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| Private prison push was official's downfall |
| By Anchorage Daily News |
| Published: 08/12/2008 |
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ALASKA - An intense political battle over private prisons in Alaska kept the state's jail-building efforts tied in knots for a decade, ending only in 2005 after complaints of strong-arm lobbying helped turn legislative sentiment against the idea. A driving force for privatizing prisons throughout that time was Bill Weimar, the former halfway house official who pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to conspiring to make illegal payments to a legislative candidate in 2004. Weimar was the principal spokesman for the first two private-prison proposals to surface in the 1990s, but faded into the background after selling his halfway houses in 1998 to Cornell Corrections, a national prison company based in Houston. Even as late as the summer of 2004, however, when the private prison idea was on its last legs, Weimar held a substantial interest in the deal, standing to make $5.5 million if a private prison was ever built, according to the federal charging documents filed Monday. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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