If the First Paragraph of This Alone Doesn't Give You Chills..It's Like a Horror Film

[jpbollma]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-03-01/buying-prisons-require-high-occupancy/53402894/1?AID=4992781&PID=4003003&SID=3avsj698wk49#.UDZ1EC-fLQQ.mailto

This is fascism folks. Not even hidden anymore. Truly disgusting and terrifying. If it isn't the government choking more money out of people by fees and increasing ticketing, it's private industry literally enslaving people. We aren't in Kansas anymore..

[Speck Tater]

1. A good reason to start throwing bankers into prison. nt

[99th_Monkey]

42. +100 ~nt

[dotymed]

72. So true, but we all know better. It will be the poor who populate the prisons

just as it is now, with a few minor exceptions.
I remember when CCA first came into middle TN., I was barely an adult. I was in college and I knew a few lawyers and judges. I attended some parties where they were present. Most of them used illegal drugs and chased college students (most were married). They spoke of CCA as an investment opportunity that was "a sure thing."
A few years later, I was on trial for back-child support. I had been giving my ex-wife cash weekly and she claimed that I had never paid her..I know, my mistake.
I was ordered to pay back child support and I was put on probation with CCA. I drove an RC Cola truck for about 15 hours a day. CCA said it was "no problem," they would work around my schedule so that I could report weekly and (of course) pay them my probation fee's. They lied. They never attempted to allow me to meet them after work although I sent my fee's in diligently.
They violated my probation 3 times. I ended up doing a year of weekends in a disgustingly unsanitary basement in the jail (filled to over-capacity), the sewage from the cells above us constantly leaked on us and we had to sleep on the floor...
I believe that lawyers, judges and bankers are the biggest stockholders in CCA, although IMO this would create a huge conflict of interest for the legal professionals.
We, the poor and (at the time) working poor are chattel that these vampires live on. This "deal" would only serve to solidify that relationship.
On my very last day of incarceration and the end of my probation, a jailer (who was very sadistic) decided to violate me because I was 15 minutes late. People were always late and were released after their 48 hours were served.
That was the day that I moved (in the middle of the night) to Indiana for the next 2 decades. I have since returned, because my family (sick mother) lives here. This place is still the same. It is a nightmare and I understand that the "good ol' boy system" that now has women too, is even worse than before..

[RoccoR5955]

98. throw them out of windows

not into prison. They will pay off their jailers if you throw them into prison.

[porphyrian]

2. Behold, the Prison Industrial Complex! n/t

[enough]

3. For context, here's the paragraph:

WASHINGTON – At a time when states are struggling to reduce bloated prison populations and tight budgets, a private prison management company is offering to buy prisons in exchange for various considerations, including a controversial guarantee that the governments maintain a 90% occupancy rate for at least 20 years.

The $250 million proposal, circulated by the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America to prison officials in 48 states, has been blasted by some state officials who suggest such a program could pressure criminal justice officials to seek harsher sentences to maintain the contractually required occupancy rates.

much more at link

[Scuba]

6. The Corrections Corporation of America. Doesn't Jan Brewer work for them?

[mountain grammy]

47. They sure helped elect her, so I would say yes?

[sabrina 1]

19. That is Draconian. They are literally buying people, enslaving them. They are also

lobbying for laws to criminalize human behavior to ensure they keep their profits high.

If you read about this happening in some other country, you would be horrified.

This should be on the media every single night and day until something is done to stop it.

This should be criminal. It is criminal, but there should be laws against the purchasing of human beings, I thought there were actually.

[gateley]

31. "If you read about this happening in some other country, you would be horrified."

This, and many other atrocities that are occurring in our country. It's surreal.

[truedelphi]

44. And every single element of society, that is

Managed by the One Percent, has gone out of control.

Why? Because they can! Because no one in either party will stop them. The white collar, elite criminal element has done nothing but buy out all the elected officials, such that despite the vast amount of illegal happenings inside the banking and financial sector, Eric Holder stands back and lets them do as they will. Fewer white collar bad guys (and gals) have been indicted than at any other time in the previous twenty years...

Yet that same Eric Holder was all over the Medical Marijuana clinics. Shutting them down, and putting people out of work - WHY!?!

So now the Big Prison Industry is raising its nasty head. Wake up, people. If you think this is a democracy. I have some underwater mortgages I could sell you on a bridge, yeah, that's the ticket!

