This looks like a trip to either an academic or large public library. I tried some newspaper databases to get an idea of how much there is available:
Lexis Academic, Guided News Search, General News, All Available Dates gets 10 hits for the search: prison construction and moratorium in "headline, lead paragraph."
1. MORATORIUM ON PRISONS REBUFFED, ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS (Denver CO), February 15, 2001, Thursday, Local; Ed. Final; Pg. 14A, 424 words, By John Sanko, News Capitol Bureau
2. PRISON BAN WHITTLED TO STUDY, Denver Rocky Mountain News (Colorado), February 3, 2000, Thursday, Local; Ed. Final; Pg. 14A, 134 words
3. LAWMAKER WANTS TO STOP ADDING PRISONS FOR 3 YEARS RUPERT CALLS FOR STUDY OF WHETHER INCARCERATION IS MOST COST-EFFECTIVE WAY TO CUT STATE CRIME, Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO), January 28, 1999, Thursday, Local; Ed. FINAL; Pg. 16A, 278 words, Ann Imse, News Staff Writer
4. Glendening Wants to Add Maximum-Security Cells; Moratorium on Prison Construction Lifted, The Washington Post, September 21, 1997, Sunday, Final Edition, METRO; Pg. B03, 581 words, Charles Babington, Washington Post Staff Writer
5. Controversial bills dominate legislature's last 2 weeks, The Denver Post, April 24, 1995 Monday Correction Appended , 2D EDITION, Pg. B-03, 949 words, Denver Post Capitol Bureau
6. IN MARYLAND, A CONFLICT OVER PRISON PHILOSOPHIES, The New York Times, September 25, 1982, Saturday, Late City Final Edition, Section 1; Page 10, Column 2; National Desk, 1267 words, By WENDELL RAWLS Jr., Special to the New York Times, BALTIMORE
7. IN THE NATION; THE WRONG ANSWER, The New York Times, November 3, 1981, Tuesday, Late City Final Edition, Section A; Page 19, Column 1; Editorial Desk, 869 words, By Tom Wicker
8. Information Bank Abstracts, NEW YORK TIMES, December 17, 1979, Monday, Section 2; Page 4, Column 1, 35 words
9. Build no prisons before reforms are implemented, Leggatt urges, The Globe and Mail (Canada), December 14, 1978 Thursday, 238 words, CP, Ottawa ON
10. Trying to stop a Games prison, The Globe and Mail (Canada), October 12, 1978 Thursday, 689 words, Scott Young; GAM, Toronto ON
prison and construction and moratorium gets 32 hits, but they do not look as precise - you may want to first try that phrase: prison construction. General News (All avail dates), Magazines and journals gets only 3 hits even when you AND all 3 words. "Prison Moratorium" seems to have been (maybe still is?) an organization back in the 1980's and before.
========================================
Factiva is also well worth looking at - one of my colleagues here at U of MD says it has more newspaper coverage than Lexis Academic. But for a similar search: prison* and construction and moratorium* (in Headline, lead paragraph, all dates), it gets 25 hits. Note that Lexis has automatic truncation and plurals - even if you don't want them. Factiva gets only 22 hits for: prison and construction and moratorium (Headline, lead paragraph, all dates)
====================================
prison* and construction and moratorium* in citation, text gets 25 hits in New York Times Historical (1857-2001)
=============================
In public libraries, even smaller ones, you may well have access to cooperative (sometimes statewide) access to newspaper and magazine databases. Ebsco databases such as Masterfile Premier have quite a bit of full text online, and most public libraries have Ebsco - or maybe Infotrac which also covers "general interest" magazines. There seems to be less in Masterfile, however. I would say try searching "ALL TEXT". The search TX (prison construction and moratorium*) gets 42 hits, many of them mentioning that National Moratorium on Prison Construction.
But if you want to build a legal argument, as it appears you might, it's well worth a trip to an academic library that offers access to Lexis Academic onsite to non-students. Lexis, Legal Research, Law Reviews, all dates, gets 43 hits for the search: prison construction and moratorium. It does not seem to let me limit to title words, so you may need to do quite a bit of plowing through those huge (30-40 or more pages) reviews. But Lexis Academic DOES highlight the words you search.
Because of very strict licensing, I cannot sent full text (even to our own students - they have to log in if they are off campus). But I can certainly try other searches and even possibly find more free things on the web - although I am betting you have already covered that ground pretty well!
I am sorry about our delay in getting back to you on this question. I had not seen it since the time you sent it, and I think we may have thought it had been answered.