AZ Regent elected to CCA Board of Directors

AZ Regent Anne L. Mariucci
For education or incarceration?

Something's wrong with this picture; this is really troubling. It would seem to be a conflict of interest to be on the Arizona Board of Regents while also serving on the board of one of the largest for-profit incarcerators in the world. How can anyone truly committed to higher education not have a conflict with the private prison industry? Hasn't she heard of the school-to-prison pipeline?

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WALL STREET JOURNAL - Market Watch

press release

Dec. 9, 2011, 9:00 a.m. EST

Corrections Corporation of America Elects Anne L. Mariucci to Its Board of Directors

NASHVILLE, TN, Dec 09, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) CXW +3.36% , America's leader in partnership corrections and the nation's largest provider of corrections management services to government agencies, announced today that Anne L. Mariucci has been elected as an independent member of CCA's Board of Directors.

"We are very pleased to announce Anne Mariucci as our newest board member. CCA is strongly committed to finding the best people to lead our company and help our industry become an increasingly valuable component of our nation's corrections system," said John Ferguson, chairman of CCA's Board of Directors. "Anne brings a significant amount of real estate knowledge and expertise as well as a strong financial background. I believe her experience, vision and leadership will provide a unique perspective and make her well suited to help oversee management's initiatives and will benefit our organization for years to come."

Ms. Mariucci spent the majority of her career in the large-scale community development and home building business. Anne was employed by Del Webb Corporation from 1984-2003 and served in a variety of senior management capacities, including serving as President following its merger with Pulte Homes Inc., which created the nation's largest homebuilding company. Since 2003, Ms. Mariucci has been affiliated with the private equity firms Hawkeye Partners (Austin, Texas), Inlign Capital Partners (Phoenix, Arizona), and Glencoe Capital (Chicago, Illinois).

Ms. Mariucci received her undergraduate degree in accounting and finance from the University of Arizona and completed the corporate finance program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. She presently serves on the Arizona Board of Regents, and is its immediate past-chairman. She also serves as a director of Southwest Gas Company, Scottsdale Healthcare, Arizona State University Foundation, and the Fresh Start Women's Foundation. She is a past director of the Arizona State Retirement System and Action Performance Companies, as well as a past Trustee of the Urban Land Institute.

About the Company

Corrections Corporation of America is the nation's largest owner and operator of privatized correctional and detention facilities and one of the largest prison operators in the United States, behind only the federal government and three states. We currently operate 66 facilities, including 41 company-owned facilities, with a total design capacity of more than 90,000 beds in 19 states and the District of Columbia. We specialize in owning, operating and managing prisons and other correctional facilities and providing inmate residential and prisoner transportation services for governmental agencies. In addition to providing the fundamental residential services relating to inmates, our facilities offer a variety of rehabilitation and educational programs, including basic education, religious services, life skills and employment training and substance abuse treatment. These services are intended to reduce recidivism and to prepare inmates for their successful re-entry into society upon their release. We also provide health care (including medical, dental and psychiatric services), food services and work and recreational programs.

CCA takes no responsibility for updating the information contained in this press release following the date hereof to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date hereof or the occurrence of unanticipated events or for any changes or modifications made to this press release.

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Black girls and the Prison Industrial Complex.

School-to-prison-pipeline links:

• ACLU Racial Justice Program page on Challenging the School-to-Prison Pipeline at http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/school-prison-pipeline

• NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. page on School to Prison Pipeline at http://www.naacpldf.org/issues.aspx?issue=3

• Charles Hamilton Houston Institute page on Redirecting the School to Prison Pipeline at http://www.charleshamiltonhouston.org/Projects/Project.aspx?id=100005

• Juvenile Law Center at http://www.jlc.org/

• Southern Poverty Law Center page on School-to-Prison Pipeline at http://www.splcenter.org/legal/schoolhouse.jsp

• Dignity in Schools Campaign site with links to research as well as tools specifically for parents, students, community organizers, and educators, at http://www.dignityinschools.org/

• Advancement Project site specifically for grassroots advocates challenging the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track at http://www.stopschoolstojails.org/

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In post-racial America, prisons feast on black girls.