I want to have someone tell me where the process in America acts like a democracy? Maybe in Vermont, but that's about it.

[sabrina 1]

55. Excellent post, I agree with every word. There simply are no adequate words to describe

the outrage I feel over these atrocities that have the stamp of approval of our Government. Or for anyone who in any way tries to defend them or ignore them.

[The Doctor.]

100. +++++++++

It is blatant corruption.

[RKP5637]

4. Americans are truly fucked if this continues. Damn, I wish Americans would get their heads

out of the sand.

[grasswire]

7. speechless here n/t

[CrispyQ]

8. This:

"My concern would be that our state would be obligated to maintain these (occupancy) rates and subtle pressure would be applied to make sentencing laws more severe with a clear intent to drive up the population," Werholtz said.

Profit in locking up citizens - what the fuck could go wrong there? And with their new billions in profit they can lobby Congress to draft more draconian drug laws to lock up pot smokers.

[Casandia]

18. You are spot on

That was my thought too. Keep marijuana illegal so that money keeps flowing into the system - the lawyers, the courts, the prisons....

[Scootaloo]

56. Pot smokers?

Try having melanin in your skin.

[dixiegrrrrl]

77. AND they use the prison labor to make more money

Quite a few stories about that of late, using prisoners to make various products, at the rate of 5 cents or so an hour.

[CrispyQ]

83. Yes & some work for free to take time off their sentence!

People don't even know about this because they have been so conditioned to believe that everyone who is locked up deserves it. They don't think about profiling & draconian drug laws as ways to keep our for-profit-prison systems full. Not until it happens to them or someone they know.

I just don't know how to get through to people. My friends all think I'm a radical. I mostly keep my mouth shut or their eyes start to roll. More & more & I have fewer & fewer friends.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. ugly

[Lint Head]

10. We live in a police state. It is tightening it's tentacles around us everyday.

For the people who think we are not and this is just hyperbole and rhetoric please enjoy your incarceration. Guilt being determined before the crime is committed is not just a movie script. Google will reveal all you need to know about the coming future robotic drone overlords, the genetic and visual profiling of those that will commit crimes in the future, corporate loan sharking to the government to control prisons, who goes to a particular prison and when a prisoner will be released.

[Canuckistanian]

11. How TF do you "maintain occupancy rates"?

Do you start jailing jaywalkers and speeder limit offenders when you run out of actual criminals?

[kestrel91316]

16. Easy. Crack down on medical cannabis. Those folks won't even be able to fight back.

[woo me with science]

76. Yup. And create a surveillance state. nt

[JoeyT]

58. Yeah, pretty much.

You find some random harmless thing that's mostly only done by poor people, whip idiots into a frenzy with fearmongering "Special Reports" from the morons on your nightly news (WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN!?!?!?!), and criminalize it.

They probably wouldn't just give jail time for speeding. It's more likely they'd jack the fines up so virtually no one could afford them, and jail you for not paying them. Wait, they're already doing that in some places. Never mind.

[CrispyQ]

68. You take your billions in profit & lobby Congress for laws to lock up Citizens.

And they comply.

[Blue_Tires]

71. The war on drugs has been keeping a lot of people locked up...

More than a couple of commentators/filmmakers have noted the the ugly 3-headed monster of the private prison corporations, the war on drugs, and "tough on crime" politicians keeps growing and feeding itself...

[Sekhmets Daughter]

88. California's prison population

is bursting at the seems because of 3 strikes and your out...given a long mandatory sentence. Today only about 7% of the prison population is there due to violent crime....So the states will simply write laws to give longer sentences to non-violent crime....You might want to read "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" by Michelle Alexander.

[Canuckistanian]

95. Ah, that's the key...

Longer sentences. That works just as well.

Frightening.

[robbob]

96. I heard a great radio interview

...forget the name of the book, sorry, but it's author was recounting a very ugly period following the civil war when many southern states (maybe all across the US?) implemented draconian laws intended to basically re-enslave the black population by imposing harsh prison sentences for relatively minor offences.

Loitering on a street corner, being out (and black) after a certain time of night, being unemployed, probably many other examples I can't think off right now; any of these could get you 2-5 years jail time. Then these "criminals" would be rented out to cotton plantations and coal mines to do virtually slave-labour in what would often end up being a life-sentence.

