Las Vegas Weekly

The prison has many problems. CCA has said it would be 1,500 beds (prisoners) after the original claim was that it would just be a few hundred beds. They have expressed an intent to build 3,000 beds. 3,000 convicts would use about 150 gallons of water per day, per inmate, or 164 million gallons a year from a basin and aquifer that is already in serious overdraft. Hundreds of residents' protests to the Public Utilities Commission were ignored, however.

Let's examine some of their other statements and contentions:

CCA claimed it would be a federal detention center, but there really aren't enough inmates to justify its existence. They promised federal prisoners because that would mean federal oversight and the requirement to pay prevailing wage. That would also require background screening of employees. They claimed it would be for short-term detainees, and therefore that no prisoner families were likely to move to Pahrump to be near their kin. They claimed they would build it as much as possible with local hire. In fact the only locals they seemed to have hired were for site prep. They build their prisons using a non-union work crew that travels around the country for them. They claimed they would be purchasing supplies locally, but when they tout their prisons to legislators, they claim just the opposite, that they can hold prisoners for less than states, the feds or municipalities, because they can do central purchasing. They claimed they don't build where they're not wanted.

As may be obvious, every one of their claims was a lie. The five county commissioners bought those lies, transparent as they were. One has left office and another has been convicted of corruptiion.

Someone really needs to be following the money, in Pahrump.

Read and study www.pahrumplife.org if you really want to know why the majority of Pahrumpians are raising their voices against the Privately Owned, For-Profit (not federal) Prison now in the early stages of building in the midst of Pahrump, amongst gorgeous homes and properties, and overlooking our beautiful valley. And also read and study why citizens are suing the federal government. We totally agree with Skeptic's comments. The builder of this facility promises anything and then gives whatever it wants, breaking promise after promise, about size, about purchases, about number of workers, etc. And, in answer to the Las Vegas Weekly's question about who's the better neighbor? If abiding by law is a bellwether, the brothels win the good neighbor contest; nonetheless it is not a case of either or. We Pahrumpians do not look forward to a prison in our town which is being built for a Las Vegas court (not for a Pahrump court). We Pahrumpians love our wild, friendly, rural life the way it is.

I am against the prison. Who in thier right mind would want it as the Spotlight of Pahrump. There is still many people in this town that are not even aware of it coming. I truly believe there were quite a few people paid off in order to get the zoning changed. If i had to choose, i would take 100 brothels over one prison in my town. Build it where its out of sight out of mind and keep a wing open for all the people that took the bribes when they get caught!!

I would like to comment on this "Brothel" label/reputation that the Las Vegas media has given this quiet little town of Pahrump. I used to think the same way because I lived in Las Vegas and that's all I heard. Then I came out here and got to know this awesome little town, where brothels are NOT allowed within town limits by-the-way. I was so impressed by the quality of life and the intelligence level of the residents that I actually moved here in order to GET AWAY FROM the "IN-YOUR-FACE" SMUT that IS Las Vegas!!! Anyone who has ever lived in Vegas knows what I'm talking about. Now, I don't see any "SMUT" anymore. In Vegas, I couldn't get away from it. Say what you will about the brothels, but they keep the smut where it belongs...in the brothels...which are out of town, out of sight, and out of mind. I will never live in Vegas again. You can't even drive down the street without getting an eye-full. I don't know how people raise their kids in that kind of an atmosphere. And as for this Federal Detention Center...it's supposed purpose is to hold people who have been charged with a felony and are awaiting arraignment or court at the Lloyd George Federal Court House in DOWNTOWN LAS VEGAS!!! So they are going to be trucking these alleged felons through our town, up over the mountain, and then all the way through your town to the federal court house twice a day every day of the year that the court house is open for business. Do you think maybe there might be an opportunity for escapes anywhere along the way??? The land that the 'prison' is being built on was assessed at $43,000 and the Privately owned company building and running the "for profit" prison payed $6.99 million for it! There is so much obvious corruption here that the only way it can be kept from the public at large is for the media to be so obviously complicit. What ever happened to Investigative Journalism? Or good old-fashioned TRUTH??? I for one miss it.