it , and how the structures we ’ ve built over time have failed to take on those questions .
Here ’ s Lauren-Brooke Eisen again , the Brennan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the history of private prisons .
Sam : And yet , despite all the criticisms the industry faces , Lauren-Brooke says it ’ s able to survive because there ’ s never been an honest reckoning with public officials about the role these companies play .
And the reason is that with the private sector stepping in – Sam : It ’ s not just the government that stands to benefit from the private prison industry .
In struggling communities , residents often view the construction of a prison or detention facility as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : During their trip to Evanston , Wyoming , Jess and Henry learned pretty quickly that the county commissioner ’ s main reason for supporting the project was the promise of jobs .
And there were residents who felt the same .
Sam : We should say , not everyone in Evanston was entirely for or against the detention center .
For instance , Jonathan Lange .
He ’ s a Lutheran pastor who ’ s lived and preached in Evanston for over two decades .
His main concern was how the issue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to bring people together again .
Sam : Others had more personal reasons for being uncertain .
Maria Escalante runs a restaurant that she ’ s owned for six years in downtown Evanston .
It ’ s called Ana ’ s on Main Street .
It ’ s named after her mother .
Sam : Maria knows all about that .
She and her family moved to the U.S. from Mexico when she was nine years old .
A few years ago , after her attorney apparently misfiled some of her papers , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spent 45 days at a facility in Colorado Springs – a seven-and-a-half hour drive from Evanston .
So Maria is sympathetic .
She says it would be nice if people didn ’ t have to drive hundreds of miles to visit their detained family members .
Sam : When we first reported this story , people in Evanston – like most of us – had no idea that a pandemic and massive anti-racism protests were about to sweep the country .
So in June , we checked in with a few residents to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : This is Brenda Richins again , who runs that t-shirt shop on Evanston ’ s Main Street .
Sam : From a health perspective , the pandemic didn ’ t hurt Wyoming as badly as it did other places .
But the economic fallout was a different story .
Here ’ s Mark Anderson , the local county commissioner , on the phone .
Sam : And that takes us to the other big development out of Evanston from the past few months .
In April , CoreCivic announced that it would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ build a detention center in the county .
When we reached out to the company , they directed us to their press statement , which says , “ ... there were ultimately a number of factors that made it difficult for us to consider proceeding.
” Mark says he was disappointed .
Sam : He hasn ’ t given up all hope on a deal , or even some other business coming in to help revive the county ’ s economy .
But for now , Mark is hoping that things will start @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the end of the three-year saga over the detention center , coupled with the pandemic , was a chance for reflection .
Here ’ s Jonathan Lange , the Lutheran pastor .
Sam : And as for Brenda Richins : Sam : Of course , the current moment is much bigger than one privately run detention center in one small Wyoming town .
The coronavirus in particular has put a spotlight on health and safety issues that have long existed within our prison and jail systems .
So , to end the episode @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lauren-Brooke Eisen , to get a sense of how private prison companies fit into these bigger conversations about public health and mass incarceration .
Sam : Thanks for listening !
We hope you ’ ll join us for our next episode .
We ’ ll be digging into a big question : what ’ s the purpose of prison in today ’ s society ?
If you ’ d like to stay in the loop , sign up for our newsletter at csmonitor.com/perceptiongaps .
We ’ ll include notes , videos , additional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the series .
Again , you can sign up for it at csmonitor.com/perceptiongaps .
This episode was hosted by me , Samantha Laine Perfas .
It was produced , reported , and written by me , Jessica Mendoza , and Henry Gass , with additional edits by Clay Collins , Noelle Swan , Mark Sappenfield , Dave Scott , Lindsey McGinnis , and Rebecca Asoulin .
Sound design by Morgan Anderson and Noel Flatt , with additional audio elements from News Channel 5 , CCTV English and CBS News .
This podcast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , copyright 2020 .

A sign shares a brief history of the founding of Evanston, Wyo., on Feb. 27, 2020. In Episode 4 of "Perception Gaps: Locked Up," our reporters explore why this old oil town might build a new private immigration detention center.