We're often fed the story about how Lincoln "freed the slaves"; how many Americans know about this shameful attempt to re-enslave them through the legal system? And it looks like it's happening all over again.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

104. Slavery by Another Name

by Douglas A Blackmon. Another good read is "The New Jim Crow"

[HiPointDem]

12. kr. and with the growth in for-profit prison industries (not just making things for the government

anymore), it = concentration/labor camps. In fact, we're already there.


Anderson (South carolina) Stops Shipping Prison-Labor Produced Products to Canada

Anderson Hardwood Floors (Clinton, S.C.) has stopped shipping wood flooring produced using prison labor into Canada, according to a memorandum from Melmart Distributors Inc. addressed to dealers of Anderson's Appalachian, Virginia Vintage, Biltmore and eponymous brands.

Anderson has not indicated which flooring lines are affected by the stoppage; however, Melmart wrote in its memorandum that the following lines are not manufactured using prison labor and are, therefore, still available in Canada:

Brevard
Bryson/Smoky Mountain
Casitablanca
Coastal Range
Jack's Creek/Eagleton
Southern Vista
Urban Pioneer

Under Canada Border Services Agency's (CBSA) Memorandum D9-1-6, "Goods Manufactured or Produced Wholly or in Part by Prison Labour," the importation of goods manufactured or produced wholly or in part by prison labor is prohibited.

http://hardwoodfloorsmag.com/editors/blog/default.aspx?id=889

[fishwax]

13. wow

[awoke_in_2003]

26. yet. nt

[dotymed]

80. I think we would be amazed at the occupations of the shareholders.

I would bet that many legislators are shareholders. We are like Russia after the fall of the USSR and it is getting worse. The wealthy and the conservatives are determined to destroy what is left of America. For profit of course.
I wish that the MSM would report how many(usually wealthy) Americans are denouncing their citizenship.

[dotymed]

102. Sadly, insider trading is perfectly legal for Congress.

[The Midway Rebel]

15. k & r

The inmates are running the asylum.

[1StrongBlackMan]

17. I recently rented a ...

movie with a predominate African-American cast (I do that a lot).

The premise of the movie was an African-American gang-banger is acused of the murder of a child during a home invasion. The movie's protagonist is a former Public Defender that has moved on to promoting his wife's charter school. The protagonist's sister convinces him to defend her boy-friend, the gang-banger.

The protagonist discovers that a shadowy organization that is promoting a three strikes/mandatory sentencing for violent acts kind of law is connected to the shooting and has framed the gang-banger.

The protagonist proves the connection and gets the gang-banger off. I know ... pretty bad; but the final scene of the movie has the guy connected to the shadowy organization meeting a couple other guys at a private airport terminal, telling them "pack up ... our client wants us in Arizona." One of the other guys asks, "More three strike?", and the bad guy says, "Nope, immigration."

As a resident of Arizona, I am aware that the push for SB1070 coincided with the push for private prisons and those things didn't just put up out of thin air ... they were coordinated.

[Th1onein]

20. Oh. My. God. You're right. It's fascism and it's HERE.

I can't believe Ohio would do something like that. It's just wrong.

[meow2u3]

21. It's time to shut down these corporate concentration camps

If Rmoney is installed, God forbid, next thing you'll know, his puppetmasters will create a secret police and snatch people off the streets just to fill their torture camps.

[jpbollma]

22. This will be ugly

The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.
FDR

[socialindependocrat]

66. The Koch Bros are trying to buy the country right now..

I get the feeling that Romney is just a puppet and the super pacs are tring to buy the election.

The super pacs are funded by a lot of Koch money.

If Romney gets in, the Koch Bros will just tell him what to do and say. They, essentially, will own the country.

Not trying to give you bad dreams

but...

Get out there and vote!!

[riverbendviewgal]

23. They are going to be putting people in jail for not paying their debts

We are going back to the times of Charles Dickens.

Has anyone been watching THE GOOD WIFE...excellent smart woman lawyer show? One episode had a judge who was putting in kids for minor reasons in private correctional institutions for kickbacks......

http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/08/cash-for-kids-judge-gets-28-year-jail-sentence/

former Pennsylvania judge who rendered guilty verdicts in exchange for over $1 million in kickbacks from a for-profit youth rehabilitation center will spend up to 28 years in prison, following his sentencing hearing last Thursday.

Over the weekend, CNN sat down with the mother of one of his victims, a young man who was so distraught by his unjust incarceration that he committed suicide.

