Jesus, Mary, Joseph and Innana wept.

Prison stocks, prisoner ranks seen rising-Barron's



{Cerridwen's note: not to worry if crime or conviction rates fall - you'll still see an increase in your investment.}



{Cerridwen's note: whew, fortunately Pew Charitable (wanna debate that name? Mighty charitable, ain't they?) says crime and or conviction will be up. Woo hoo! I'm makin' money now!}



If this turns your stomach the least little bit, not to worry...



Oh, ha, ha, ha...that makes it soooo much better. A few CEOs are doing time in Club Fed so it's all good.

I'm not sure which turns my stomach the most. The fact that the prison industry is a source of investment or the fact that Barrons is reporting it in such a blase manner.

Add this to this little article listed in this thread and you can join my little crazy corner over here.




Wonder how many shares "Scrooge" owns?

Not what I think of when I think of prison stocks.

how can these people sleep at night?

I cannot fathom the inhumane disconnect one must have to make money from another's misery. And prisons? This is freaking medieval.

Hey, you. We noticed this morning we missed the meetup yesterday. Yep, we're on the ball. LOL Hope you all had a good time.

We're thinking we need to get "the group" together and buy a nice piece of land and fend for ourselves. This other crap is just causing me stomach problems. The whole growing food could be an issue as I have a brown thumb. How 'bout you? Any green thumbs? :D

I just need to win the lottery and then I'll buy some land and start a DU Commune. Southern Washington is looking really good. I found an 18 acre plot for about $300,000 (foreclosure) that will support about 20 people if the climate doesn't change too much.
I have discussed this with my family, and they're all up for it. We come from small-town farm stock, so growing things won't be an issue. We do need to bone up on energy issues. I can build a windmill that will pump water (Dutch ancestry :) ) but electricity scares me a little. We need to recruit someone who can convert that wind power for us without burning the place down. :)

anyway (in the worst way) so we could be neighbors. I'm serious.

All LIBERALS Welcome! :bounce:

:D

:hi:

A lot of years applying what I read may help. In the meantime, I'll keep my eyes and ears open. :D

Fortunately, I come from farm stock as well and my grandfather, with whom I lived off an on over the years, was a do-it-yourself-er long before that was fashionable. My mom and I both fix things "girls" aren't supposed to know how to fix. So maybe some of that'll kick in as needed.

I'm not sure the lottery is needed. Just some "creative financing". :evilgrin: I think "Mr. Cerridwen" might be good in that area. :D

I could change a tire at 12, and rebuild an engine by 15.
Girls rock. :hug:

It was really funny. He was originally from the Bronx and didn't know "shit from shinola" about fixing anything. He was great at detailing the car but sucked when it came to keeping the mechanical things running. LOL

I don't know if I can rebuild an engine, but I know how to get the dryer installed and vented, the dishwasher washing, the washing machine working, the vacuum cleaned out and vacuuming and I sew a pretty mean seam. :D Oh yeah, and the ball and cock re-installed in the toilet, the phones wired and most of the computer equipment built and surfing. I've built a table or two and have done a bit of upholstery. Eh, we may not survive but we'll look good doing it.

:rofl:

You'd think they'd want to cover up their greed just a LITTLE. :eyes:

What have we become?

Jail operator GEO's troubles not limited to Coke County youth lockup

Complaints by adult inmates similar to what closed TYC facility *





We were surprised about Abu Graib? And, now we are waiting for an increase?

I didn't know Wackenhut had gone into the prison industry. Though it's no surprise.

Thanks for adding the information here.

Senator Jim Webb conducted a Joint Economic Committee (JEC)hearing to explore the steep increase in the U.S. prison population and the economic and social costs of mass incarceration.

Thursday October 4th, 2007

The United States has experienced a sharp increase in its prison population in the past thirty years. From the 1920s to the mid-1970s, the incarceration rate in the United States remained steady at approximately 110 prisoners per 100,000 people. Today, the incarceration rate is 737 inmates per 100,000 residents, comprising 2.1 million persons in federal, state, and local prisons. The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population but now has 25 percent of its prisoners. There are approximately 5 million Americans under the supervision of the correctional system, including parole, probation, and other community supervision sanctions.

With such a significant number of the population behind bars, expenditures associated with the prison system have skyrocketed. According to the Urban Institute, “the social and economic costs to the nation are enormous.” With 2.25 million people incarcerated in approximately five thousand prisons and jails, the combined expenditures of local governments, state governments, and the federal government for law enforcement and corrections personnel totals over $200 billion.

The JEC will examine why the United States has such a disproportionate share of the world’s prison population, as well as ways to address this issue that responsibly balance public safety and the high social and economic costs of imprisonment.

rather than kill our people, we store them in warehouses and make money off them. Oh, predatory capitalism, ain't it grand.

They are building "leviathan" prisons with factories to sell products with forced labor that competes with American businesses like furniture companies.

Our tax dollars are being used to build the prisons, while stock markets and hedge funds are making profit.

In turn, Americans are losing jobs because businesses can not compete with the cheap labor.

Student forced Yale to divest its endowment from hedge funds tied to several correction companies after they learned about human rights abuses in the prisons.