When a private prison company came to small-town Wyoming (audio)
Should companies profit from incarceration? In one Wyoming town, residents grapple with the costs of building a private immigration detention center.
In this episode, our reporters take you to Evanston, Wyoming, an old oil town near the Utah border. The county’s plan to build a private immigration detention center tells the story of the money that flows in and out of our prison system – and the moral dilemma it creates.
And yet the industry itself makes up only about 2% of the $182 billion that goes into incarceration in the U.S. every year. So why do these companies get so much flak? And what would closing down private prisons really mean for justice reform in the country?
The private prison industry is often held up as an example of the worst ills of mass incarceration. Reports of unsafe conditions, underpaid employees, and other cost-cutting measures have dogged private corrections for decades.
Episode transcript
[Audio clips of broadcasts about private prisons]
[News Channel 5: “One of the largest private prison companies in the country is receiving backlash from community groups…”] [CCTV English: “...are paying huge sums of money to private prison companies or for-profit prisons ...”] [CBS News:“...more inmates means more money and private prisons are looking to make a profit…”] [News Channel 5: “...they want the leader of the private prison industry to stop making money off of inmates.”]
Samantha Laine Perfas: The private prison is a powerful symbol of mass incarceration in America. Since emerging in the 1980s, they’ve increasingly become a target of criticism for justice reform advocates, politicians, and the public.
Pete Bass: “...my biggest problem is private prisons. They’re going to cut their budgets, get rid of help, crowd more people in, and that’s how they make their money…”
Brenda Richins: “...the private detention part, that’s something that should be the responsibility of our government. They shouldn’t be part of the economy…”
Sam: And yet: private prisons make up a much smaller chunk of the American prison system than most people think. And just shutting them down may not do very much to fix the problems in our justice system.
That’s… a perception gap.
[Theme music]
I’m Samantha Laine Perfas, and this is “Perception Gaps: Locked Up,” by The Christian Science Monitor.
[Theme music]
Welcome back to Season 2! If you’ve just joined us, this is our fourth episode of the season, which has been all about perceptions of the U.S. criminal justice system. So if you haven’t yet, we encourage you to go back and listen to our previous episodes. You can find everything at csmonitor.com/perceptiongaps (or wherever you get your podcasts).
Jessica Mendoza/The Christian Science Monitor View caption Hide caption Pete Bass works the coffee machine at his café, For Pete’s Sake, on Feb. 28, 2020, in Evanston, Wyo. Mr. Bass, who spent time behind bars himself, says he’s opposed to an immigration detention center that’s run by a private company. “They’re going to cut their budgets, get rid of help, crowd more people in,” he says. “And that’s how they make their money."
[Music]
Sam: Let’s start with a definition. When we talk about private prisons, what we’re referring to, generally, are prisons, jails, and detention centers run by for-profit companies that contract with the government. They were originally created to respond to a need – public prisons and jails were overcrowded, and so the private sector stepped in to provide the government more capacity.
Since then, they’ve grown enormously. But:
Bernadette Rabuy: Private corrections really is a small portion of the criminal justice system. There is a lot of money in mass incarceration. There’s a lot of people benefiting from mass incarceration. But that’s not just happening in private prisons.
Sam: That’s Bernadette Rabuy, a senior policy analyst at the Prison Policy Initiative, a non-profit research and advocacy organization that studies mass incarceration. In 2017, Bernadette co-authored a report about the money that flows in and out of the justice system.
The report found that, of the $182 billion dollars that goes into incarceration in the U.S. every year, only about 2% goes to private prison companies. And just under 9% of people behind bars are housed in privately managed prisons, jails, and detention centers. So, from a big-picture perspective, closing them down wouldn’t really do much to end mass incarceration.
And yet for-profit prisons still face a lot of scrutiny, especially from the left.
[Audio clip from MSNBC, Bernie Sanders: “... We need to make sure that we end private ownership of prisons…”]
Why?
For one thing, size is relative. Our prison and jail system is so sprawling that in even a fraction of that pie, hundreds of thousands of people are affected, even as millions are affected in public, government-run facilities.