“It’s justice in the sense that he is going to pay for what we’ve been dealing with for the last eight years,” Sandy Fonzo, the boy’s mother, told the network. “True justice, I don’t think there could ever be. He’ll never live the sentence that I live.

[vlyons]

24. It's the republican plan

to start bringing jobs back to America. Slave labor.

[riverbendviewgal]

25. Here is a video on the judges convicted for kickbacks

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/2/22/judge_convicted_in_pennsylvania_kids_for


interview of mother whose son committed suicide.

PRINTER-FRIENDLYTRANSCRIPT |
A federal jury has found a former Pennsylvania judge guilty of participating in a so-called "kids for cash" scheme, in which he received money in exchange for sending juvenile offenders to for-profit youth jails over the years. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella, Jr., was convicted Friday of accepting bribes and kickbacks for putting juveniles into detention centers operated by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western Pennsylvania Child Care. Ciavarella and another judge, Michael Conahan, are said to have received $2.6 million for their efforts. Ciavarella faces a maximum sentence of 157 years in prison, in addition to a class action lawsuit on behalf of the youths’ families. For more on this story, we are joined by Marsha Levick of the Juvenile Law Center and to Sandy Fonzo, who believes her son’s suicide was related to his treatment by Ciavarella. [includes rush transcript]

[Patiod]

89. Given the OP, this might become legal

seriously.

I am against the death penalty, but if I were for it, this would be the type of people it would be good for. These judges ruined more lives than your average serial killer.

[valerief]

27. The US never got rid of slavery. nt

[robbob]

97. See my post above

re: the incarceration of freed slaves for minor offences in order to run the plantations and coal mines. Virtual slavery through unjust laws. Aside from the demonization of relatively harmless substances aka pot, what has really changed?

[Volaris]

28. Isn't the idea of a (modern) Prison System...

to keep the Prison Population as LOW as possible? I mean, if the idea is that a prison is a mostly closed environment in which rehabilitation can be achieved, so that repeat offenses don't occur, this idea FAILS.
Even if you disagree with the above statement, and believe that prison time is an act of straight punishment for crimes committed, that punishment costs society money, and therefore, you want the prison population as low as possible, reserved ONLY for those who CANNOT function in an open society under almost ANY circumstances (see Charlie Manson). And if THAT is your measure, again, this just FAILS.

The maintenance of a Prison System is a Public RESPONSIBILITY, no matter how distasteful it might sometimes be. The idea that that Civic Responsibility can be outsourced for a quick buck destroys the very idea of Civic Maintenance. The thing that strikes me as truly sad about this is that people think this is somehow NEW. Congress has decided to outsource the decision to make War (to the Executive) because its politically easier, and that same Congress (as a body politic) has outsourced responsibility for maintenance of the economy to Wall Street and The Fed instead of the Treasury. (I'm NOT a Paul-bot, BTW)
It's not a new idea, it's just found a nice, new mechanism of implementation. Whatever Public Servant who agreed to this in the first place should be fired, put INTO that prison, and kept there until he can pass a basic Theory of Government class.

We get the Government we deserve. The problem, is, half of the Morans don't think we should really have one at all, and the other half apparently all work on Wall Street.

[skypilot]

29. Well, they should start with...

...that Federal Bureau of Prisons director in the picture.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-03-31/news/29386379_1_dui-bust-harley-lappin-federal-prison-system

[avebury]

32. K&R nt

[jpbollma]

34. Can We All

form a pact that we will not support democrats who would support this? I don't think that is too much to ask. We cannot let this be. We are losing to fascism.

[Bainbridge Bear]

33. "Forget it, Jake

it's Chinatown."

[defacto7]

35. Conformity

It's all about conformity. One thing to do would be to find your conformist group that follows the conformist agenda, like your conformist church, or conformist political activist group that can watch their community to make sure that everyone is conforming to the agenda. Make sure you are following the conformist party line and clap when it's appropriate and boo when it's appropriate. Make sure you buy only from approved conformist suppliers and never to those who may possibly have been seen not conforming to the agenda. Keep strict notes about your neighbours to make sure they conform.
These new private prison units are perfectly suited to make sure everyone conforms and that non-conformists are held securely away from those who properly conform to the agenda.

OR....

War.

[Smilo]

36. Talk about buy now

pay later.

Of course, those doing the paying will be those who are the most wicked - their guilt - being poor/being black and/or brown, being uneducated.

