Why is the Private Prison Industry in our Public Schools?

http://www.nationofchange.org/why-private-prison-industry-our-public-schools-1352978741

According to the Casa Grande Dispatch—a regional newspaper serving Southern Arizona—on the morning of October 31st “eight officers with dogs from Casa Grande Police, Gila River Police, Arizona Department of Public Safety and Corrections Corporation of America arrived at [Vista Grande High School] at 9 a.m. and the school was placed on lock-down. Every vehicle, backpack and classroom was searched by the dogs… Three students were arrested on possession of marijuana and of drug paraphernalia charges [after] a scheduled drug sweep at [the school.] The drug search was done at the request of the school district.”

Dr. Shannon Goodsell, Superintendent of Casa Grande Union High School District, authorized the “sweep.” The correctional officers from CCA involved in the “bust” are presumably employed at one of the company’s three facilities in Eloy, a town located just twenty miles southeast of Casa Grande. Perhaps CCA’s presence at Vista Grande High School —perverse “recruiting” tactic, really—reflects the company’s anxiety over losing nearly 2,000 inmates from its Red Rock facility in Eloy once its contract with the State of California expires in 2014.

Precisely why Superintendent Goodsell sanctioned a for-profit, private correctional incursion into a public high school, particularly a public high school in which students of color are overrepresented, generates a number of questions. I placed numerous calls to Superintendent Goodsell’s office inquiring about CCA’s involvement in the Vista Grande incident, but at the time of publication, my calls had all gone unanswere