Call To Action Against F.C.I. Letcher: The Most Expensive Federal Prison In U.S. History
On Friday, March 1st, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) published their Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) concerning the proposed $500+ million construction of Federal Correctional Institution Letcher (FCI Letcher), a 1,408-bed federal prison sited on a former mountaintop removal coal mine site in Roxana, KY. This release opened up a 45-day public comment period on the prison.
Until April 15th, anyone in the United States can submit a comment on this proposed prison. Letters can be short, and you can express opposition to the prison for any reason.
Join Building Community Not Prisons (BCNP) in opposing this prison, and demanding that these federal funds be reinvested in all the things that actually keep us safe (like quality & affordable housing, education, healthcare, and more!). BCNP is hoping to flood the BOP with letters asking that this prison be stopped. Submitting your comment here will allow us to keep you updated on the campaign moving forward! Your letter will be sent to the BOP and to your Congressional Representatives!
Our coalition's talking points are listed below. You can copy & paste from these directly, expand on any of these points, or write your own original comment. Why do YOU think we should not build this prison? Every individual comment counts!
Written a comment? Sign our Pledge of Resistance here:
bit.ly/NoNewFederalPrisonPetition
HERE ARE THE COPY POINTS
YOU CAN DRAW FROM IN YOUR LETTER TO BOP:
NO to proposed FCI Letcher prison Project
Here are the talking points below that you can print and draw from!
Economic Development - It would be the fifth federal prison in Eastern Kentucky, and the fourth built since 1990. These prisons were promised to economically distressed Eastern Kentucky counties as reliable sources of jobs and economic development. Today, the counties with federal prisons remain some of the poorest counties in the entire country. Federal prisons are NOT a jobs program, and they should not be promoted as one! The BOP itself openly admits in the Draft EIS there will be “negligible benefit” for employment or increased income for locals.
Letcher County Deserves Better - Eastern Kentucky, including Letcher, was devastated by floods in 2022, which killed 44 people and damaged 9,000 homes. The county still is at high risk for floods. Letcher Countians need housing, infrastructure, employment, and climate strategies, not a prison.
Mass Incarceration - As the world leader in incarceration, the United States already holds far too many people in prisons. We have made some strides toward trying to reduce those numbers over the last decade. We should not be building more prisons.
Racial Justice - The population of Letcher County is 97 percent white & less than 2 percent Latino or Black combined. However, almost certainly through analyzing the current trends in prison populations the vast majority of prisoners who will be imported to this proposed facility will be Black or Latino. Furthermore, these facilities are not equipped to help the imported Black and brown population once they are released which adds another dimension of inequality to a system that already disproportionately harms Black & brown communities.
Strain on Families - As a federal prison in the BOP's Mid-Atlantic region, FCI Letcher would incarcerate people from as far away as Memphis and Baltimore. There is no public transportation access to this site, and bus station, train station, or airport within 100 miles of Letcher County. This would make it extremely expensive and nearly impossible for family members to visit loved ones incarcerated at this prison.
Environmental Harm - FCI Letcher would pose a serious disturbance and destruction to numerous habitats and nearby wetlands, threaten to overwhelm wastewater treatment, threaten endangered species, would create considerable light pollution, and would sit just over a mile from one of the few remaining old growth forests in the state.
Environmental Justice - FCI Letcher will be built on a mountaintop removal site, and a mile down-stream from a multi-million gallon coal slurry impoundment. The construction of FCI Letcher will release harmful chemicals and heavy metals under the surface of the MTR site into the surrounding environment that will negatively impact residents, correctional staff, and prisoners alike.
They Don't Even Want It - Both the Trump and Biden Administrations have proposed withdrawing the funding for FCI Letcher, and top officials at the BOP have gone on record stating that the construction of this prison is not necessary because the federal prison population is declining.