Instead of imprisoning anybody and everybody - how many are imprisoned because of smoking pot - they should be looking at different ways of doing this. More worker release camps - where workers have to report during their free hours - usually nights and weekends - while staying employed and contributing to society.

[tclambert]

37. Oh, c'mon. The profit motive never, ever leads to evil. What could possibly go wrong?

Let's see, here's a partial list:

1) Prison officials will charge for prisoners who don't exist or have died in custody.
2) Prison officials will find ways to add years to prisoners' sentences for manufactured infractions, especially when the prison population looks like it will drop.
3) Prisoners will be shorted on food, clothing, and medical care because those things cost money.
4) Prison operators will dramatically raise rates when they trap the state into having to use their services.
5) Guards will only get a little "on the job" training, meaning no real training at all.
6) Prisoners who complain or try to file lawsuits over brutal treatment will disappear or die in "accidents."
7) Eventually, the weight of paying legal penalties and corruption will force the federal government to step in and take over the prisons.

[defacto7]

45. add to that..

The money to be made through prison labour; they could make Apple products. Maybe an extra vote or two could be squeezed from those prisoners who are "allowed" to vote.

... and then there's soylent green..

[dixiegrrrrl]

79. Many of those things actually have happened.

The British prison system in the 18th century....you know, before "prison reform" came about.

[gollygee]

38. Not everything should be privatized

And here is a clear example of one of those things, and why

[DaveJ]

39. I'm not going to feign outrage over this.

If all prisons required occupancy then I'd understand. If it's just some of them, then no big deal. And Even if all prisons were private, it is simply a contract that would require the government to pay the owners if the occupancy fell below a certain level. It is not a guarantee that people will be imprisoned to keep occupancy rates high. It means that if prisoner levels fall then government owned prisons will be the first to let them go.

I'm not going to pretend to be shocked over this. There are plenty of other much more shocking things happening. And if we need to build more prison to lock of the likes of Cheney, Rove, Romney, Bush, etc, then I'm all for it. Actually, there are petty scam artists ruining things for the rest of us too.

[dotymed]

81. Wow, do you actually think that people like Cheney, Rove,Romney and Bush

will ever be incarcerated? Really? Good luck.
No prisons should be privatized. The guards are underpaid and unaccountable. Prisoners are POS, no matter their crime. Corporations are paid huge money to house inmates in the very cheapest way possible...
America has the largest prison population in the world and we have a small percentage of the worlds population. We are told continually how America's crime rates drop every year...

[stupidicus]

40. that's just one of many indications

and none of them happened overnight.

who here needed Britt http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm to ID them? The encroachment has been slow, but unmistakable imo.

[yardwork]

41. It is horrible.

[47of74]

43. My answer to that...

My answer to that...

Amendment XXVIII

Section 1. The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution is hereby replaced with the following sections.

Section 2. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 3. There shall be no private operation in any form whatsoever of correctional institutions or correctional programs within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Operation of correctional institutions or other correctional programs shall be the sole providence of city, county, state, or Federal entities. Upon ratification of this amendment, private organizations in control of correctional institutions or programs shall turn over such operations to proper government authorities.

Section 4. Violation of this amendment by individuals shall be punishable by life imprisonment or death as may be directed by a court.

Section 5. Organizations based within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction found in violation of this amendment shall be subject to dissolution. Organizations based outside the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction shall be barred from operating within the United States for a period of at least five hundred years.

[npk]

46. In a normal society we would be working to keep people out of prison

But here in good ol' America we are working to keep the occupancy up.

[DreamGypsy]

48. 90% occupancy will be easy to maintain. The charter schools...

The charter schools will provide a constant flow of poorly educated individuals who will turn to crime as their only option when they cannot find a job.

The ACLU and other advocacy organizations are working on a Prisoners Bill of Rights and on trying to establish oversight mechanisms for the private prison system.

Joan Baez wrote the song Prison Trilogy in 1972. This video is from Sing-Sing. Look at the faces of the men in the audience as they listen to someone telling their stories.

Help us raze, raze the prisons to the ground!!

