As the CCA spokesperson, I relish defending my company, just as I'll do right now.....

Matt Pulle is at it again, in a farewell jab at CCA (which he loves to hate). Though the Nashville Scene writer would have readers believe he knows CCA enough to speak with accuracy, he has spent precious little time speaking to our managers, employees or dozens of government customers.  I can’t recall him visiting our 65 correctional centers. 

The articles about CCA he references in his blog this week each have had their own agendas (most have targeted the national immigration policy).  Many reporters strive for balance.  But some call me seeking only a quick CCA soundbite to attach near the article’s end, which won’t sway the tilt of their biting headlines.  As for Time, the magazine article simply got it all wrong - as the nation’s Judiciary Committee and our government customers know from documents we sent them.  Reputable publication or not, it was flat out inaccurate. 

Our federal Hutto Family Residential Center referenced has received positive recognition from some media. The fact is, our center humanely and safely keeps families together, rather than having them separated geographically after entering the country illegally.  And, importantly, family detention has curbed child smuggling which was occurring as individuals attempted to illegally cross the borders, posing as family units.

CCA processes about 500,000 individuals in and out of our correctional centers each year.  Every day, we manage more than 75,000 offenders.  Every day, 17,000 employees serve in our facilities.  Nearly 100,000 people - 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, in confined locations.  Without question, my role as company spokesperson would be staggeringly easier if every single one of those 100,000 people daily did the exact right thing.  But, that’s where being human comes in and complicates things. 

So, are we a perfect corrections system?  No.  Is there one in the world?  No.  Does CCA strive for continuous improvement and inherently seek to achieve perfection in safe and humane correctional operations?  Absolutely.   

We are humbled every time an incident occurs involving offenders or staff misconduct.  No one judges us more harshly than we do ourselves.  We are keenly aware that every person in our prisons, jails and detention centers is someone’s father, mother, child, brother, sister, husband, wife.  Whether it’s our own employees, customers, or offenders in our care, we are responsible for them all - and believe me, it is a very weighted responsibility.  For eight years at CCA, I’ve personally felt that weight.  For those people who do not intimately know corrections, it is perhaps difficult to give due respect to the enormity of the responsibility and the complexity of operating any corrections system, especially one the breadth of CCA’s.

Forgive me, but for us to be mocked by local media who presume to assert that we don’t care or aren’t competent is personally insulting. 

Despite what some media proclaim, the dozens of government agencies who partner with us have faith in our abilities.  Do you think the government - which knows how intensely the media scrutinize - would entrust their offenders to us if we failed as miserably as Matt would have you believe?  In Matt’s own blogging words, “So this is hilarious.”

Our communities have faith in us, too.  A CCA head of operations this week received a letter from the city coordinator in Appleton, Minnesota (home of our Prairie Correctional Facility).  The gentleman, on behalf of the community, thanked CCA for being an invaluable part of the city, referencing the CCA employees who helped rebuild the community following a devastating natural disaster involving 100 mph winds. 

Letters like that, unfortunately, will never make our local news. I shared the letter at home.  My two grade-school children said, “Mom, that was nice of the town to be kind to CCA.”  Later that night, when they saw my frustration after reading Matt’s column, they commented, “That town is nice to you all, Mom.  Why is this man so mean to you and your company?"

"I don't know," I said.  "I just don't know."

"We like that town better than we like him," they said.

 Louise Grant, CCA Vice President of Marketing and Communications 

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