Private prison companies strive to keep millions behind bars to keep their profits up.

[PETRUS]

The industry leader in both private prisons and immigrant detention is Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), headquartered at Nashville, Tennessee, with gross revenues in 2010 of $1.69bn. CCA runs 60 prisons for federal, state and local governments, and owns 44 of them. All told they boast a capacity of 85,000 beds in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

<snip>

CCA also is involved in a network of conservative state political organisations that make up the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), until recently sitting on the board of its criminal justice task force and along with a bail bond organisation, working up model bills aimed at making convicted people serve full time, along with the famous three-strikes legislation.

<snip>

According to a third report on private prisons, titled Gaming the System and released earlier this year by the Justice Policy Institute, "Since the 1980s and 1990s, ALEC facilitated the production of model bills focusing on mandatory minimums, three strikes laws (giving 25 years to life in prison for repeat offences), and 'truth-in-sentencing' legislation (requiring people to serve most or all of their time without chance for parole), all of which are significant contributors to the dramatic increase in incarceration in the last 30 years."

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/20111127105458655442.html

More at the link

[Vincardog]

1. WE need to outlaw these corporate pariahs and give them mandatory minimums

[G_j]

dupe

[G_j]

2. K&R

[Obamanaut]

3. There is a vast difference between the "millions" in the subject line

and the "... capacity of 85,000 beds in 19 states and the District of Columbia..." in the message block.

[PETRUS]

6. There are several for profit prison companies

Those are the stats for one company.

And there are still prisons run by the state.

[Obamanaut]

10. If CCA is the largest with 85K capacity, and there are several other private prison

companies, and ONLY about 2 million incarcerated at any one time across the country (city, county, and state), where are the millions for the private prisons?

How do the prisons run by the state(s) contribute to the coffers of the private prisons?

[PETRUS]

13. Here's the point

Laws and enforcement policies that are advanced by the for-profit prison companies affect everyone - i.e., the statement "private prison companies strive to keep millions behind bars to keep their profits up" is factually accurate (convicts may or may not end up in a for-profit facility).

Also, there are over 2.5 million people incarcerated in the US now.

[Obamanaut]

14. My number of "about 2 million" is left over from my days as a prison guard, and

I have admittedly not kept up with the population growth.

If private prisons have a limited, or finite, number of available beds, advancing policies that increase incarceration rates will not greatly affect the private prison bottom line, because they cannot house the additional inmates.

[PETRUS]

16. Like all for-profit businesses

CCA and others have plans for growth.

[lonestarnot]

28. And at least one is in thick with the Gov. of AZ

[Old and In the Way]

7. Only a question of time, though.

Capacity can be scaled up pretty quickly if enough politicians are bought.

[Old and In the Way]

4. Only in America do we put a profit incentive on punishment, health, and education.

This is how we will fall into a 3rd world category. The golden goose is cooked and the pate is pretty much eaten.

[SammyWinstonJack]

5. What a shit country this is, in so many ways.

Evny of the World............:rofl:

[glinda]

26. +1

[Angry Dragon]

8. Why isn't the RICO ACT being used against ALEC??

[KT2000]

9. farmers want prison labor

since the immigrant workers are no longer doing the work. Wonder how large the prison population will be at harvest time now. Will there be a rash of sentences at the end of summer or will they hold them over from one season to the next.
The new slavery is on the way.

[PETRUS]

12. The new slavery & the new Jim Crow

A plug for a good organization:

http://endnewjimcrow.com/

[duhneece]

19. Joined!

Our NAACP branch just donated a copy of this book to our public library...and got a picture in our local newspaper.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. When the profit motive is involved

and the profiteers acquire an undue influence over the lawmakers, things like the prison-industrial complex, the military industrial complex, and the oil and gas complex to the detriment of green technology get expanded out of hand. I'm not opposed to making a profit, but I want the profiteers controlled by government so that their interests don't trump the natural interests of society.

[redqueen]

15. Well said. (nt)

[newspeak]

17. remember the judge in PA?

There is no justice when the rule of law is subverted by profit. Running prisons for profit and incarcerating more people using our tax dollars, some people who have committed petty crimes or incarcerating children who have done nothing more than be truant from school, is a gross injustice. The more corporations take over the public sector, the more our rights are diminished for profit and the more political power goes to corporations over people.

[duhneece]

20. Yup, we need to treat addiction from a public health pov

Allowing (or encouraging?) profits for prisons is wrong.

[grasswire]

18. the love of money is INDEED the root of all evil n/t

[firehorse]

21. Are these the prisons Dick Cheney owns or did someone else get these gov contracts

There is something unethical about the idea of government farming out to for profits businesses and its especially hinky when prisoners are required for profitability.

[Initech]

22. The pursuit of these crazy profits are going to kill us all.

[McCamy Taylor]

23. They want all hot check writers and pot smokers in jail for life. The violent criminals

they would just as soon parole.

I suspect that the only reason pot is not legal, is because a pot smoker is such a model prisoner since it is not a drug of addiction. Like jailing guys who kick back a few beers on the weekend. Easy money.

[Uncle Joe]

24. The for profit prison system; is anathema to the concept of individual rights and freedom, this

malignancy has no redeeming value and as it grows, so will its' corruptive ability to separate "We the People's" government from the people via bribery/lobbying.

If anything should be outlawed, it would be for profit prisons.

Thanks for the thread, PETRUS.

[jmowreader]

25. We have one of those private prisons in Idaho. One.

This state is full of "privatize EVERYTHING!" people, so a few years ago they hired CCA to build one medium-security prison. It's called the Idaho Correctional Center.

It is the most expensive prison in the state, because catching escaped prisoners and hospitalizing assaulted ones costs serious money and ICC has more escapes and assaults than every other prison in the state, combined.

No one's eager for any more private prisons here, especially the state government.

[lonestarnot]

27. Question was posed re this same matter by Senator (Democrat can't remember who) Sentencing

guidelines were used as the excuse. Hmmmmf! SCOTUS doesn't have to answer for anything or anyone. So full of shit and we just have to contend or fight.

[G_j]

29. k

[woo me with science]

30. K&R Applying a profit motive to a JUSTICE system is never a good idea.

[blkmusclmachine]

31. Follow the $$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$.

[Islandlife]

32. Why has the American news media ignored this?

[Raksha]

33. K & R

[bvar22]

34. Private Prisons are an insult to a Free Democracy.

!



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
Solidarity99!
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