New American Media Ethnoblog

By Rachel Pfeffer, Mar 15, 2011


African American girls and young women have become the fastest growing population of incarcerated young people in the country. Efforts to stop mass incarceration focused on black girls are almost nonexistent in government policy, the media, foundations and academia.

Recently, the Thelton Henderson Center for Social Justice at the University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt Law School took the bold and necessary step of organizing a day-and-a-half free event titled, “African American Girls and Young Women and Juvenile Justice System: A Call to Action.”

The beauty of this conference was the focus on black girls and the passionate energy to create a path for action among the participants.

Academics and activists, among them formerly incarcerated African American girls and young women, gathered together from across the divides of class, age, race and place to talk about what we know about these young people, their interaction with the criminal justice system--and what we are going to do about it.

Sociologist Nikki Jones of UC Santa Barbara, and Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawaii opened up the conference with a look at the statistics.

“No”, said Jones, “Black girls are not committing more crimes, even though they are being incarcerated in record numbers.”

“I’ve been studying this for decades,” said Chesney-Lind. She added, “We have never seen these kind of numbers before. National policies like zero tolerance are responsible for the school to prison pipeline. And a dual justice system that treats white girls differently from black girls is disproportionately impacting African American girls.”

She continued, “In 2008, we knew the arrest rate in California was 49 out of every 1,000 for black girls, 8.9 per 1,000 for white girls and 14.9 per 1,000 for Latinas.”

The cause of the over criminalization of African American young women is best understood by looking back through the lens of American history and the ideological construction of black criminality.

“The shackles of slavery endured into other eras, including convict leasing systems and chain gangs,” said Prisicilla Ocen, a professor at UCLA’s Critical Race Studies.

“In order to sustain these systems, de-humanizing stereotypes of black women were created to maintain the difference between white and African American women,” she said. “Black girls are still dealing with racial and gendered stereotypes that were used to justify punishment.”

Ocen continued, “These historical stereotypes laid the groundwork for the creation of a dual criminal justice system – one where African American women and girls are treated differently for the same behaviors.”

Many participants saw the treatment of African American girls in the justice system as criminal with little accountability. “Adults are committing crimes too; this is part of the story that needs to be told,” said Barry Krisberg, Research and Policy Director at UC Berkeley’s Earl Warren Institute on Law.

Krisberg went on, “Once in the criminal justice system, African American girls are treated with brutality, so much emotional and sexual abuse. We are violating African American girls’ human rights everyday in all 58 counties of California. Where are the lawsuits? Where is the accountability?”

The breadth of the problem seems overwhelming, yet no one at the conference seemed daunted. The resolve in the room at Boalt Law School was palpable and the ideas for action began to flow. Formerly incarcerated participants, who work at the Center for Young Women’s Development (CYWD), and other formerly incarcerated African American girls will lead these efforts. They are the experts.

For the past 17 years, young women at CYWD have been leaving jail, the street economies and gangs to work for self healing, social justice, policy change and a meaningful place in their communities.

“The call to action is the task before us—there are a number of things we can do,” said Lateefah Simon, activist and executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights San Francisco.

“The Henderson Center can provide institutional support for African American Leaders, who are engaging in the criminal justice system. We can convene all the judges, we can organize ourselves locally and nationally to focus on African American girl,” said Simon. “Yes, let’s do that--we want our girls to be free.”

There is room for everyone to have a meaningful part in efforts to stop the over incarceration of African American girls or young women. For more information about how to get involved in this effort please contact: african.american.girls.a.call.to.action@lists.berkeley.edu

Rachel Pfeffer is the founder of the Center for Young Women’s Development and currently on the Advisory Board. For more information www.cywd.org.