Profiting from Punishment: The Dangers of Privatizing Imprisonment
Despite the fact that the United States has only 5% of the worlds population, we hold approximately 25% of its prisoners. Between 1970 and 2005, particularly with the advent of the War on Drugs, the population of people incarcerated in the U.S. has grown by 700%, despite decreases in crime. Instead of moving toward a reduction in the number of incarcerated individuals, we have companies like CCA and the GEO Group, Inc. lobbying to guarantee that the criminal justice system stays just as it is for at least the next 20 years. In fact, according to the ACLU, CCA actually identified reforms to drug enforcement or sentencing laws as a potential threat to their business in their 2010 annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
For-profit corporations have already significantly infiltrated the criminal justice system with a stunning 1600% increase in the number of prisoners housed in private prisons since 1990. The result is the top two private prison corporations making almost $3 billion a year of taxpayer dollars as profit. These corporations came on the scene in the 1980s with promises of lower costs to taxpayers. The evidence on whether there is actual cost savings is mixed, but if there is any savings it is done through providing substandard services and reducing wages, resulting in the loss of middle class jobs. Most recently, an in-depth report by American Friends Service Committee concluded that private jails/prisons were actually costing the state of Arizona more than public facilities while also having safety and accountability issues. Furthermore, the for-profit industry steers states away from truly cost-saving efforts such as reducing overall incarceration rates. Instead of actions like reforming drug laws, utilizing probation or parole, and instituting sentencing reductions, the private prison industry lobbies to keep these potential cost saving strategies off the table.
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Full article here: http://www.politicususa.com/profiting-from-punishment-the-dangers-of-privatizing-imprisonment/
truth2power
(8,219 posts)It's despicable!!
libodem
(19,288 posts)Of the soul. Best money making, the job creators can come up with. Depraved.
Response to Tx4obama (Original post)
malcolmkyle This message was self-deleted by its author.
malcolmkyle
(39 posts)Most Prohibitionists eventually get to experience utter loneliness, also known as the sadomoralist condition - a form of existential despair as they begin to finally realize the utter futility and destructiveness of their lifes work. This is ultimately compounded by the deep realization that its simply not possible to prove any of the nonsense theyve been zealously propagating for many long decades. Its this type of loneliness that often turns their attention to a higher power, the one that usually comes in liquid form. This is a serious terminal affliction and not one that a psychologist, philosopher or priest can help with. Eventually they become trapped in a very dark place, where they have literally nobody left to relate to. In such situations, it is our civic duty and moral obligation to point their festering, lonely souls to the nearest bridge.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)should even be considered. It seems so obvious what the consequences of such an idiotic decision would be that I just can't believe we have come to this point.
midnight
(26,624 posts)to bring this into our communities....