By Citlalli Florez
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressional Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) has attempted to evade judicial review and public commentary in order to speed up the construction of a new federal prison in Letcher County, KY, charged a broad coalition of residents, organizations, and other stakeholders.
The prison would house 1,408 beds and would be located in Eastern Kentucky, but even the Dept. of Justice opposes it, said the opposition in a statement.
Opposition against the construction of the facility, known as Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Letcher, has been growing locally in Letcher County and has had national opposition. Because of this, Rogers has inserted additional language into the house appropriations bill to quicken the construction process.
Language found in Section 219 of the bill was added last week and includes a final decision on the FCI Letcher stating it is to be created within 30 days. This would terminate the federally mandated environmental review process, overriding public comment and prohibiting public input, said opponents, who claim the process the lawmaker wants to bypass provides checks on the prison construction’s environmental impact.
The prison could have a likely impact on the endangered bat habitat, wetlands, and old growth forest, said opponents, adding it could also expose the public to arsenic and radon, including incarcerated people and correctional staff.
Section 219 would also strip federal courts of the ability to hear any legal challenges of the construction, charged those opposed to the prison, noting it would be more difficult to bring challenges under the environmental protection laws to court, which have applied to every other federal construction project until recent events involving the Mountain Valley Pipeline in West Virginia.
The section would create a precedent for future federal projects to be exempt from Environmental Protection Laws.
A volunteer group dedicated to the county, and stakeholders, are calling for the removal of the language added to the appropriations bill.
Dr. Artie Ann Bates of Concerned Letcher Countians said, “People in Letcher County deserve to have a say in this because we vote, we pay taxes, we live here, and we love this place. We don’t want Rep. Rogers stuffing something down our throats that we are not in agreement with.”
The prison construction would cost $500 million taxpayer dollars and community members and other stakeholders want to have a say in the matter, they said.
Beverly May of the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth commented, “As a constituent of Congressman Rogers I am outraged that he would make this undemocratic maneuver to shut down the voices of all of his constituents who know that this federal prison isn’t needed, and who are desperately asking for housing, flood recovery assistance in the wake of last summer’s devastating flood. This $500 million of taxpayer money should be used for housing, flood clean up and prevention, not this unnecessary prison.”
In 2019 an attempt to build a prison in Letcher County was defeated and both the Trump and Biden administration have wanted the funding for the prison to be rescinded, said opponents, adding, top officials at the Department of Justice have also publicly stated that a new prison would be unnecessary because of a declining federal prison population.
FCI Letcher would fall within the Bureau of Prison’s Mid-Atlantic Region. This means the prison would house prisoners far from Washington, DC, and Memphis, TN, which would leave many incarcerated individuals without their support system and families, said opponents.
Ray Mendoza, of the Free Movement and from the advisory council of Dream.org recalled his experience from being housed in a prison from within the Bureau’s region, stating, “In 2004 I went to USP [United States Penitentiary]–McCreary. It was hard for me because I’m from Milwaukee. I got bused down there (to Eastern Kentucky) from FCI Cumberland Maryland.”
“We’re stuck in the middle of nowhere, we don’t even know where we’re at, we pretty much don’t even understand the language, it’s like being in a foreign country… you are way too far from home to even consider getting a visit. It was difficult to stay connected with family, to keep tabs on what is going on, you lose connection with everything,” Mendoza added.
Executive Director of the Institute to End Mass Incarceration, Primal Dharia, had similar experiences to Mendoza’s, noting, “The federal prison population is largely comprised of Black and Brown People who are removed from their communities and often sent to far-away prisons like this one.”
“Communities that would lose loved ones to this prison know that we need Congress to work to stem the growth of our uniquely destructive system of mass incarceration. Instead, some legislators are now trying to bypass federal environmental and other laws to expand it,” Dharia added.
Dharia continues, “Section 219 represents an attempt to short circuit democracy, evade important environmental protections, and cause further damage to some of our country’s most vulnerable communities—in Appalachia and throughout the mid-Atlantic region.”
Section 219 was approved by the subcommittee and will go to the House Appropriations Committee in Kentucky this week.