[Astazia]

49. I want to be wrong re: Debbie Wasserman Schultz & CCA

But now I've read enough to ask someone to help me post a link or the articles re: private prisons & democrats. Please help me as I've tried from my Android phone & have lost three posts before posting & am so frustrated! The articles I've read were on www.Blogspot.com under DWT [e-mail]. My father is/was a holocaust survivor. (rest in peace daddy) & he was a democrat. I read this & other articles re: Debbiewassermanschultz, DNC Chair, & FL congresswoman I knew y'all needed to see it. I am a 56 yr old first generation American, & money combined with ambition scares me to death. Would someone with skills fat superior to my own please post the links for me so that people can see how fat private prisons are in our party. There is a section where debbi ewassermanschultz' ambition to be the first Jewish speaker of the house not unlike her mentor, former congressman & now Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago. Full disclosure: I am a Jewish woman who liked how she was with Gabby, & how she was great on political shows, but we need to know those we support and once I saw this thread,I went back to look up what I thought I'd seen & hopefully you all will get to read it once link ours posted.This whole thing worries me a lot. Thanks for be so great on these things that matter.

[Astazia]

50. sorry for spelling errors above was trying swipe and wanted NOT to lose post for.4th time

Substitute far for fat. In our politics not our politics

Sowwy cell phone wouldn't scroll to edit. I am a spellionk bea champyon

[sabrina 1]

57. I have not read anything about Debbie Wasserman Schultz wrt to the private prison industry.

But I have never been a fan of hers for various other reasons. I will definitely do some research though, as there is no way anyone who is supporting this atrocity should be a member of our party.

[aka-chmeee]

51. Are You Sure?

Remember who is governor here? Sounds like it could be Kansas to me.

[colorado_ufo]

52. Holy sh_t!

[tavalon]

53. That's totally wrong and FUBAR.

[DearHeart]

54. "in exchange for various considerations" ?

Number one, how do you guarantee a 90% occupancy rate? Trumped up charges? Harsher sentences? Number two, what are the other "various considerations"?

[DLine]

59. This should bother every person in this country..

Land of the free? Whoever told you that is your enemy.

We are 5% of the worlds population yet have 25% of its prisoners. The highest incarceration rate in the world. Not even Russia or Iran incarcerate a higher percentage of their citizens than we do. Why is this? Because we have decided to profit from locking people up.

[Gabby Hayes]

60. Wackenhut prison rapefest

Despite clear warnings from people all over Texas, Wackenhut was once allowed to actually run a women's prison here. Guess what happened next? CCA is purported to be Wackenhut's chief competitor.

[xxqqqzme]

61. So the state gets 72.7 million by 'selling' the prison

Then the state has the 'honor' of paying these corporate assh*les 3.8 million a year in monthly 'fees'. So in 19.1 years the 72.7 million has been handed back to these assh*les.

72.7 million to a state w/ a projected 8 Billion shortfall - that isn't even a dent!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

62. Capitalism to the extreme is as bad as Communism to the extreme,...

....Communism fell because the people said, "We can't go on living like this anymore." and the same will happen to Capitalism.

[blkmusclmachine]

63. Sieg Heil, mutherf/ckers.

[CRH]

64. OK by me as long as they stock it with politicians. n/t

[6502]

65. [YO, FOLKS! READ THE COMMENTS AT THE OP's LINK!!!]

Sorry for the all caps there, but I decided to read the comments just for the heck of it.

I was expecting the usual RW bromides in support of it....


Instead, it was it was consistently AGAINST it.

People who appeared to be from both the right and the left all agreeing that corporate involvement would be bad.

Trust me... you have to read it to believe it.

[ck4829]

67. Hey, it's the free market... Wait, what?

[Javaman]

69. Conscription prison service.

"yeah, I got my draft notice. I'm in for 2 years."

[CanonRay]

70. I'm speechless.

A guaranteed occupancy rate at a prison? If I hadn't read it myself, I'd be thinking The Onion. I am for once truly shocked, something I did not think possible any longer.

[csziggy]

73. Private prisons are so bad even the Florida legislature turned them down

Florida already has privately run prisons, but when a bill trying to add more with guaranteed populations came up, the legislators actually voted it down!

Largest Private Prison Bill In History Dies In Florida Senate Despite Million Dollar Lobbying Campaign

By Scott Keyes on Feb 16, 2012 at 10:15 am

The largest proposed expansion of private prisons in the nation will not proceed after the Florida Senate voted down the proposal on Tuesday.

Though the GOP enjoys a 16-seat advantage in Florida’s upper chamber, nine Republicans joined twelve Democrats to defeat the massive prison privatization bill 21-19. The Miami Herald has more:

The state will not undertake what would have been the single greatest expansion of prison privatization in U.S. history, affecting 27 prisons and work camps in 18 counties and displacing more than 3,500 correctional officers.

