Does this seem right to you?
Private prisons in some states have language in their contracts that state if they fall below a certain percentage of capacity that the states must pay the private prisons millions of dollars, lest they face a lawsuit for millions more.
And guess what? The private prisons, which are holding cash-starved states hostage, are getting away with it, says advocacy group, In the Public Interest.
In the Public Interest has reviewed more than 60 contracts between private prison companies and state and local governments across the country, and found language mentioning “quotas” for prisoners in nearly two-thirds of those contracts reviewed. Those quotas can range from a mandatory occupancy of, for example, 70 percent occupancy in California to up to 100 percent in some prisons in Arizona.
Think about this from your perspective as a taxpayer.
Well, if you had a business that really couldn’t be profitable without going against the public interest, you’d cross all your t’s and dot your i’s too, wouldn’t you.
This is a very good example of something that should never, ever be privatized.
We shouldn’t have private prisons, police or courts. These are fundamental government functions. What’s next? Private legislatures? Private armies? Private nuclear weapons?
“Private legislatures?”
We have that already, it’s called Congress
Not quite, but in development according to Charles P. Pierce
Oh, my lookee here: ALEC Funding Crisis …
From the list of what they think can be done:
Shouldn’t it be illegal for legislators to be members of any organization such as ALEC?
Private armies? What is Blackwater and all those other “security” contractors that the US hires for foreign duty? Then there are the mercenaries hired by US covert ops to effect regime change in any country with a government that doesn’t do as we say.
And schools. Trust me as I’m about to get steamrolled.
Check out the OECD PISIA 2012 report. Deserves a diary. Are you interested in doing it?
Sounds an awful lot like the shitty deal the city of Cincinnati cut with Mike Brown to keep the Bengals in town.
Think about this from your perspective as a taxpayer.
In California, this can only be blamed on Democrats. But regardless, the lawmakers that voted for this deserve to be tarred and feathered.
Would say that it was bi-partisan. Did began with the GOP running on getting tough on crime decades ago. Then Democrats responded with “we can do that too.” Add in the initiatives to lock up more people that voters went for and a couple of decades of GOP Governors and enough GOP and “moderate” legislators built on that. Stealing funds from education to lock up drug users. A positive feedback loop run amok.
short answer: no. long answer: not, it’s not right
This is pretty much par for the course these days. Look at the Chicago Parking Meter deal: that has provisions for CPM to sue the city for closing a street for maintence or a parade. They all try to get clauses that force governments to pay if they are not making as much money as they hoped. And the corporate dems are all to happy to go along with the scam.
Boy, am I glad our abusive lock-em-up culture is finally working its way up on the progressive agenda. We’ve been looking away on these issues for too long.
it’s not going to really be fixed until drug reform, though. That’s where their “customers” are coming from.
Ohio’s Asshole, I mean Governor Kasich, is King of Privatization. Look how well it’s working for Ohio!
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/04/10/1843291/over-18-months-nations-first-privately-owned-sta
te-prison-has-declined-rapidly/
He basically annihilated the chance for a new lightrail system, and has gone on to make sure his corporate buddies have done well by privatizing prisons, schools, and creating more toll roads.
I hate this guy.
I’m quite familiar with just how not right this is here in Florida. I found out through connecting some dots in my own field of work the very same company doing Florida’s prison contract is in the mosquito raising business, for something similar to sterile medfly release. Why would a prison contractor be interested in growing mosquitoes? I see inmate labor exploitation as the next logical step to this. Why else would they require fully “staffed” prisons? It would seem to me that running a prison would be more profitable with fewer inmates.
they’re already doing inmate labor. and they sell prisons as a “business” to depressed rural regions, then undercut what employment remains in the place by having the prisoners work for sub wages.
If I was in the private prison business and I needed to commit to a service level agreement with the state for care and security of prisoners I would demand some agreement on the number of prisoners I would care for.
That is logical.
The rub is on the number we pick and what happens if the state exceeds or misses the number. It is an economic decision business make all the time, especially in outsource situations. It is not weird.
But…
This is not a conversation the state should have at all because it create at minimum the appearance of conflict of interest for the state when it comes to determining guilt or innocence and proper sentencing. That is something people should never question and as practical fact is proving to be a problem.
Ah, I have been wondering why no one in our government has yet to suggest a massive prisoner exchange. When you consider almost 30% of our prison population are not citizens…that billions of wasted tax dollars.
Screw looking at it from the taxpayer perspective.
I look at it from the free human being perspective.
Someone making money from me being in jail isn’t a good thing.