Private prison companies have also expanded – particularly in immigration. In 2017, more than 26,000 people were confined in private immigration detention centers. That’s a 442% increase since 2002.
At the same time, reports of unsafe conditions, underpaid employees, and other cost-cutting measures have continued to fuel criticisms against the industry. And then, Bernadette says:
Bernadette: It’s disturbing to a lot of people that we have such a thing. That there are companies where their sole business is to make money off of locking people up.
Sam: In this episode, we hear different perspectives about the private prison industry, and break down the thinking behind them.
Just to be clear: the point of this episode is not to convince you that for-profit facilities are better or worse than public ones. What we are trying to do is look at the vast amounts of money that go into our criminal justice system – because we wanted to know: if the for-profit industry isn’t benefiting the most, then who is? And what can this cash flow reveal about how the industry operates?
[Music]
We begin in Evanston, Wyoming, a town of less than 12,000 people that’s about an hour and a half drive from Salt Lake City.
My colleagues Henry Gass and Jessica Mendoza visited back in February, because at the time, it was set to be the site of a new privately-run immigration detention center. Things have changed a lot since then. But while we were there, we learned just how complicated feelings were in the community about private prison facilities.
Henry Gass/The Christian Science Monitor View caption Hide caption Lupita Palma (left) and Kortney Booth pose in front of a graphic wall at Ms. Palma’s workplace along Main Street on Feb. 27, 2020, in Evanston, Wyo. Both women are members of Wyo Say No, an advocacy group against the building of a private immigration detention center in Wyoming.
[Wind blowing]
Jessica Mendoza: Boy, the wind is… whew. Henry Gass: So the wind is just ripping over. Part of the one thousand acres, we believe, that’s part of the proposed site. Jess: It’s quite pretty. Henry: Yeah, there are some mountains in the distance.
Sam: Evanston is an old oil town in Uinta County, one of hundreds across rural America that have been hit hard by the decline in the fossil fuel industry.
In 2017, a private prison company, Management and Training Corporation, or MTC, came to the county with a proposal to build a 500-bed facility meant to house immigrants in the region detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. ICE contracts with private companies to run detention facilities around the country.
Mark Anderson: They approached the county because the county had – has – a thousand acres just on the outskirts of Evanston here. Mark Anderson, I am county commissioner here in Uinta County, Wyoming.
Sam: Mark was elected in 2018 – so after MTC had first made the offer. But he was born and raised in the small Wyoming town. He had heard plenty about the plan before he became a county official.
Mark: The number one question I was asked before I got elected, you know, ‘What is your position on the detention center?’ That was the number one question I was asked.
Sam: Voters cared about his answer because it was an issue that divided the community. Then MTC backed out of the project. And CoreCivic, one of the biggest private prison companies in the country, stepped in. For Mark and other county officials, the promise of jobs – both short-term, hourly jobs and long-term, high-salary ones – was hard to dismiss.
Mark: The construction of it will bring revenue with the workers that will build it. The project is estimated to be a $160 million project.
Sam: CoreCivic said the sales tax of anything purchased during construction would go to Uinta County –
Mark: – and then long term, after it’s up and operational, they’re estimating that there will be 260 full-time positions that will offer new employment, diverse employment, to our community. We have to be able to diversify and not just pray and hope that the oil and gas industry is just going to take back off, ‘cause it doesn’t look like it’s going to.
Sam: There were some small-business owners downtown who, like Mark, said that they’d welcome anything that might give Evanston an economic boost. We’ll hear from them in a bit. But there were also plenty of residents who told us the tradeoff just didn’t feel worth it.
Kortney Booth: I’m just completely against it. I don’t want this in my town. I don’t want to raise my kids in a town that would do this.
Sam: Kortney Booth is a member of Wyo Say No, a local advocacy group supported by the ACLU. She and another local activist, Lupita Palma, said that the project sparked all kinds of fears.
Kortney: I talked to a lot of business owners who are afraid to speak out. They’re against it but they’re afraid to lose customers.
Lupita Palma: And I feel like a lot of the Hispanic community is against it, but they’re also scared to voice their opinion and go against it as well.
