photo/Jason Cato
Research is essential to our work. We must be informed in order to educate.
Our expertise on prison and detention privatization and its impact gives us standing to speak to media, and decision makers.
NPR used our research on prison corporations' campaign contributions in their two-part investigative report on how prison corporations shape anti-immigrant laws.
Grassroots Leadership's blog hosts commentary by staff on the latest news.
Operation Streamline Watch chronicles the impacts, news, and developments of Operation Streamline. Operation Streamline is a federal policy that mandates criminal prosecution of border-crossers in certain areas for what has historically been a civil immigration offense. Streamline has sentenced tens of thousands of immigrants to prison, greatly expanded the federal detention system, and funneled more than $1 billion to the private prison industry.
Texas Prison Bid'ness provides information to media, advocates and policy-makers on the for-profit prison industry in Texas. The blog tracks news and developments related the growing for-profit prison system in Texas, a state with more private prisons, jails, and detention centers than any other. Grassroots Leadership Board Co-Chair Nicole Porter and Senior Organizer Bob Libal contribute to the blog.
Operation Streamline: Drowning Justice and Draining Dollars along the Rio Grande, Tara Buentello, Sarah V. Carswell, Nicholas Hudson, Bob Libal, July 2010.
Considering a Private Jail, Prison or Detention Center? A Resource Packet for Community Members and Public Officials Grassroots Leadership’s updated Resource Packet analyzes the economic impact of private prisons on Texas communities, offers alternatives to prison expansion, and compares the safety and conditions at private and government run prisons. Second Edition, September 2009
Lax Oversite Plagues Privates Prison in Texas, "Watch Your Assets" Co-published with Texans for Public Justice, February 6, 2008.
GROUND ZERO: The Laredo Superjail and the No Action Alternative, Nicholas Hudson, July 2006
Progress or Profit? Positive Alternatives to Privatization in Shelby County, TN - Proposes a set of solutions that will help the county cut spending and reduce its jail population while continuing to protect public safety. By Dana Kaplan, Center for Constitutional Rights, and Bob Libal, Grassroots Leadership. Co-published with Coalition Against Private Prisons (CAPP), 2006.
Protecting the Future: Moderating West Virginia's Budget Crisis, Co-published with the West Virginia Council of Churches and the Appalachian Institute at Wheeling Jesuit University, 2005.
Not Here, Not Anywhere: The Private Prison Problem (DVD). Narrated by Danny Glover, produced by Tonyia Rawles and Natalie Bullock Brown, 2005
Prescription for Disaster: Commecializing Prison Health Care in South Carolina, Marguerite G. Rosenthal, Ph.D. A Grassroots Leadership South Carolina Fair Share Special Report, 2004
Prescription for Recovery: Keeping South Carolina‘s Prison Health Care Public and Making It Better, Marguerite G. Rosenthal, Ph.D. A Grassroots Leadership South Carolina Fair Share Special Report, 2004
Correction Corporation of America: A Critical Look at its First Twenty Years. By Philip Mattera and Mafruza Khan, Corporate Research Project of Good Jobs First, and Stephen Nathan, Prison Privatisation Report International.December, 2003
Borrowing Against the Future: The Impact of Prison Expansion on Arizona Families, Schools and Communities. By Kevin Pranis. Co-published with the Arizona Advocacy Network, April 2003
Education v. Incarceration: A Mississippi Case Study
Exposes some key issues about the state and it's preferential treatment of the for-profit private prison industry. May 20, 2002.
Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of Immigrant Families, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, February 2007. (pdf)
Resolution Calling for the Abolition of For-Profit Private Prisons, Presbyterian Church (USA), 2003 (pdf)