Laredo As College Town Not a Prison Town

Laredo as College Town not a Prison Town RE: Press Conference Preparation and Talking Points

Three Talking Points

- Quality of Life in Laredo: Higher education improves quality of life in Laredo and adds to our community’s national reputation as a good place to live. Building the largest private prison in the country can only hurt our quality of life and image.

- Economic Development: Prisons have never been shown to create long-term economic growth while community colleges and universities do.

- Public money should be used for higher education, not a prison: Webb County and Laredo leaders should not issue bonds, pay for electrical or water hook-ups, or any of a number of other public subsidies to pay for a jail.

Questions to Expect

What about bringing new jobs to Laredo?

- There is no evidence that prisons create economic growth in the long-run. Studies, including the one done by Dr. Hooks, have shown that bringing a prison to Laredo could prevent other businesses from coming and hinder the economic development of the city and county.

- Private Prison jobs generally have high turnover rates, about 53 percent.

- Private Prison jobs don’t get good health benefits and have minimal training

Bruni has said that the county will not pay for the facility to be built and that it is all in the hands of the government, what do you say to that?

- When prisons are privately financed through counties, the counties generally issue the bonds to build the facility and then must pay them back.

- If the county is unable to pay the bonds, the county’s bond rating will go down and it will make it difficult for the county to build new schools, pipelines and fund other public services.

- According to county documents, building the superjail could cost $100 million.

Tips for interviews

- Don’t answer the question; Deliver your Message – the talking point. - Know everything you will say and everything you won’t say before the interview. - Avoid saying anything that can be taken out of context. Never say “Yes, but…” or “No, but…” - Defer questions you are not prepared to answer