Sam: That was Lupita, speaking to the conversations happening in her community. The two women also pointed to Rawlins, Wyoming, a town not unlike Evanston. The difference is that Rawlins is home to the Wyoming State Penitentiary.
Lupita: It’s not a place I want to live in. I know that the prison is there but it looks just sucked out of life. It looks gray and sad.
Sam: But the piece that really stirred up the opposition is the fact that a private company is behind the project. This was an important point of contention.
Jessica Mendoza/The Christian Science Monitor View caption Hide caption Brenda Richins stands at the counter of her t-shirt shop, Varsity Ink, on Feb. 27, 2020, in Evanston, Wyo. Ms. Richins opposed the idea of an immigration detention center built in her town, especially one run by a private company. “We’re probably always going to need to incarcerate or detain people. But I think that that’s something that should be the responsibility of our government,” she says. “It shouldn’t be a contributor to our economy.”
[Audio clip of Henry and Jess entering Brenda Richins’s store]
Jess: Hello? [Sound of door swinging] Brenda Richins: Hello there. Jess/Henry: Hi. Brenda: How are you guys? Jess/Henry: Doing well. How are you? Brenda: Good. What can I do for ya?
Sam: Brenda Richins owns Varsity Ink, a t-shirt printing shop on Main Street. The store was about what you’d expect: shirts and jerseys hanging on racks. Many featured the logo of the Red Devils, the local high school team.
[Sounds of the store] Jess: You do all your printing here too? Brenda: Yeah! Jess: That’s amazing.
Sam: Brenda’s a mother of three, and has lived most of her life in Evanston. She loves it there.
Brenda: It’s really safe. I rode my bike all over the place. My kids rode their bikes all over the place, played in the yard.
Sam: Brenda isn’t inclined to call herself an activist. But she said that when she heard about the detention center, she had to speak up.
Brenda: I don’t know if anybody would be super jazzed to have a detention center in their town. But yeah, the thing that really puts it over for me is the private detention part. It’s a part that I can’t really get past. Jess: Could you talk about that a little bit? Brenda: I think that we’re always going to have people who do stuff that’s not OK. We’re probably always going to need to incarcerate or detain people. But I think that that’s something that should be the responsibility of our government, and that it shouldn’t be a contributor to our economy. Like I don’t think that we would be motivated correctly if we were trying to make money off of detaining humans.
Sam: That idea – that incarceration shouldn’t be a private enterprise – cut across partisan lines in Evanston.
Pete Bass: They’re talking about building an ICE detention facility here. [They’ll say,] ‘I see you’re wearing a Donald Trump t-shirt, so you’re probably all for it, aren’t you?’ And I was like, ‘No, actually, I’m not.’ So my name’s Pete Bass. I have this coffee shop called For Pete’s Sake, where we’re sitting. I’m also a pastor at Calvary Chapel, Evanston, Wyoming.
Pete has served time in both state prison and, because he was born in Germany, a federal INS facility in Texas – the INS being the Immigration and Naturalization Service, ICE’s predecessor. In all, Pete spent about 11 and a half years behind bars, mostly for drug-related offenses.
The coffee shop he now runs in Evanston is a homey sort of place: cozy, mismatched chairs. A corner filled with books. Every imaginable flavor of coffee available on the menu. But Pete hasn’t forgotten his time in prison. And he’s got opinions.
Pete: I guess probably the – my biggest problem is private prisons. You’re a for-profit prison, they’re going to cut their budgets, get rid of help, crowd more people in. And that’s how they make their money. And I’m not against corporations, believe me. I believe if a guy can build up a great big corporation and sell cars and make zillions of dollars, more power to you. But these corporations that live off of this kind of thing, they don’t care about those people from Mexico, or the Honduras, or Russia, or wherever they’re from. They don’t care about them. They’re there to make a profit.
Sam: The profit motive. It’s the most enduring criticism against the private prison industry. Basically, folks like Pete and Brenda say that companies whose main goal is to make money – and whose profits are tied directly to the number of people they incarcerate – can’t be trusted. Not with the rehabilitation of criminal offenders, and not with the humane treatment of people in their custody.
