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Chevron may be merging with Texaco, but it recently sought a much more unlikely partnership with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In an August letter — obtained by Mother Jones and excerpted below — the oil company proposes converting its “uneconomic” offshore drilling platforms into high-security cell bocks. George Steinbach, Chevron’s decommissioning project manager, enthusiastically terms his proposal a “recycling opportunity.”

But in an interview with the magazine, David Dorworth, chief site selector at the Prison Bureau, was quick to torpedo the idea. “Ever since the movie Waterworld,” he says, “we seem to be getting an inordinate number of these suggestions. The bottom line is: Island-type facilities are not cost effective, they’re not safe, and they’re not practical. All these issues,” says Dorworth, “contributed to Alcatraz being closed.”

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

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