Creating a Prison-Corporate Complex

[Fire Walk With Me]

As cash-starved state governments scrape their way through this so-called recovery, they might as well hang signs with this message on their capitals: "Everything must go." States are hemorrhaging workers and selling off assets at a startling rate as they grapple with anemic tax revenues and dwindling federal dollars. So dire are the states' economic woes that, in recent years, they've begun offloading a more unusual type of property: prisons.

That's right -- states are so broke they've resorted to selling off their correctional facilities (with the prisoners inside) as a way to cut costs and make ends meet. In 2011, for instance, Ohio sold one of its prisons for $73 million to the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the country. And make no mistake: CCA and its ilk are eager buyers. As the Huffington Post reported in February, CCA sent a letter to 48 governors offering to buy -- not just manage, but acquire entirely -- prisons in their states. The company said it had earmarked $250 million for buying and running state-owned prisons as part of a "corrections investment initiative."

But CCA, to borrow a trope from journalism, buried the "lede" in the governors' letter. The real head-snapping revelation appeared in the third-to-last paragraph: in exchange for buying a state's prison, CCA required that the state prison agency ensure that the prison remained at least 90% full. Translation: We'll buy your prisons and keep 'em orderly and clean, so as long you keep the prisoners coming in.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175531/tomgram:_fraser_and_freeman,_creating_a_prison-corporate_complex/

[msongs]

1. our "leaders" have no vision except what their corporate masters tell them nt

[zeemike]

2. For some of them it is their vision

And that is the problem.

[spanone]

3. privatizing prisons. worse idea ever. crime really pays in this atmosphere.

[kenichol]

4. "Crime pays"....great observation re private prisons

The War on Drugs & mandatory minimums are profitable policies.

Some services should never be privatized: water, 'public' utilities, prisons, fire departments, military support & security...

[duhneece]

5. Stock prices are effected by legislation

Whether it is minority youth or undocumented, putting them in prison really pays big.

[KansDem]

6. This is just wrong.

When one commits a crime, it is against the state. Therefore, only the state can strip you of your rights and incarcerate you until you serve your term.

Serving one's sentence in a private prison is wrong. A private entity should not be permitted to hold people against their will.

Where does this privatizing stop? Will we be privatizing the entire criminal justice system? Will we eventually have private court rooms with judges and jurors on the corporate payroll?

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. Capitalism breeds capitalists. This is part of the plan.

And this is why some have poured millions of lobbying dollars into getting "representatives" to vote for the NDAA, NDRP, HR347, extending the "patriot act", creating and extending the power of "homeland security".

Power and money. With us again paying the price.

[Uncle Joe]

8. For profit prisons are a 21st century version of slavery, plain and simple, such

an industry should be illegal in any nation or state claiming to cherish or venerate freedom and liberty for its' people.

The for profit prison industry; has no redeeming quality to society and is carcinogenic to the republic. Their preeminent financial motivation can only be to turn the government against its' own people, criminalizing the citizen, more prisoners = more money, which in the long term will surely lead to catastrophe.

If a state or nation; has too many prisoners for its' citizens to willingly support or political leaders to promote financing from the public dole, the problem lies with that entity's preponderance of draconian laws on the books.

Thanks for the thread, Fire Walk With Me.

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. Like they say: Capitalism defeated Communism in Russia

and it defeated Democracy in America.