This brings us back to some of the questions we raised at the start of the show. Like: What role do private prison companies really play in our justice system today? And what does their existence tell us about the system and its flaws?
[Music]
To find out, we’re going to leave Evanston for a bit and turn, first, to Lauren-Brooke Eisen, director of the Justice Program at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. In 2017, Lauren-Brooke published a book about the history and impact of private prisons in the U.S. She walked us through how private corrections came to be, and how they came to hold such a prominent place in the debate over mass incarceration.
Laure-Brooke Eisen: Ever since these corporations were founded in the mid-80s, our country has wrestled with the proper role of the private sector when it comes to corrections. By the end of 1980, the nation held what was then a record of 329,000 people behind bars. Many prisons across the country were unhygienic, inhumane. They were suffering from overcrowding. And more than half the states, 28 states and the District of Columbia, were under court orders to reduce overcrowding. So what happened was that state policymakers faced a choice: They either had to reduce their prison populations or build additional expensive facilities.
Sam: Just to put things in perspective: back then, 40 years ago, 329,000 people behind bars was a record. Today, we’ve got 2.3 million people locked up.
But back to what Lauren-Brooke was saying. Taxpayers in the ‘80s didn’t like the idea of paying for more prisons. At the same time, there was a lot of pressure on politicians to crack down on criminal offenders.
So when private corporations stepped in and said, ‘Why don’t you let us take care of this?’ It seemed like a good solution. Except… once they were in, they were in.
Lauren-Brooke: By the mid-90s, one of the biggest private corporations at the time, Corrections Corporation of America – they recently rebranded and are now known as CoreCivic – they issued an annual report to their shareholders in 1994, where they wrote: ‘There are powerful market forces driving our industry and its potential has barely been touched.’ And that acknowledgement of the profit opportunity that was surrounding corrections at the time illustrates how corporations were viewing their ability to make money off of corrections.
Sam: Today, these private companies make somewhere between $3 to $5 billion a year off of prisons and other detention facilities. And yet – as we said before – those figures represent a relatively small part of incarceration spending.
[Music]
It’s true that private prisons have faced a lot of criticism over the years for a range of problems, from lack of public oversight to practices that put cost-cutting over quality. But the data is often complex, and comparing government-run facilities with for-profit ones can be tricky.
And so while it can be tempting to think of private prisons as the cause of mass incarceration, the idea is misleading. Instead, private prison companies benefit from a flawed, publicly-owned system, which in turn has come to depend on these companies to step in where the government falls short.
Take the growth in private immigration detention centers since the early 2000s, which happened at the same time that unauthorized immigration into the country ticked up. Today, about 70% of immigration detention facilities are privately run.
But the private companies aren’t causing those changes. They’re responding to them.
[Music]
Alexandra Wilkes: So I think one of the big misconceptions about the industry is that somehow the contractor-operated facilities are the ones that are driving mass incarceration, and the math just does not bear that out. My name is Alexandra Wilkes and I serve as spokeswoman for the Day 1 Alliance.
Sam: The Day 1 Alliance is a trade association. It represents some of the country’s biggest private corrections companies, including CoreCivic. We did reach out to CoreCivic directly to ask about their work in Evanston, Wyoming, but they declined to comment. So Jess and Henry asked Alexandra to address some of the criticisms against the private prison industry in general.
Alexandra: With a taxpayer funded facility, the taxpayers are responsible for the upkeep of that facility. They’re responsible for the employees of that facility. And what you don’t want is a situation where taxpayers are left holding the bag for operating huge facilities and huge payrolls and pensions for immigration levels that don’t meet that need. And I think that one of the key reasons you need the industry is to provide flexibility. Jess: We also need to ask about conditions inside privately run detention centers. What steps do private companies take to ensure that the people in their custody are treated humanely? Alexandra: Any of those standards, whether it is the size of the cell, the permissions with regards to family visits – those are all set by the government. There’s this idea out there that somehow if it’s a contractor it means that the contractor is cutting corners. That’s not the case at all. If the contractor were cutting corners they wouldn’t be meeting their obligations under their government contract, which would cause a serious dispute. And there is constant compliance monitoring of that contract. One of the facilities I visited has a daycare center. The relevant state agency that manages daycare facilities just in general, is on-site, doing inspections as they would any other day care center in the state of Texas. The relevant state agency for overseeing health inspections is looking at the cafeterias. So everywhere you look there is some person that is responsible for compliance.
