Fake Prison Gets Real Tax Dollars

Congress Earmarks $100,000 For Kansas Prison Museum

(CBS)  If you've ever wanted to feel like a criminal without breaking the law, you might get the chance in Lansing, Kansas.

Lansing is home of the state prison and around the corner from the famous Leavenworth penitentiary -- a town where more than one in four residents lives behind bars.

The mayor wants to build a prison museum complete with gallows and fake guard towers.

“As they come through here, there will actually be a gate there. As they go through it'll clang behind them,” explains Mayor Ken Bernard as he shows a model of the museum.

You'd basically have to go to jail to see the prison museum in Kansas. It would be built on the grounds of the Lansing Correctional Facility. Supporters figure they'd have a built-in captive audience: the thousands who come to visit the inmates.

And thanks to Congresswoman Nancy Boyda of Kansas, your tax dollars are helping fund it.

She recently "earmarked" $100,000 for the prison museum.

An earmark is a grant of money without the normal public review. And in Washington, earmarks flow like water from a fountain. Congress funds thousands per year worth $20 billion.

Boyda sees the museum as a way to honor prison guards. But why should a penny of federal tax money be going to this prison museum in Kansas?

“I think the majority of Americans are going to say $100,000 to honor, to preserve the culture and memorialize the people that have given their lives. It's fine,” Boyda said.

Ironically, Boyda had just complained publicly that real prisons are so poorly funded and staffed, they're dangerous. But she didn't earmark any money for them -- just the fake prison.

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Attkisson Blogs: Your Tax Dollars Held Captive

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Tim Phillips is a taxpayer advocate. He says the musem is buildign the museum on the backs of its residents.

“And their tax bill is probably $8,000, $9,000,” he says. “It would take 10 of those taxpayers to fund this $100,000 earmark and that's wrong.”

“A lot of people are wondering, is this really a legitimate expense of federal tax dollars when there are so many other needs?" asks Attkisson.

"I didn't think $100,000 was a lot of money," says Mayor Bernard.

Why is his community more deserving than any other?

"Because we're very progressive, we're moving forward, it's a fast growing community and we think we have a lot to offer," he said.

Even in Lansing, there's been a backlash.

"I hardly believe a prison museum here in Lansing is something that qualifies as a national necessity," said one resident.

It turns out the earmark was just the beginning. The mayor needs to raise $3 million more in private funds to actually build the Prison Museum.

“We've got a great project going if we can get it off the ground. Our people are working hard now to set up the funding,” says Bernard.

For now, the prison museum is just a 3-D model. Money just isn't easy to come by, unless you ask the right member of Congress.

[mrbarrette]

$100,000? That''s nothing. Boyda originally tried to get $1.16 Million for the project.

She''s the newest tax-and-spend liberal.

[ioweign]

Taxpayer money being spent in this country and not Iraq !

Are you sure ??

I applaud CBS News and Sharyl Attkisson for shedding some light on the outrageous earmarks being dole out from Congress. I just wonder where was all that investigative reporting back when the Republicans controlled Congress with their record spending spree.

[whispyseas]

'' ... i couldn''t give you less than free food and free medicine forever if i even wanted to ... nah, actually: to feed the world, i gotta tax everyone in the world and deny options to the begging ... soo laughing ... anyways: i''ve been wondering lately, if the average county is 577 square miles and 90,000 folk occupying 300 16 acre trail crossings and 300 folk in 300 weeks turn out 90,000 (little eco friendly non resource depleting) museums of medical you are here map song dance skit kit, and 90,000 folk turn out many billion museums of medical you are here map song dance skit kit in the same period, and for many many small small tips, and the average home is 340 squre feet with 2500 square feet of garden and costs anywhere from $2400 to $60,000; then, on a cosmic scale: what''s the average county skize? and how many trail trail crossings? of how many cubic light years? and how many naked folk dance get well feed world songs rallyd round the sick beds drifting the spore bloom weed dragon trail fickle first aid lunch farm cottage studio trail groups at each trail crossing? and how many (little eco friendly non resource depleting) museums of medical you are here map song dance skit kit does each collection of how many folk turn out in what amount of time? and how volume density surfacearea is the average homed sheltet and the average lawn? and what''s the average cost? ... ''

[getloud1]

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