DaaaihLoong writes: "Your tax dollars at work:

'Not one inmate has escaped from the 210-acre Eastern Reception,
Diagnostic
and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre, which was completed last summer
at
a cost of $105 million and is guarded by more than 130 video cameras.
Not
one inmate has been injured or gotten into a fight at this facility
designed to hold 2,684 of the nastiest characters around.
Not one inmate has felt the need to sue the state over prison
conditions at
Bonne Terre. Indeed, not one inmate has complained about the place.
Admittedly, not one inmate has stayed at Bonne Terre, either.

"Missouri is paying for the finished prison, mind you, to the tune of
lease
payments totaling $168 million over the next 20 years. The state's
prison
system is paying for its inaction as well, seeing as how its 28,641
inmates
are housed in 20 other institutions designed for roughly three-fourths
that
number.

"Finally, the shaky little city of Bonne Terre (population 4,000) is
really
paying, having no new revenue to cover the $14 million in capital
improvements and infrastructure expenses it incurred in gleeful
anticipation of the facility and the 800-plus jobs (and thousands of
visits
to prisoners) it was expected to bring.'

For the full article, go to:

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/issues/2001-12-26/r ay.html/1/index.html"