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Prison Privatization Testimony (AFSCME - Fillman), PA Legislature, 2007
Document text
TESTIMONY OF DAVID R. FILLMAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AFSCME COUNCIL 13 JOINT HEARING BEFORE THE HOUSE LABOR AND JUDICIARY COMMITTEES STATE AND COUNTY PRISON PRIVATIZATION IN PENNSYLVANIA OCTOBER 25, 2007 HARRISBURG, PA 2 Prison Privatization Testimony Thank you. My name is David Fillman, and I'm the Executive Director of Council 13 AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees of Pennsylvania. I am honored to represent more than 65,000 public employees in this Commonwealth. Approximately 2500 of these employees work in state and county prisons. The incarceration of our citizens is, and should remain, a function of government. Our society was built upon the premise that there is nothing more important than our personal freedom. Citizens of this country have laid down their lives - and continue to do so -- in an effort to preserve that freedom. And when we decide, through our government's justice system, that a citizen's actions warrant losing that freedom, it should be the responsibility of the government to enforce that loss -- NOT an opportunity for private corporations to obtain monetary gain. Individuals convicted of a crime should remain "prisoners of the state" -- not commodities to be contracted out to the lowest bidder.
