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www.prwatch.org

D I D Y O U K N O W ? Corporations VOTED to adopt this. Through ALEC, global companies
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work as “equals” in “unison” with politicians to write laws to govern your life. Big
ABOUT
MEMBERS
“ALEC”
has long
been aEVENTS & MEETINGS MODEL LEGISLATION TASK FORCES ALEC INITIATIVES PUBLICATIONS
Business has “a VOICE and a VOTE,” according to newly exposed documents. DO YOU?
secretive
NEWS collaboration
between Big Business and
Home
Model Legislation
Public Safety and Elections Did you know the NRA--the
“conservative”
politicians.
Model Legislation
National Rifle Association-BehindCivil
closed
doors, they
Justice
Resolution on Prison Expenditures
was the corporate co-chair in
ghostwrite “model” bills to
Commerce,
2011?
be introduced
in Insurance,
state
Summary
and Economic
capitols
across the country.
Development
For over 30 years the average total state cost per prisoner has increased almost twice as
This agenda--underwritten
fast as the rise in the median income and more than twice as fast as the poverty rate. It
by global
corporations-Education
is unconscionable that the rise in the standard of living of convicted prisoners has risen
includes major tax
far faster than that of their victims, especially in light of the need to use limited public
Energy, Environment,
funds to expand prison capacity to prevent convicted violent and repeat offenders from
loopholes
for big industries
and Agriculture
returning to the streets before completing their sentences. This resolution supports any
and the super rich,
policies which would prevent prisoners from living at a standard of living higher than
proposals
to offshore
Federal
Relations U.S.
that of the poverty rate of the citizens of the state in which they are incarcerated, and
calls on federal courts to cease "micro-managing" state prisons.
jobs and gut minimum
and Human
wage,Health
and efforts
to
Services
Model Resolution
weaken public health,
safety,International
and environmental
Relations
WHEREAS since 1960, the average total state correctional expenditures per inmate
have increased almost twice as fast as median income and more than twice as fast as
protections. Although many
Public Safety and
the poverty threshold; and
of these bills have become
Elections
law, until now, their origin
WHEREAS expenditures on prisons in excess of the levels necessary to meet
constitutionally mandated conditions of confinement increase the cost of building and
has been
largely
unknown.
Tax and
Fiscal
Policy
administering institutions, thereby diverting funds which could be used to expand
With ALEC EXPOSED, the
current prison capacity throughout the country; and
Telecommunications
Centerand
forInformation
Media and
Democracy
hopes more
WHEREAS additional prison beds are desperately needed to stop the early release of
Technology
repeat and violent offenders due to insufficient prison capacity; and
Americans will study the
bills to understand the
WHEREAS public funds that could go to assist the law-abiding poor are being
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depth and breadth of how
expended to provide facilities and services for inmates at a level exceeding the minimum
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standard of living for the law-abiding poor and exceeding the conditions mandated by
big corporations
are
the Constitution of the United States; and
changing the
legal
rules
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and undermining democracy
WHEREAS Federal Courts have been besieged by frivolous litigation brought by
across the nation.
inmates incarcerated in institutions; and
WHEREAS lacking a legislative expression of the contemporary standards of decency

ALEC’s’Corporate Board
--in recent past or present

• AT&T Services, Inc.
• centerpoint360
• UPS
• Bayer Corporation
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Energy Future Holdings
• Johnson & Johnson
• Coca-Cola Company
• PhRMA
• Kraft Foods, Inc.
• Coca-Cola Co.
• Pfizer Inc.
• Reed Elsevier, Inc.
• DIAGEO
• Peabody Energy
• Intuit, Inc.
• Koch Industries, Inc.
• ExxonMobil
• Verizon
• Reynolds American Inc.
• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
• Salt River Project
• Altria Client Services, Inc.
• American Bail Coalition
• State Farm Insurance
For more on these corporations,
search at www.SourceWatch.org.

relating to prison conditions, federal courts have become unduly involved in the micromanagement of state and local correctional facilities;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the American Legislative Exchange Council

supports policies which state that inmates should not be entitled to live better than lawabiding persons living at the poverty guideline level of income as determined by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the American Legislative Exchange Council

supports legislation which limits the power of federal courts to impose upon the states,
prison conditions not mandated by the United States Constitution or to further micromanage state prisons; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this resolution be provided to the
President of the United States and Members of Congress.

ALEC's Sourcebook of American State Legislation 1995

About Us and ALEC EXPOSED. The Center for Media and Democracy reports on corporate spin and government
propaganda.! We are located in Madison, Wisconsin, and publish www.PRWatch.org, www.SourceWatch.org,
and now www.ALECexposed.org. For more information contact: editor@prwatch.org or 608-260-9713.
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Task Forces
ALEC
Initiatives
Publications
From CMD:Model
This Legislation
Resolution purports
to blame
rising
prison spending
on risingHome
standards of living for
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prisoners. The most significant part of per-inmate prison expenditures is the cost of security, which benefits
the private prison industry (including the Corrections Corporation of America, which is on the Executive
Committee of ALEC's Public Safety & Elections Task Force). Looking at the bigger picture, taxpayers are
spending more on prisons because more Americans are being imprisoned and more prisons are being
built. A large part of the rising incarceration rate is attributable to the "War on Drugs," which ALEC bills
perpetuate. Also to blame are mandatory minimum sentences, which ALEC bills also promote, as well as
truth-in-sentencing bills like those introduced by ALEC alumnus and Wisconsin governor Scott Walker,
which extend time incarcerated rather than on parole.