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.
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.