ACLU’s arrogance condemned

A day after The Vindicator ran an editorial that blasted the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio for applauding the potential loss of hundreds of jobs at the private prison in Youngstown, city council President Charles Sammarone called to express his appreciation and to let us know that he and his colleagues were also going to take the ACLU to the woodshed.

A letter to the Cleveland-based organization dated Jan. 7 and signed by Sammarone certainly didn’t pull any punches in revealing council’s anger at what had transpired.

Here’s what the letter said, in part:

“The ACLU issued a press release on December 30, 2014, expressing its pleasure with the U.S. Bureau of Prison’s decision to not renew the contract with Corrections Corporation of America, which houses federal prisoners at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Facility in Youngstown, Ohio. Specifically, the ACLU stated that ‘We cannot stress this enough — the for-profit prison business is bad for prisoners, prison employees, communities and tax- payers.

“While we respect the ACLU’s freedom to express its views regarding private prisons, I, along with all Youngstown City Council Members, take issue with the ACLU’s public stance celebrating our community’s misfortune. The ACLU is incorrect in its blanket assertion that private prisons are bad for prison employees and the host communities where the prisons are located.”

Impact on the city

Sammarone pointed out in the letter that the relocation of the federal inmates will potentially result in the loss of 418 jobs and $500,000 in annual income tax. The former mayor laid out the economic benefits derived by the city from the 400-plus employees, and said that the loss of jobs would devastate an already economically depressed area.

“We might better understand the ACLU’s position if the government’s decision resulted in the transfer of the prisoners to a facility maintained directly by the federal government,” the council president wrote. “However, it is our understanding that the decision that was made will simply result in the transfer of prisoners from one private prison to another. Thus, the ACLU’s pleasure in the termination of the federal contract with the Youngstown prison is misguided and reckless.”

In its editorial, The Vindicator urged prison employees who are furloughed to visit the ACLU’s offices and ask executives there to help them find work that’s good for them.

The editorial also suggested that Mayor John A. McNally and city council find out from the organization how the city can make up the $500,000 a year in income tax if the 418 employees at the prison are terminated.

We haven’t heard from the ACLU, and don’t expect to. Celebrating the misfortune of those who may lose their jobs and the economic misfortune that would befall the city of Youngstown isn’t something for which the organization would want to publicly defend.

Indeed, the ACLU has a large base of support because its stated mission is “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

Unconscionable stand

But with all the good work it has done, the organization’s stand with regard to the private prison in Youngstown is not only inexplicable, it’s downright unconscionable. Do executives in the Cleveland office really think that their bashing of the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center will result in the collapse of the private prison industry?

Do they believe that their criticism of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons for housing federal inmates in private facilities will result in a change of policy in Washington?

The bottom line is that nothing is going to change despite the ACLU’s high-minded attitude. It is interesting that while it was quick to weigh in when Corrections Corporation of America lost the federal contract, we haven’t received a press release blasting the private prison in Pennsylvania that got the contract to house the 1,400 federal inmates.

It would be a mistake for the ACLU and other such do-gooder entities to think they can barge into the Mahoning Valley and advocate the elimination of good-paying jobs.

The letter from Sammarone should serve as a warning that this region isn’t going to stay silent when its economic well-being is being threatened.