Police State: How For-Profit Prisons Have Become The Biggest Lobby No One's Talking About...

[SmarterThanTheAverageBear]

Privatizing of prisons itself isn't a bad thing, Lobbies in general are.

 

[Katzndogz]

China does not arrest nor imprison anyone for any drug offense.

Where in blazes did you ever get that idea!?!

The World s Scariest Places to be Busted For Drugs

According to the Drug Policy Alliance, China adheres strictly to its zero tolerance stance on drug use. By some conservative estimates, China executes between 2,000 and 15,000 people a year for assorted drug offenses. In 2009, for example, British national Akmal Shaikh was put to death for smuggling heroin, despite the strong objections of Britain’s then-prime minister, Gordon Brown.

Drug users are tested. If they have illegal drugs in their system there is no trial. They enter a work rehab system and work in one of the mega factories or on a farm. This is why chinese goods are so cheap. There are two opportunities for such rehabilitation programs to work. Upon the third offence the user is considered chronic. He or she works for life. That's why so many commit suicide.

Of course selling or smuggling drugs is separate. That's death as it should be.

 

[Disir]

Privatizing of prisons itself isn't a bad thing, Lobbies in general are.

No aspect of our criminal justice system should be for profit. You don't have any stats anywhere that even comes close to suggesting that the privatization of prisons is not a bad thing. In fact, they say the opposite. That's a myth that needs to die.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Well, it goes hand and hand with the destruction of the family. Kids are growing up thinking it is ok to steal, rape and kill others in much larger numbers.

So do we close down all the prison and allow all of them out?

 

[ScienceRocks]

Privatizing of prisons itself isn't a bad thing, Lobbies in general are.

Why not privatize the justice system and the congress? lol...Dumbass.

 

[JFK_USA]

The 100% occupancy rate is the most frustrating thing. Here is how it will work.

State legislatures make the bills, pass them and the governor signs them.

However, the State's Department of Corrections (Highlighted for a reason) has to deal with the implementation of this new 100% occupancy prison.

So there funds go to this new prison but there are other prisons in the system. But these private prisons hire their own crew (usually non-union guards) so other correction facilities become unoccupied. Then those guards become concerned about their jobs.

So they are very close to police because they meet them during the processing process, maybe become friends. They hear that they might be layoffs because of lack of capacity in the prisons. Well, the police start patrolling for more arrestable offenses to put more people in prisons.

However, not everyone they stop is doing something arrestable. Because of this, you create resentment in the community because they feel violated by the police. Thus leading to anger and frustration in these communities. Which leads to violence towards police and other people. Thus creating the subjects needed to fill the prisons.

Rinse and repeat. It's time to break the cycle.

 

[whitehall]

Why not make a buck from prisons instead of losing money? It's no secret that the U.S. has the most liberal correctional system in the world. Why would lefties object to an even more liberal operation?

 

[Disir]

The 100% occupancy rate is the most frustrating thing. Here is how it will work.

State legislatures make the bills, pass them and the governor signs them.

However, the State's Department of Corrections (Highlighted for a reason) has to deal with the implementation of this new 100% occupancy prison.

So there funds go to this new prison but there are other prisons in the system. But these private prisons hire their own crew (usually non-union guards) so other correction facilities become unoccupied. Then those guards become concerned about their jobs.

So they are very close to police because they meet them during the processing process, maybe become friends. They hear that they might be layoffs because of lack of capacity in the prisons. Well, the police start patrolling for more arrestable offenses to put more people in prisons.

However, not everyone they stop is doing something arrestable. Because of this, you create resentment in the community because they feel violated by the police. Thus leading to anger and frustration in these communities. Which leads to violence towards police and other people. Thus creating the subjects needed to fill the prisons.

Rinse and repeat. It's time to break the cycle.

No. They aren't close to police. The police arrest someone and then they are done. That's why they are called the gate keepers. That's it. Prisons are at the end and under corrections. The tail end. They don't plot with the police. They don't discuss layoffs in any way that suggests that more people should be arrested. Even if they did neither of them have any control over the legislation or sentencing. It is absolutely beyond the pale that this type of collaboration is thought to exist.

Someone within the community asks for more police involvement. This is at the bottom of EVERY stop and frisk issue if you look. If this is not addressed then you haven't dealt with the problem. In fact, it is this very failure to address this half of the equation that leads to frustration and division within the community itself and within the larger national conversation. This Thursday there were 10 separate shootings in Chicago. There were 10 separate shootings in Baltimore on the same night.

Fact, state prison incarceration has been on the decline for a good 8 years. You aren't going to prison for smoking a blunt on the porch.

 

[Disir]

Why not make a buck from prisons instead of losing money? It's no secret that the U.S. has the most liberal correctional system in the world. Why would lefties object to an even more liberal operation?

Except you're losing money not making it. You pay for the lawsuits-not Geo and not CCA.

 

[Dot Com]

Lock em up, and throw away the key!!


