CLC Responds to Director Colette Peters’ Letcher Visit
On August 28, Director Colette Peters of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) visited Letcher County in preparation for a record of decision on FCI Letcher, expected later this year. While the BOP claims to have invited many local leaders to this meeting, it was not until Peters had left that most were aware she was in town. After her visit, Concerned Letcher Countians sent the following letter by email (cc-ed to Kimberly Hudson and Jennifer Alvarez) and by Certified U.S. Mail.
August 29, 2024
Dear Director Peters:
Is open government still alive in the United States and Letcher County? Was your August 28, 2024, meeting with Rep. Hal Rogers, the Letcher County Planning Commission (LPC), and selected guests within the guidelines of Kentucky’s open meetings statutes and that of federal agencies? Why, within days of a possible Record of Decision (ROD) regarding FCI/FPC Letcher, was such a meeting even scheduled? Were any opposing voices or even interested Letcher Countians aware of and allowed to participate in this meeting?
As you know, Congress’ Appropriations Committee has leverage over FBOP regarding funding. Is that why you accepted Rep. Rogers invitation to Letcher County? Is that why FBOP is even considering spending $500+ million in taxpayer dollars to build a prison that neither the Trump Administration nor Biden Administration wants or approves of? As taxpayers, when do we get a say in how our money is spent?
Rep. Rogers alerted a supportive local television station, WYMT in Hazard, which covered the meeting you attended; however, the Letcher County newspaper News-Press was not notified. The general public was not aware of this meeting until afterwards, yet clearly a great deal of planning went into it, so it was not a spur of the moment affair. Does this violate Sunshine and other open meeting laws?
Concerned Letcher Countians (CLC) has contacted you previously. CLC discovered non-public meetings between the Letcher County Planning Commission and the BOP in June and December of 2023. Non-public phone calls therein were also discovered during Freedom of Information Act requests. Yet, requests to meet with the CLC were declined by FBOP in December 2023. Now you come to Letcher County to a meeting to which anyone opposing FCI Letcher is excluded, and you make no effort to meet with members of CLC or anyone else outside Rep. Rogers’ chosen group? This does not seem like appropriate actions for a federal employee or federal agency.
Please realize that a significant number of Letcher Countians are opposed to this prison. If you were to read our comments from citizens regarding the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), as well as the legal response, you must certainly realize this is true. There are environmental, social, racial, and economic reasons not to build this prison, many of them described in FBOP’s own Environmental Impact Statement.
Staffing this prison will be as difficult, or more so than the other three federal prisons in our area, where, by the FEIS, “90” vacancies currently exist. Hires from Letcher County will be “small,” and incarcerated people will be hundreds of miles from their families and communities, which adversely affects recidivism and rehabilitation. Letcher County is one of two with the “largest” hidden risk of inland flooding, according to climate experts, and last year, had severe wildfires, which endangers staff and those incarcerated.
Although Rep. Rogers and the local planning group continue to promote this prison as economic development and a major job creator, the FBOP’s FEIS states that hires from Letcher County will be “small.” The other three southeastern Kentucky counties with federal prisons are still considered “distressed” by the Appalachian Regional Commission. Promises of economic growth from a prison have not been realized in those surrounding counties. And where is it the mission of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to promote economic development through prison construction and operation?
If your visit included a site visit, you saw the remoteness of the site, thus the challenge of building a prison, versus revamping one that already exists. Even former FBOP Director Hugh Hurwitz advises against FCI/FPC Letcher. Endangered bats have been found there, and currently internet and cell phone services are spotty. Sewage services for a prison present a threat to the North Fork of the Kentucky River, and the increased traffic on those two small local roads will endanger children on school buses and increase greenhouse gas emissions.
We are extremely surprised that you visited Letcher County and made no attempt to meet with local residents who have concerns about siting FCI Letcher in their backyard, especially after CLC members have previously asked for a meeting.
We trust you to follow FBOP’s primary responsibility -- to protect and rehabilitate those who would be incarcerated. A prison in Letcher County would almost certainly be understaffed, far from families and sending communities with no access to public transportation, and where reentry programs will be difficult to access.
We trust you to ensure that the FBOP fully reviews and addresses the many concerns raised in comments submitted regarding the DEIS and FEIS for FCI/FPC Letcher. Once reviewed, we believe the FBOP must choose the No Action Alternative, and make a decision not to move forward with this prison.
Sincerely,
Concerned Letcher Countians
Website: concernedletchercountians.org