Sam: Alexandra also disputed the profit-motive argument and the idea that private prison companies are steering national policy.
Alexandra: We have no say in the disposition of who comes into these centers. You know, our organizations are not Border Patrol, they are not ICE. You know, these individuals are brought into our care. And I should note from the outset that the industry actually has made it a point to never lobby on the duration or status of anyone’s immigration. So we don’t get involved in setting immigration policy. Our companies have nothing to do with that. You know, again, we are not one of the drivers of mass incarceration. There is no perverse profit incentive for us to keep people in our care.
Sam: It is worth noting: over the years, the industry has contributed to political campaigns, including $1.9 million in the 2018 election cycle. At the time, that was a record – they’ve already surpassed it in 2020.
Still, Alexandra makes the point several times throughout the conversation: private prison companies are not the main cause of mass incarceration. And to be fair, that’s true. But we’re realizing that in many ways, they’re responding to shifting politics... by following the money and making themselves available to fuel new services. And they’re not the only ones doing it.
Here, we bring back Bernadette Rabuy. We heard from her at the beginning of the episode. She’s the co-author of the Prison Policy Initiative report on the funds that make up the criminal justice system.
Sam: At the highest level, where would you say most of the money is coming from, and where for the most part does it go? Bernadette: The money is usually coming from the government. So that’s for the costs of prosecution or public defenders. But we also have a lot of money that’s coming from families. So that would include bail. Also, the cost of commissary: snacks, or for example right now, different hygiene products – soap, or shampoo, anything like that that they feel they need beyond what’ s provided to them by the government.
Sam: Bernadette added that families also pay for phone calls and video chat services. And companies can set a pretty steep rate: A dollar per minute in some cases.
Bernadette: They’re able to do that because family members don’t have a choice. If they want to see or communicate with their loved ones, they’re forced into these high rates.
Sam: So where does all that money go? Bernadette: Public employees are a huge portion of the cost of the criminal justice system. Policing is also another huge cost. And also healthcare. That isn’t to say that we shouldn’t be advocating for the end of private prisons. But if we look at the spending, a lot of other people are making money off of people being locked up, that are not private prisons. Sam: If we somehow did put an end to private prisons, how much of an impact do you think that would have? Bernadette: I think it would have very little effect. It would be a powerful move, to stand up and say we aren’t OK with companies surviving on mass incarceration and profiting that way. But at the end of the day it’s such a small portion of the criminal justice system that we’re not going to get very far.
Sam: At its core, the problem with private corrections has to do with our notions of what incarceration is for, who should be in charge of it, and how the structures we’ve built over time have failed to take on those questions. Here’s Lauren-Brooke Eisen again, the Brennan Center scholar who wrote a book on the history of private prisons.
Lauren-Brooke: For decades, some legal scholars and policymakers have really contended that there are certain state functions that cannot be delegated. And one of those is punishment. So opponents of the industry worry that the profit motive is very deeply at odds with the goal of corrections.
Sam: And yet, despite all the criticisms the industry faces, Lauren-Brooke says it’s able to survive because there’s never been an honest reckoning with public officials about the role these companies play. And the reason is that with the private sector stepping in –
Lauren-Brooke: – governments don’t need to reduce the flow of incarcerated people if they have capacity issues, if they have old failing infrastructure, buildings not adequate to house the number of people they need to house. The private prison industry has really become a safety valve for governments. If the industry had not come along in the mid-80s and said, ‘We can do this more cheaply than you can, we can do this better than you can,’ maybe we would have had different discussions out of necessity than we had at the time.
