Wackenhut's state contract at Holly Springs was up for renewal. Mr.
Calabrese said he couldn't renew if it meant Wackenhut would keep losing
money. Mr. Johnson said he didn't have the budget to pay for the company
to house more inmates, and only the legislature could change that. Mr.
Calabrese perked up. What was the legislature's view? he asked. "They're
meeting now," Mr. Johnson said, and the executive could go to the
statehouse and find out.
"I better get over there," Mr. Calabrese said. He hadn't planned to stay in
Mississippi overnight, so he bought a fresh shirt for the next morning.
Two blocks away at the statehouse, the part-time legislature was completing
its three-month session. State tax revenues had come in short of projections
because of the faltering economy, and Gov. Ronnie Musgrove was battling
lawmakers for more money for the state's public schools. The legislature had
made a one-year reduction of $30 million for classroom supplies and
textbooks and ended a program that funneled 25% of any state budget
surplus to the public schools.
Messrs. Calabrese and Sage went door-to-door in
the statehouse, a domed granite edifice that stands
on the former site of Mississippi's first prison. In a
corridor, they buttonholed Carl "Jack" Gordon,
Democratic chairman of the Senate appropriations
committee and one of Mississippi's most powerful
legislators. They also chatted with Republican Sen.
Robert "Bunky" Huggins, another political
heavyweight whose district is home to a regional
prison and CCA's Greenwood facility.
In Sen. Huggins's office, Mr. Calabrese emphasized
that Wackenhut was not an interloper. "We didn't
build a prison on spec and start looking for prisoners," he recalls saying.
"You invited us."
He continued the discussion over dinner with Sens. Huggins and Gordon at
the Parker House, a local restaurant. Mr. Calabrese, 50, made his case with
the crispness and deference of the former courtroom attorney that he is. He
told the senators it was "fair" and "commercially reasonable" that Wackenhut
be restored to 90% capacity at Holly Springs -- 900 inmates -- because
overall the state's prisons were 90% full. "We're willing to share the pain," he
recalls saying, "but give us 90%." And he picked up the check for dinner.
Unlike the regional prisons, Wackenhut and CCA had no inmate guarantees
in their contracts. The contracts obliged Mississippi only to make its "best
efforts" to keep the facilities filled. Weeks before, CCA's local lobbyist,