Should Prisons be Privatized?

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   Ralph Deedsposted 11 years ago

   My answer is no.
   
   http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/15170 … aveholders

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      BuckyGoldsteinposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I didn't read the entire story but those things I did read about happen in government run prisons as well.

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      Josakposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Obviously no, it gives the whole system more incentive to put people in jail, for money, that is ridiculous additionally jails are for reform, private prisons have no reason to attempt to reform them because that costs money, only to keep them in and feed them as badly as possible to maximize profit, privatization is one of the reasons the US system has such a high rate of prison re-entry and such a high prison population.

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      Brenda Durhamposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      My answer is no too.
      Even without reading the link.
      The government needs to remain the entity responsible for such things as laws of crime and punishment.

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         Ralph Deedsposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Hi, Brenda, Good to see we agree on something for a change!

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   innersmiffposted 11 years ago

   Yes, in conjunction with the privatisation of courts. With the current fascistic system the prisons have no incentive to provide a service to its customers, i.e. the law-abiding citizenry. In the statist court system I don't think it matters if the prisons are public or private.

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   AMFredenburgposted 11 years ago

   I think privatizing prisons is a truly horrible idea. Prisons are part of a social contract; we get to put people who hurt other people in prison to protect the rest of us, and in return we have the obligation to protect the health and safety of the people who end up in those prisons, and as possible to rehabilitate the prisoners so that when they get out, which most of them do, they are better able to live productive lives. Handing those responsibilities over to a profit-making corporation is just not acceptable. Caring for incarcerated individuals shouldn't be based on how much money a company can make; what's the incentive to do anything for these people, if job training programs or counseling costs money and decreases the bottom line?
   
   We need to reverse this trend and keep the job of running prisons and dealing with inmates in the public sphere, where it belongs.

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      Gypsy Willowposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with your take on this. Not a good idea to privatize a service like the prison system.!

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   Ralph Deedsposted 11 years ago

   Kids for Cash Scandal--What do you think about this?
   
   The "Kids for cash" scandal unfolded in 2008 over judicial kickbacks at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Two judges, President Judge Mark Ciavarella and Senior Judge Michael Conahan, were accused of accepting money from Robert Mericle, builder of two private, for-profit juvenile facilities, in return for contracting with the facilities and imposing harsh sentences on juveniles brought before their courts to increase the number of inmates in the detention centers.[1][2]
   
   For example, Ciavarella sentenced children to extended stays in juvenile detention for offenses as minimal as mocking a principal on Myspace, trespassing in a vacant building, and shoplifting DVDs from Wal-mart.[3] Ciavarella and Conahan pleaded guilty on February 13, 2009, pursuant to a plea agreement, to federal charges of honest services fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States (failing to report income to the Internal Revenue Service, known as tax evasion) in connection with receiving $2.6 million in payments from managers at PA Child Care in Pittston Township and its sister company Western PA Child Care in Butler County.[4][5] The plea agreement was later voided by a federal judge, who was dissatisfied with the post-plea conduct of the defendants, and the two judges charged subsequently withdrew their guilty pleas, raising the possibility of a criminal trial.[6]
   
   A federal grand jury in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania returned a 48 count indictment[7] against Ciavarella and Conahan including racketeering, fraud, money laundering, extortion, bribery and federal tax violations on September 9, 2009.[8][9] Conahan entered a revised guilty plea to one count of racketeering conspiracy in July 2010.[10] In a verdict reached at the conclusion of a jury trial, Ciavarella was convicted February 18, 2011 on 12 of the 39 counts he faced.[11][12]
   
   Following the original plea agreement, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered an investigation of the cases handled by the judges and following its outcome overturned several hundred convictions of youths in Luzerne County.[13] The Juvenile Law Center filed a class action lawsuit against the judges and numerous other parties, and the state legislature created a commission to investigate the wide-ranging juvenile justice problems in the county.[14][15] (See: JLC's growing list of related Court Documents[16
   
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_cash_scandal

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      BuckyGoldsteinposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Sure am glad private business are the only ones with corrupt people in their organizations.
      
      Thats sarcasm.

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         e-fiveposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Apparently, it takes an awful lot to throw some cold water on the right wing's privatization fetish.  The Iraq War fiasco, the decline of the British Rail system, the collapse of the financial system, massive oil spills, lobbyists writing legislation, private toll roads in Texas, elimination of the US Post Office (despite its specific provision in the Constitution), a corporate profit motive in ruining as many lives as possible, and even bribing judges to incarcerate kids for sarcastic MySpace posts won't do it.  I think even Ayn Rand would be disgusted.

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      AMFredenburgposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I've heard of this happening; it's a dreadful occurrence and one of the best reasons I know for getting rid of for-profit prison systems. There are some situations that shouldn't be about making a buck.

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   John Holdenposted 11 years ago

   Private prisons in the UK are very good at letting prisoners out when they should be locking them up!
   
   I'm not saying that state run prisons have never made a mistake, but it is nothing like the quantity of mistakes in the private prison system.
   
   Oh, and it does cost the tax payer more to keep a felon in a private prison!

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   tirelesstravelerposted 11 years ago

   You should visit a prison and spend time there. See for yourself. There are lots of ways to get there without breaking the law.

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   Paul Wingertposted 11 years ago

   There are things that the private sector has no business in and corrections and the military are two of them because they aren't meant to make a profit. Healthcare needs to be another one.

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      AMFredenburgposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Paul, you got that right; unfortunately the health care system is privatized from bottom to top; even Medicare is privatized to a large extent and could possibly get worse.

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      justmesuzanneposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Indeed, Paul. Imprisoning others for profit is slavery, pure and simple. The more prisoners these places have, the more money they make. They spend huge amounts of money lobbying for more laws and harsher, longer sentences so that they can keep these modern day concentration camps filled. Conditions are atrocious, and the death rate is high. Prisons for profit should be abolished.

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         justmesuzanneposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Here's a new article from AlterNet on the subject:
         
         Gulag Nation USA: 2.3 Million Inmates, Forced Labor, Rancid Food -- and It's Making the Corporate Overlords Wealthy
         
         http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties … 78&t=5

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   Ralph Deedsposted 11 years ago

   For interesting insight into a maximum security prison in Rome see "Caesar Must Die." It's the fascinating story of a prison production of Shakespear's "Julius Caesar." http://ralphdeeds.hubpages.com/hub/Caes … ilm-Review

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   Dan Bristolposted 11 years ago

   Yes, because socialism is such a smashing fiscal and penal success. "Rapists rape due to a lack of political correctness and federal funds". Maybe Obama should dump a trillion dollars down each prison and demand cell phones for murderers. That will do the trick.
   Privatization has saved many an institution of learning. It's just what's going to happen. You don't have to like it.

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