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Sam: It’s not just the government that stands to benefit from the private prison industry. In struggling communities, residents often view the construction of a prison or detention facility as a step toward economic revival. Remember: During their trip to Evanston, Wyoming, Jess and Henry learned pretty quickly that the county commissioner’s main reason for supporting the project was the promise of jobs. And there were residents who felt the same.
Holly Stone: Yeah, I’m all for it. Now I don’t know if anybody else is going to be all for it, but I know I am.
Sam: That’s Holly Stone. She runs a store on Main Street called A Witches’ Vape Shop.
Holly: We have nothing. This is it, these little teeny things, and we’re all suffering, we’ve all been slow. If we don’t do something here soon, I’ll move. ‘Cause there’s just nothing for me here, you know what I mean? We’re getting smaller and smaller and smaller and unless you’re going to work in Salt Lake or Park City there’s just nothing here. Val Cook: We need long term employment. I’m not going to say we need a detention center. We need long term employment.
Sam: And that’s Val Cook, who owns a local media company.
Val: It would be great to have a high-tech company come in and locate here. But in the meantime, there’s no tech companies that are coming to visit us and there is a company that wants to build a detention center. So, gotta take what you can get.
Sam: We should say, not everyone in Evanston was entirely for or against the detention center. For instance, Jonathan Lange. He’s a Lutheran pastor who’s lived and preached in Evanston for over two decades. His main concern was how the issue had divided his community, and how to bring people together again.
Jonathan Lange: We want conditions to be better for the immigrants that we’re dealing with. So recognizing that there is going to be no perfect, but can there be a better? That’s the touchpoint.
Sam: Others had more personal reasons for being uncertain. Maria Escalante runs a restaurant that she’s owned for six years in downtown Evanston. It’s called Ana’s on Main Street. It’s named after her mother.
Maria Escalante: As a business owner I’m split between them. Jess: Why do you say that? Maria: I’m not against it, I’m not for it. I see the benefits for it. But not towards the businesses. You know, like the detainees, the persons that are going to be in there, they get to be closer to their families. Otherwise they get sent to Colorado.
Sam: Maria knows all about that. She and her family moved to the U.S. from Mexico when she was nine years old. A few years ago, after her attorney apparently misfiled some of her papers, ICE took her into custody. Maria spent 45 days at a facility in Colorado Springs – a seven-and-a-half hour drive from Evanston. So Maria is sympathetic. She says it would be nice if people didn’t have to drive hundreds of miles to visit their detained family members.
Maria: So I’m torn, you know what I mean? Would it be good for the town? Probably not. Would it bring more jobs? I don’t believe so. Jess: Why not? Maria: There are jobs, nobody likes to work ‘em. Businesses like restaurants struggle all the time trying to find workers. So I don’t know. I just have so much. And I hear both sides, and it’s like. [sigh] There’s a lot of misunderstanding about it. Definitely.
Jessica Mendoza/The Christian Science Monitor View caption Hide caption Maria Escalante stands at the counter of her coffee shop, Ana’s on Main Street – named after her mother – on Feb. 27, 2020, in Evanston, Wyo. Ms. Escalante, who came to the US from Mexico as a girl, says she was torn about the idea of an immigration detention center in her town.
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Sam: When we first reported this story, people in Evanston – like most of us – had no idea that a pandemic and massive anti-racism protests were about to sweep the country. So in June, we checked in with a few residents to see how they were doing.
[Jess and Henry call Brenda] Jess: Brenda? Brenda: Hello? Jess: Hi! Henry: Hi! [Chuckles] Jess: We know it’s very early over there so thank you for taking the time. Brenda: Yeah, no problem, no problem. Thanks for having me.
Sam: This is Brenda Richins again, who runs that t-shirt shop on Evanston’s Main Street.
Brenda: So I pretty much didn’t have any business from the middle of March until the beginning of May. And then things started to pick up a little bit. Not to normal speed, but back up. But the hardest hit people in Evanston are probably our little independent hairdressers, and those kinds of businesses. Our bars and restaurants. But I think our community has supported those businesses as much as possible.
Sam: From a health perspective, the pandemic didn’t hurt Wyoming as badly as it did other places. But the economic fallout was a different story. Here’s Mark Anderson, the local county commissioner, on the phone.
