Topic: For-Profit Prisons
started by: Botto 82
Posted by Botto 82 on Aug. 08 2015,12:56 pm
Several industries have become notorious for the millions they spend on influencing legislation and getting friendly candidates into office: Big Oil, Big Pharma and the gun lobby among them. But one has managed to quickly build influence with comparatively little scrutiny: Private prisons. The two largest for-profit prison companies in the United States – GEO and Corrections Corporation of America – and their associates have funneled more than $10 million to candidates since 1989 and have spent nearly $25 million on lobbying efforts. Meanwhile, these private companies have seen their revenue and market share soar. They now rake in a combined $3.3 billion in annual revenue and the private federal prison population more than doubled between 2000 and 2010, according to a report by the Justice Policy Institute. Private companies house nearly half of the nation’s immigrant detainees, compared to about 25 percent a decade ago, a Huffington Post report found. In total, there are now about 130 private prisons in the country with about 157,000 beds.Marco Rubio is one of the best examples of the private prison industry’s growing political influence, a connection that deserves far more attention now that he’s officially launched a presidential bid. The U.S. senator has a history of close ties to the nation’s second-largest for-profit prison company, GEO Group, stretching back to his days as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. While Rubio was leading the House, GEO was awarded a state government contract for a $110 million prison soon after Rubio hired an economic consultant who had been a trustee for a GEO real estate trust. Over his career, Rubio has received nearly $40,000 in campaign donations from GEO, making him the Senate’s top career recipient of contributions from the company. (Rubio’s office did not respond to requests for comment.)
< WaPo Article >
Let the "Free Market" decide? Explain your thoughts.
Posted by hymiebravo on Aug. 09 2015,4:36 pm
All the resident brain wizards around here seem pretty tight lipped with their comments on this matter. 
Posted by hymiebravo on Aug. 09 2015,4:47 pm
The Unites States World's leading jailer! And people say The United States can't lead in anything any more.
Posted by Botto 82 on Aug. 09 2015,4:54 pm
We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies. - Will McAvoy, "The Newsroom"
Posted by Self-Banished on Aug. 09 2015,5:05 pm
^^You two seem very concerned about this subject.Is there something you're worried about?
Is there a reason you're worried?
Posted by Botto 82 on Aug. 09 2015,5:53 pm
If my bottom line goes up X dollars for every inmate I incarcerate, it's logical to assume I want more inmates. If I can lobby lawmaking bodies like Congress to that end, I'll do that, too.You don't see a huge problem with that, Tard-Vis?
Posted by Botto 82 on Aug. 09 2015,6:18 pm
Put another way...
Posted by Self-Banished on Aug. 10 2015,5:08 am
So what do you want? More criminals let free? A return to the old system that really was expensive as hell? Your pic decreeing small gov. leads to corporate dominance is cute but you're preaching to the wrong person because I believe America would be better off with as small a gov. we could get by with.
This is your thread, got some figures showing costs? privately run vs gov.?
Posted by Expatriate on Aug. 10 2015,7:41 am
Kind of a vicious circle, lack of employment can lead to crime, if you move private sector jobs to prisons for cheap labor you’re cutting employment for the population, thus creating lack of employmentthe factor that fuels crime in the first place.
There are far too many people in prison in this country, the explosion in our prison population correlates with trickle down economics.
Posted by Self-Banished on Aug. 10 2015,8:18 am
^^ no, a lax enforcement of misdemeanor crimes leads to more incerceration.
Posted by Botto 82 on Aug. 10 2015,8:59 am
(Self-Banished @ Aug. 10 2015,5:08 am)
QUOTE
So what do you want? More criminals let free? A return to the old system that really was expensive as hell?
It gives zero incentive to fix our Draconian drug laws. That's my biggest beef. Think about it - a kid that bags up 56 grams of weed gets busted, and ends up in prison. Compare that to the ZERO banksters that spent as much as a moment in a courtroom after they crashed our economy not so long ago.
QUOTE
Researcher Anita Mukherjee studied eight years of data from Mississippi, which has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country, and found that private prisons there doled out twice the amount of infractions against inmates, lengthening their sentences by an average of two or three months. The extra time, Mukherjee found, adds up to an increase of about $3,000 in additional costs per prisoner. Mukherjee also noted that inmates housed in private prisons were more likely to wind up back in the system after being released—despite industry claims of lower recidivism rates.
The study, which compares length of stays in private and public prisons, is not the first to highlight strategies undertaken by the private prison industry to raise returns for stockholders. Last year, Christopher Petrella, a researcher at the University of California-Berkeley, accused the Corrections Corporation of America of including provisions in its contracts with governments to keep the most costly inmates—those with health issues—from being transferred to its prisons. Through open records requests, Petrella found there were 14 different exclusion criteria, including disabled or elderly inmates, those who were HIV-positive, or anyone with "sensitive medical conditions and/or high risk diagnoses."
< source >
The study, which compares length of stays in private and public prisons, is not the first to highlight strategies undertaken by the private prison industry to raise returns for stockholders. Last year, Christopher Petrella, a researcher at the University of California-Berkeley, accused the Corrections Corporation of America of including provisions in its contracts with governments to keep the most costly inmates—those with health issues—from being transferred to its prisons. Through open records requests, Petrella found there were 14 different exclusion criteria, including disabled or elderly inmates, those who were HIV-positive, or anyone with "sensitive medical conditions and/or high risk diagnoses."
< source >
Bottom line? Private prisons aren't saving governments [us] money, but they are making investors boatloads of cash.