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 andCorrections 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 hiredan economic consultant who had been a trustee for a GEO real estate trust.

Read More:
How for-profit prisons have become the biggest lobby no one is talking about - The Washington Post

they've been talked about for years. Your title is mistaken. Jesse jackson Sr. brought up the Prison Industrial Complex over a decade ago kid.

 

[Dragonlady]

These prisons are now contracting out their prisoners in work programs. The prisoners work for pennies per day and the private prisons rake in even more money.

They used to call this slavery. Now it's called rehabilitation. And it takes jobs away from working people who aren't in jail. It gives even more incentive to arrest and incarcerate.

Of course poor people are more likely to be sent to prison because they're the ones who can't afford a decent lawyer to get them off on trumped up charges.

Remember Ferguson? Cops issuing tickets that quickly escalated in costs and saw black people ending up in jail for a broken tail light? Victims complained they lost jobs because they'd been jailed. The rules for traffic court were so complex and obtuse that they didn't even know how it happened.

This is what happens with private prison systems.

 

[Disir]

The Prison Industry Enhancement Certification program of 1979 or PIE. There are loopholes for tax incentives. Bill Clinton also included tax incentives in the 1996 Crime Bill. Bush did it this way:
BP Hires Prison Labor to Clean Up Spill While Coastal Residents Struggle The Nation

 

[natstew]

If we dealt with drug dealers or the way China does we wouldn't have near the problem we do or the crowded prisons.

(quote)
"According to the Drug Policy Alliance, China adheres strictly to its zero tolerance stance on drug use. By some conservative estimates, China executes between 2,000 and 15,000 people a year for assorted drug offenses. In 2009, for example, British national Akmal Shaikh was put to death for smuggling heroin, despite the strong objections of Britain’s then-prime minister, Gordon Brown."

 

[natstew]

There was a time when some State prison systems were self supporting and even profit making for the State. They ran huge farming operations, beef operations, canneries. and textile mills. They clothed and fed themselves, and sold the excess on the open market.
The private sector hired lobbied and bought politicians, and got laws passed that prohibited prisons from selling their products on the public market, unfair competition, they cried. Hospitals, schools, nursing homes, and food banks for the poor can't even take advantage of the less expensive food and clothes from prisons.
We are our own worst enemies.

 

[Dragonlady]

There was a time when some State prison systems were self supporting and even profit making for the State. They ran huge farming operations, beef operations, canneries. and textile mills. They clothed and fed themselves, and sold the excess on the open market.
The private sector hired lobbied and bought politicians, and got laws passed that prohibited prisons from selling their products on the public market, unfair competition, they cried. Hospitals, schools, nursing homes, and food banks for the poor can't even take advantage of the less expensive food and clothes from prisons.
We are our own worst enemies.

The practice was discontinued because it was, in essence, slave labor. The private section lobbied because there was no way they could compete with the prices charged because they had to pay market rates for the work done. It also gave incentive to the prison system to incarcerate sufficient people to give the facilities a large enough labor pool to work the prison farm/factory.

It's still slave labor and ought to be discontinued. All of the reasons for discontinuing the practice in the first place are happening again, except this time, private enterprise is the beneficiary, not the prison system.

 

[Disir]

Or you could place prisoners under the protection of existing labor law so that they have something to do if they wanna and can purchase stuff from the commissary.

 

[SmarterThanTheAverageBear]

Privatizing of prisons itself isn't a bad thing, Lobbies in general are.

No aspect of our criminal justice system should be for profit. You don't have any stats anywhere that even comes close to suggesting that the privatization of prisons is not a bad thing. In fact, they say the opposite. That's a myth that needs to die.

First, I said privatization, not for profit. They are two entirely different things.

Second, I don't think it can be argued that private companies are more cost effective than the USG.

 

[SmarterThanTheAverageBear]

Or you could place prisoners under the protection of existing labor law so that they have something to do if they wanna and can purchase stuff from the commissary.

Now THAT would be a plan. Imagine. Apple could contract a prison to use as a factory to build their IPhone 8. The prisoners work a normal 40 hour shift, and are paid a normal wage, with all other protections afforded employees.

 

[Disir]

Privatizing of prisons itself isn't a bad thing, Lobbies in general are.

No aspect of our criminal justice system should be for profit. You don't have any stats anywhere that even comes close to suggesting that the privatization of prisons is not a bad thing. In fact, they say the opposite. That's a myth that needs to die.

First, I said privatization, not for profit. They are two entirely different things.

Second, I don't think it can be argued that private companies are more cost effective than the USG.

No. They are not. We call it faux privatization.

 

[Disir]

Or you could place prisoners under the protection of existing labor law so that they have something to do if they wanna and can purchase stuff from the commissary.

Now THAT would be a plan. Imagine. Apple could contract a prison to use as a factory to build their IPhone 8. The prisoners work a normal 40 hour shift, and are paid a normal wage, with all other protections afforded employees.

They had been fighting for this at one time. I think it would offer protection all the way around.