Mark: You know, it’s good that we haven’t seen that medical impact, but at the same time the financial impact was quite devastating to a lot of businesses. We took a pretty big hit with the oil and gas and coal industries on the downward trend. You know, when that has kind of happened last several years, we’ve depended on our good agriculture, with cattle markets and things, and with this COVID that’s taken a significant hit as well, as you know.
Sam: And that takes us to the other big development out of Evanston from the past few months. In April, CoreCivic announced that it would no longer be submitting a proposal to build a detention center in the county. When we reached out to the company, they directed us to their press statement, which says, “... there were ultimately a number of factors that made it difficult for us to consider proceeding.” Mark says he was disappointed.
Mark: You know, the CoreCivic operation wasn’t going to be the saving grace for our community, but it’s just a little piece of the puzzle to getting back to financial stability.
Sam: He hasn’t given up all hope on a deal, or even some other business coming in to help revive the county’s economy. But for now, Mark is hoping that things will start turning around.
For other residents, the end of the three-year saga over the detention center, coupled with the pandemic, was a chance for reflection. Here’s Jonathan Lange, the Lutheran pastor.
Jonathan: One of the things that the possibility of a detention center brought to the fore is the intangible parts of community. Is it going to be pleasant? Is it going to be safe? And so I think that’s important for every community to think about. If we want to be a thriving community it’s not just about bringing in money. I don’t have any answers. I just have questions. But I think that whatever the I.C.E. does as it goes forward, I pray that they are looking particularly at the people they have to detain and how best to take care of them.
Sam: And as for Brenda Richins:
Brenda: You can probably tell how I feel about this community. That’s a big source of conflict inside of me, though. Because I do wish that that kindness, or that compassion, or that humanity, or whatever it is that makes people in our community want my business to be successful and want to reach out and help their neighbor – I wish that was extended to everyone, and maybe not just directed at people that look or act just like the rest of us, or any of that stuff. I’m on the margins of how people think in Evanston and our community. But I love all the people. Like I interact with all the people. All the people are my customers. I just wish that, you know, they could take whatever that goodness in them that’s so supportive and that is so caring and just stretch it out a little bit to cover everybody.
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Sam: Of course, the current moment is much bigger than one privately run detention center in one small Wyoming town. The coronavirus in particular has put a spotlight on health and safety issues that have long existed within our prison and jail systems. So, to end the episode, we turn one last time to Lauren-Brooke Eisen, to get a sense of how private prison companies fit into these bigger conversations about public health and mass incarceration.
Sam: Historically, private prisons filled this kind of safety valve for the government. Do they still have that ability, given how hard the pandemic has affected our economy? And do you think this might change the relationship the private prison industry has with the government? Lauren-Brooke: The private prisons are probably going to make an argument that they can alleviate overcrowding, that they can play a role in social distancing. But I think the larger issue that we all need to focus on is ending mass incarceration. And for those who want to reduce our reliance on the private prison industry, the number one step we can take to achieve that goal is to significantly shrink the number of people who we house in our prisons and our jails. But you know, we and a lot of other advocates are hopeful that policymakers and the public will truly reimagine, rethink, how we approach punishment, incarceration, and rehabilitation in our country once this public health crisis has ended.
Sam: Thanks for listening! We hope you’ll join us for our next episode. We’ll be digging into a big question: what’s the purpose of prison in today’s society? If you’d like to stay in the loop, sign up for our newsletter at csmonitor.com/perceptiongaps. We’ll include notes, videos, additional articles, and behind the scenes takes from the series. Again, you can sign up for it at csmonitor.com/perceptiongaps.
This episode was hosted by me, Samantha Laine Perfas. It was produced, reported, and written by me, Jessica Mendoza, and Henry Gass, with additional edits by Clay Collins, Noelle Swan, Mark Sappenfield, Dave Scott, Lindsey McGinnis, and Rebecca Asoulin. Sound design by Morgan Anderson and Noel Flatt, with additional audio elements from News Channel 5, CCTV English and CBS News.
This podcast was produced by The Christian Science Monitor, copyright 2020.
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