Washington City Paper: Contents for May. 9

Let's Make a Deal
Joseph F. Johnson Jr. sold the District on the thoroughly modern notion of privatizing government services. Unfortunately, some of the deals he's wired up look like the same old same old.

Cover Story

Tilting his portly frame back in a boardroom chair, Joseph F. Johnson Jr. ticks off a well-rehearsed pitch about the merits of private prisons. Perched five floors above Connecticut Avenue in his plush office conference room, Johnson is sales personified: The way Johnson tells it, he is not selling prisons; he's selling freedom. "No state should ever build another prison. You have the private sector that will put up all the capital and take all the risks," he says. "The government should invest in schools and infrastructure."

Impeccably dressed, with spit-shined shoes and linked cuffs, Johnson is the District front man for the Correctional Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest private prison company. He trades in concepts, "pieces" of deals that promise government nirvana—zero budget impact, low risk, better services.

Johnson's private-sector magic bullet is a timely one in a cash-strapped city like D.C. and has proved nearly irresistible to those in charge of finding a way to get from one day to the next. Under pressure from Congress to balance the budget, D.C.'s elected officials who once eschewed privatization as a betrayal of city employees and an abrogation of government power have now embraced the concept as a two-fer: saving money and improving services at the same time. ... Continued

Issue of May. 9 - 15, 1997

News and Features

Let's Make a Deal
Joseph F. Johnson Jr. sold the District on the thoroughly modern notion of privatizing government services. Unfortunately, some of the deals he's wired up look like the same old same old.
Cover Story By Stephanie Mencimer
The Naked City
Boys will be boys at an inconspicuous house on Florida Avenue NW.
The City By John Cloud
Ground Zero
The new welfare law will bring D.C. to its knees faster than Anyplace, U.S.A.
The City By Amanda Ripley
Guidance Missive
The Mail By Saxon Graham
Thanks Hank
The Mail By Hart Roussel
Six Sense
The Mail By Danilo Pelletiere
Ward of Attrition
The Mail By Ron Mitchell
Term Paper
The Mail By Jason Rylander
The Shadow Knows
The Mail By Letitia Gomez
The Greening of D.C.
The Mail By Jeff Olsen
Also Rand
The Mail By Steve Gibson
Unmellow Drama
The Mail By Bob Anthony

Columns

Phone Mates
Cheap Seats By Dave McKenna
Everywhere a Mou, Mou
Loose Lips By Ken Cummins

Eats

Schnitzel Logic
Young & Hungry By Brett Anderson

Movies

Grrrl Trouble
Film Review By Mark Jenkins
Rhapsody in Blue
Film Review By Joel E. Siegel

Music

Raw Power
Music Review By James Lochart
First Rays of the New Rising Sun
Music Review By Eddie Dean
The Global Masters
Music Review By Joel E. Siegel
This Ain't No Disco
Music Review By Arion Berger

Theater

Summer Camp
Theater Review By Trey Graham
Sea Legs
Theater Review By Bob Mondello

Arts and Events

Sunday in the Lobby With Lloyd
Artifacts By Bob Mondello
The Gift
Artifacts By Christopher Porter
Responding in the Affirmative
Artifacts By Zenon Zawada
Tea and Empathy
Books By Holly Bass and Karyn-Siobhan Robinson
Beneath Contempt: A Briefly Annotated Selection of Ignorable Art
Art Review By Glenn Dixon
Endless, Nameless
Art Review By Glenn Dixon
Soft Machines
With their label struggling, Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thomson regroup Tsunami and survey a changed indie scene.
Arts By Jason Cherkis