Letter to the Editor about the Chippewa Falls Prison

- Tom Arneberg, prison@arneberg.com

Letter to the Editor from Dr. Frank Cornett Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 16:20:17 -0500 From: Frank Cornett To: publisher@chippewa.com Subject: Prison article and editorial of May 26 Dear Editor, I am extremely disappointed in the very biased article "Supporters upstage prison foes" which appeared in the May 26 issue of the Herald. Perhaps the Herald could have done a better job of reporting on the Tuesday meeting if a Herald reporter had attended. It is a bit ironic that the Herald considers the results of the meeting to be a headline story, but not important enough to send a reporter! And a staged photograph taken the next day? Who are you trying to fool? The editorial appearing on page A6 of the same issue is equally biased and disappointing. In both the article and editorial, not only are several of the same old pieces of erroneous information given, but they are slanted with a pro-prison bias. First of all, the Tuesday night meeting at the Lafayette town hall was arranged by and for opponents of the prison proposed to replace the Northern Center. We could have canceled the meeting to avoid admitting the NC employees in, but we did not; instead, we listened to their views for over an hour. We also provided several documented facts to the NC employees that they hadn't seen before. Many of them expressed surprise at some of those facts. Since some of the Herald staff are also unfamiliar with some of the facts, or don't want to report them, let's review them, as well as they are known: As currently proposed (according to the Department of Corrections plan document), the prison would be a medium security facility, and would house a number of able-bodied criminals aged 50 and older. It is not a "geriatric prison", and certainly is not "a sort of nursing home for elderly prisoners". That may be part of the purpose of the facility, but to stop short of a full description of all of the types of convicts that would be in the prison is an error of omission. Even Representative Sykora admits to this. Also, there is no guarantee that the prison will not be upgraded in the future to a maximum-security or even a super-max prison. And, given the growth in prison population, we can be certain that this prison would expand in the future. There is no guarantee that the conversion of the NC to a prison would save a significant number of jobs currently at NC. Not only do most of the NC employees have the wrong kind of training to work in a prison, but there are problems with NC employees transferring into the prison workforce due to union regulations. That was stated at the meeting by NC employees themselves. Thus, the sad fact is that even if the NC were to be converted to a prison, a large fraction of the current NC employees would probably be put out of work, even if they were willing to be retrained for prison work. The Department of Corrections states that part of the purpose of a medium security prison is to reintroduce inmates into mainstream society (the DOC plan describes a pre-release program and facility). A large portion of the convicts in this prison would be serious offenders (how does a prisoner get to be 50 years or more old in prison?), guilty of murder, sex offences, armed robbery, drug trafficking, among other things. The DOC has also stated that a number of drug addicts would be housed in the prison. Upon release, many of these convicted felons are likely to settle in this community, especially if their family has moved to Chippewa Falls to be near them. I for one don't care to have such people in my community. Your editorial states that Rep. Sykora has answered all questions about the proposed prison. That's true, he has, several times, with different answers each time. In short, what he says is just not believable. The most believable document is the plan for the NC conversion published by the DOC. That document contradicts most of your and Sykora's statements, and supports my statements above. I suggest that you read that document; it must be readily available to you, since it was referenced in a May 23 Herald article "Prison foes say officials lied". Finally, if all questions have been answered, why did our city council just approve a resolution requesting a full disclosure of information relating to the NC conversion? You state in your editorial that a prison will not hurt the image of Chippewa Falls and that "the notion that a special needs prison will hurt recruiting by high-tech industries stretches the imagination beyond the limits of common sense". I think your imagination would be more elastic if you considered the image of Chippewa Falls from the point of view of an outsider, say a professional considering employment here at one of those high-tech industries, and also being courted by companies in warmer climates or with the ready availability of an engineering college. Recruiting here is difficult enough, without having a prison a mile down the road from the office. In summary, your article and editorial are just more head-in-the-sand, save-jobs-at-all-costs obfuscation. The conversion of the Northern Center would have an overall negative effect on this community. There are many better uses that could be made of the facility. My favorite: turn the NC into an engineering college extension of the University of Wisconsin. It would take a lot of work to pull it off, but just consider the possibilities. Instead of an unattractive deterrent to the growth of our high-technology businesses, it would actually be an attraction! With some leadership from our local politicians, not to mention our local press, such a thing could be done. -- Frank Cornett 460 Glenwood Ct. Chippewa Falls 720-0906 dcornett@execpc.com

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