LETTER TO THE EDITOR | Auburn Students Will Not Stand for Private Prisons
For the past few months, I have been working with Alabama Students Against Prisons, a movement of students and community members across Alabama who oppose Governor Kay Ivey’s private prison plan. We believe that these prisons would be a blight on Alabama, completely failing to address the Department of Justice’s recommendations for how to mitigate the unconstitutional cruelty and violence that mar our state’s facilities. We know that new buildings won’t stop decades of patterns in racism and abuse. Since I began this work, I have been moved every day by the urgency of this mission, largely because Alabama is my home. For the first time in my life, I truly understand what it means for the personal to be political. What I didn’t realize, though, was that this prison plan is not only connected to my state but to my university, too.