It's too surreal.

There's a reason people are starting to notice they have become "wage slaves". It's no insult to those who have suffered the true forms of slavery, it's an acknowledgement that slavery comes in many forms.

We see it here, every day. If only we choose to see.

of a multi-billion dollars industry with a prison workforce it pay between $.23 and $1.15 an hour.

Inmate workforces build: furniture, computer circuit boards, limousines, waterbeds, and sews lingerie for victoria’s secret.

"Prison Industries". You know I'm not kidding. The furniture was made by the state prisoners to be used in the state offices.

Government creating a labor force to be exploited by government. It's not all the private industry.

I believe the service name is Federal Prison Labor, FPL.

Blue jeans made by prison slave labor.

that were using prison labor at sub-par wages to staff corporate call centers.

I'm not surprised, however. I truly wish I were.

I don't immediately have the details to hand, and don't want to Google around for it, but it seems that a few people got upset about criminals getting hold of their personal information, e.g. phone numbers.

Prisoners used to cheap wage. Okee dokee.

Prisoners having personal information. WAIT! STOP!

Well, I guess it's something. They DID get Capone on tax evasion, after all.

It's all OK as long as those AWFUL PEOPLE don't somehow contaminate me or get some kind of advantage on me.

BTW, I had a look at your blog & it makes it clear that you're one of "Us." Old hippies, thinkers, independent souls, etc. God, it's nice to know that the subspecies is surviving.

:blush: I haven't updated that in ages and it's mostly a collection of selected DU posts.

But, yeah, I'm one of the "old" hippies born at the ass-end of the boomer generation. I arrived here early enough to be exposed to the ideals and late enough to watch them destroyed without ever having enjoyed the "benefits". But I'm not bitter, honest. :D

Seriously, I am part of the subspecies known as independent soul and independent thinker. Of course, that's a self-selected-self-report and you know how reliable those are. :D

I've been sadly amazed watching decades of destruction of the "old hippy" ideals. It's been quite an education to see how easily people are led to the slaughter.

But, a few of us are left (no pun intended) and maybe some of the ideals will pass to future generations. I so hope.

Is it Unicor or and Oregon prison product?

Thanks, I almost grinned at that. Sorry, this story makes me a little ill so I'm not into LOL quite yet.

CCA--Correctional Corporation of America--once tried to recruit me as head of mental health services. They offered about twice what I was then making as a Regional Chief psychologist for Corrections in Wisconsin. However, the job would have essentially consisted of figuring out how to meet Fed & state laws on provision of mental health services in a way that would cost them as little as possible. I couldn't do it. I ended up, a couple of years later, taking early retirement from the state & starting a forensic psych consulting business.

but in the context you wrote, I think I want to cry.

We've truly become a nation of giving the least to gain the most. With notable exceptions such as yourself. Thank you, Jackpine Radical.

edit for a space. Yes, I am punctilious.

criminal justice system. The evaluations can be for a number of purposes: to assess whether they meet the criteria for defenses of Not Guilty by Reason of Mental Disease or Defect, whether they're competent to stand trial, what alternative approaches the courts might take in sentencing (e.g. psych treatment rather than prison), etc. I once sat back and calculated that I did psych assessments of more than 2,000 convicted offenders while working for the state.

Forensic psych in general is the use of psychological expertise in the legal system. Everything from child custody evaluations to assessment of psychological sequelae of auto accidents. My particular specialty is the psychological assessment of criminal defendants. I end up testifying a lot.

Do you understand if I say I don't envy your expertise?

I've worked within the government system and it about made me "nutso" (please, pardon the layperson's use of non-psych term to describe reaction to gov't bureaucracy). I can't imagine working within the bureaucracy in your capacity.

I do, however, thank you for the work you've done.

and you used it entirely appropriately.

It's right up there with Chronic Undifferentiated Crazy and Wingnut as professional jargon goes.

I'm not very hung up on the precisely delineated terminology by which the mental health professions attempt to inflict their flawed worldview on the pubic.

Thank you so much for that.

You can't know this, but your post reminded me why I made the pre-emptive mea culpa in my previous post. One of my college professors called me on my use of the word "schizophrenic" as I'd used it in the "common vernacular" (of two-conflicting-minds/ideas) rather than the clinical definition and I had to defend/define its use in the re-write of my paper. It stuck me funny. So, thanks.

However, I'm familiar with Wingnut but I'm not familiar with "Chronic Undifferentiated Crazy". Chronic and crazy I understand. I think it's the undifferentiated part that lost me.

Regardless. Thank you so much, Jackpine Radical. I was in dire need of having my funny bone reactivated.

If you'll pardon the familiarity :hug:

Read "undifferentiated" as "generalized." Or, better, read it as an ironically intended jargonization of "crazy." I kinda like to satirize the DSM jargon, partially in retaliation for having to use it on people.

the canonical language in ways never intended by those who decide what is canonical.

I hate to say this, but 'tis time for me to leave this forum.

I truly enjoyed "meeting" you and making your acquaintance. Here's to all us "old hippie" types. :toast:

:hippie: