“The jobs that will be created by this facility are here to stay. They will not go overseas or south of the border.”

You might assume that those words were uttered by North Carolina Governor Michael Easley announcing the construction of a new pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Research Triangle Park.

Unfortunately, those lines are excerpts of a speech by Bennie Heath at the groundbreaking of the Maury Correctional Institution in Greene County in eastern NC. Heath, chair of the Greene County Board of Commissioners, along with state legislators, other county commissioners and other state officials were on hand to celebrate the beginning of the construction of a 1,000-bed maximum security prison.

At the groundbreaking, politicians touted the benefits of the new prison – 400 permanent jobs with an annual payroll of $10 million, plus hundreds of temporary workers during the construction phases. The $80 million facility will cost $18 million to operate.

Do you see what is wrong with this scenario? Because of the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs, state legislators representing rural areas are turning to building prisons to bring economic vibrancy to their communities. Legislators and county officials would rather provide low paying correctional jobs to their citizens than to re-train them for high paying, high-tech careers.

Each year the state invests more than $8,000 per student enrolled in a University of North Carolina system institution – like NC State University and UNC-Chapel Hill. Compare that to the $25,000 – $32,000 a year it takes to imprison an inmate. What is even more troubling is that most of the inmates occupying NC’s correctional facilities are non-violent offenders – usually held on petty drug convictions.

In NC, an entire cottage industry has grown up around incarcerating citizens. Many of the state’s criminals are housed in minimum security facilities operated by private firms like Sodexho-Marriott. These companies benefit from strict sentencing guidelines that lock people up even for minor crimes.

As you might have guessed, any attempts to reform sentencing laws in NC has met opposition by big business – fewer people in jail means less profit. Also the “prison industry” contributes thousands of dollars to political campaigns to ensure their needs are addressed.

Corporate interests and elected officials would rather lock people behind bars as unproductive leeches on society than empower them to further their education and contribute positively to the community. But it is all done in the name of “good jobs” that “won’t go overseas” and the bottom line.

For some time, investing in education, especially higher education, was a low priority for some elected officials. State appropriations for higher education remained unchanged from 2000 to 2002 at $2.4 billion, though the state appropriated money for three new prisons. During the same period, state need-based financial aid increased four percent from $146 million to $152 million, but not because of a policy decision by elected officials. Need-based financial aid only increased because of proceeds from tuition increases.

These factors, along with many others, contributed to NC’s “F” grade for affordability from the National Center for Higher Education Policy. Did I mention the state got an “A” grade for affordability in the year 2000?

The Center’s report card “Measuring Up 2006” states, “Since the early 1990s, North Carolina has consistently improved its performance in preparing students for and enrolling them in higher education. However, compared with leading states, relatively few 9th graders graduate from high school in four years. North Carolina has seen a double-digit drop in this rate over the past decade, and this rate is now among the lowest in the country. Moreover, the affordability of higher education in the state continues to fall. If these trends are not addressed, they could undermine North Carolina’s access to an educated, competitive workforce and weaken its economy over time.”

The public higher education system and their constituent institutions are the economic engines that drive this state. With more people out of work, on the street and forced out of the classroom there should be long lines for prison space. Oh I forgot — NC considers prison building economic development.