Senators debated privatization for nearly three hours, and opponents’ floor speeches often showed more passion. Rather than talk about numbers, they talked about people, such as the treatment of correctional officers, whose starting salary is $34,000 a year and who have not received an across-the-board pay raise for the past six years.

“What’s wrong with state employees?” said Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Seminole. “We should be taking care of them, rather than kicking them under the bus.”

More: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/02/16/426481/private-prison-florida-senate/

[tk2kewl]

74. K&R

[truebrit71]

75. This is so wrong on so many levels....holy fuck!!!

[woo me with science]

78. This is what happens when you let corporations buy government.

You get corporate fascism.

Wake the HELL up, America.

[The Wizard]

82. Vonnegut warned against this

in his 1990 novel, Hocus Pocus.

[Blue Owl]

84. Hey Private Prison Profiteers: FUCK YOU

Try making some money in a decent, honest, civil way, you POS vultures...

YOU just may be contributing to the downfall of society more than the people you seek to fill your prisons with.

[The Wizard]

85. This falls right into line

with those traditional Republican values of slave auctions and witch burnings.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

86. Rachel Maddow has reported on this.

[Greybnk48]

90. Prisons cannot be private

or this will invariably happen. It's a no brainer for most.

[Catherine Vincent]

91. Any recent news on this?

This is outrageous.

[L0oniX]

92. God bless America.

[EvilAL]

93. There was another thread before about this and

I believe it said somewhere that the contract was that they would be paid as if the prison was at 90% capacity, whether or not it was. Whether this will make the States incarcerate more people to make sure they are "getting their money's worth" remains to be seen. If ,for example, the prison was at 75% capacity, the company would still be paid as if it was at 90%. It would be in the comapnies better interest for less prisoners since they would profit more..
Maybe I'm wrong on this, but I seem to recall that.. I still think it's insane to privatize prisons for profit.. Just reeks of trouble.

[jillan]

94. Here in Az - first came the Private Prisons, then came SB1070 - and yes, Bruja is making $$

off of private prisons.

http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2012/04/22/faith-leaders-call-out-brewer-over-private-prisons


And in the meantime, Bachmann gets a free pass running around the country saying that the President has gulags.

[Rider3]

99. Terrifying

Prisons-for-profit will lead to more innocent people being left to fend for themselves in prison. Medical care and prisons should NEVER be made private, for profit. This is a dangerous slope we're going down.

[KansDem]

101. Have we forgotten about the "Kids for Cash" scandal?

The "Kids for cash" scandal unfolded in 2008 over judicial kickbacks at the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Two judges, President Judge Mark Ciavarella and Senior Judge Michael Conahan, were accused of accepting money from Robert Mericle, builder of two private, for-profit juvenile facilities, in return for contracting with the facilities and imposing harsh sentences on juveniles brought before their courts in order to ensure that the detention centers would be utilized.[1][2] Ciavarella and Conahan pleaded guilty on February 13, 2009, pursuant to a plea agreement, to federal charges of honest services fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States (failing to report income to the Internal Revenue Service, known as tax evasion) in connection with receiving $2.6 million in payments from managers at PA Child Care in Pittston Township and its sister company Western PA Child Care in Butler County.[3][4] The plea agreement was later voided by a federal judge, who was dissatisfied with the post-plea conduct of the defendants, and the two judges charged subsequently withdrew their guilty pleas, raising the possibility of a criminal trial.[5]

A federal grand jury in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania returned a 48 count indictment[6] against Ciavarella and Conahan including racketeering, fraud, money laundering, extortion, bribery and federal tax violations on September 9, 2009.[7][8] Conahan entered a revised guilty plea to one count of racketeering conspiracy in July 2010.[9] In a verdict reached at the conclusion of a jury trial, Ciavarella was convicted February 18, 2011 on 12 of the 39 counts he faced.[10][11]

Following the original plea agreement, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered an investigation of the cases handled by the judges and following its outcome overturned several hundred convictions of youths in Luzerne County.[12] The Juvenile Law Center filed a class action lawsuit against the judges and numerous other parties, and the state legislature created a commission to investigate the wide-ranging juvenile justice problems in the county.[13][14] (See: JLC's growing list of related Court Documents[15])

Widipedia

And how can we forget this mother's pain:

Private prisons are a terrible idea!

[riderinthestorm]

103. Morning kick! nt