TheCCA360.com is a Web site intended to provide factual information about Corrections Corporation of America – from its quality private prison management services and programs, to its more than 17,000 employees that support the 66 facilities it operates.

To the Editor,

I, along with co-workers and respected researchers in corrections, read with dismay the flawed arguments in the editorial, "Profit prisons die in recession (Sept. 21, 2009)." Your newspaper, serving the proud communities in and around Colorado Springs, has surprisingly taken a very ill-informed stance on the important topic of corrections partnerships.

We are in full partnership with Colorado government. We operate prisons on behalf of the state, and these prisons function exactly as a government-run prison. We safeguard communities by humanely housing inmates in a secure setting. We offer addictions treatment, education, vocational training and faith-based courses, so inmates can get on the right path. Studies show that rehabilitation lessens the likelihood of inmates returning to crime when they are released.

Partnership prisons provide the best of both worlds – the oversight and accountability from government with the cost effectiveness and innovation of business. The standards for operating any prison are high. For those of us who work for partnership prisons, we expect to be held to an even higher standard. And we deliver on this, every day. Plus, we are making the tax dollars of hard-working Coloradoans stretch further, so government can build more schools, hospitals and roads. We all agree that, especially in these economic times, taxpayers deserve nothing less than the most efficient government possible.

Our partnership prisons also relieve the overcrowded – and, thus, unsafe - conditions in government-run prisons. Overcrowding leads to agitated inmates, overworked staff and fewer opportunities for inmate rehabilitation. By having Colorado partner with business to build and operate prisons to relieve overcrowding, the entire state correctional system is safer, which means all communities are safer.

So, government isn't "subsidizing" partnership prisons, as the editorial claims. This is not an "us" versus "them" issue. We are in partnership together – government and business. Government pays us, just like it pays its own wardens and correctional employees. But partnership prisons are highly efficient and innovative, while also being secure and accountable.

As for correctional providers wanting more crime and more criminals, that is nonsense. We live in communities, just like you. We want our families safe from crime, like everyone else. We aren't here to make or give opinions about public policy, such as early release of inmates. But we do know that our partnership prisons, with our nearly 1,000 dedicated Colorado employees, provide meaningful rehabilitation and are an important part of the Colorado correctional system.

Louise Grant

Spokesperson, CCA – a correctional partner