A poor woman struggling for what’s right. A selfless community leader battling the odds. A small voice speaking truth to “some of the most well-heeled, well-educated and influential people in the Washington area.” At first glance, Courtland Milloy’s Wednesday Washington Post column looks like a classic example of columnist siding with underdog. Until you consider the subject. Joyce Scott’s hopes for a Ward 8 private prison are indeed opposed by Mayor Anthony A. Williams and Eugene Dewitt Kinlow, son of a control board member. On the other hand, Milloy’s plucky local crusader just happens to be pulling for the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a multinational that operates prisons on three continents and whose parent firm reported revenues of over $70 million last quarter (“Prison Terms,” 11/27/98). And this campaign for justice against the depredations of “environmentalists and no-growth activists” is also aided by the thousands of dollars CCA spent last year selling the project, in an endeavor that included hiring former D.C. Councilmember John Ray, donating thousands to local political candidates, and helping fund grass-roots outfits such as Citizens for a Progressive Ward 8—whose leader is a certain Joyce Scott.