TESTIMONY OF

DAVID R. FILLMAN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
AFSCME COUNCIL 13

JOINT HEARING BEFORE THE
HOUSE LABOR AND JUDICIARY COMMITTEES

STATE AND COUNTY
PRISON PRIVATIZATION
IN PENNSYLVANIA
OCTOBER 25, 2007
HARRISBURG, PA

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Prison Privatization Testimony
Thank you. My name is David Fillman, and I'm the Executive
Director of Council 13 AFSCME, the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees of Pennsylvania. I am honored to
represent more than 65,000 public employees in this Commonwealth.
Approximately 2500 of these employees work in state and county
prisons.
The incarceration of our citizens is, and should remain, a
function of government. Our society was built upon the premise that
there is nothing more important than our personal freedom. Citizens
of this country have laid down their lives - and continue to do so -- in
an effort to preserve that freedom.
And when we decide, through our government's justice system,
that a citizen's actions warrant losing that freedom, it should be the
responsibility of the government to enforce that loss -- NOT an
opportunity for private corporations to obtain monetary gain.
Individuals convicted of a crime should remain "prisoners of the state"
-- not commodities to be contracted out to the lowest bidder.