Any time you hear the word "privatization", you should be scared

[ProSense]

12. For real-life examples of privatization hell, look to NJ

Prisons, Privatization, Patronage

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Over the past few days, The New York Times has published several terrifying reports about New Jersey’s system of halfway houses — privately run adjuncts to the regular system of prisons. The series is a model of investigative reporting, which everyone should read. But it should also be seen in context. The horrors described are part of a broader pattern in which essential functions of government are being both privatized and degraded.

First of all, about those halfway houses: In 2010, Chris Christie, the state’s governor — who has close personal ties to Community Education Centers, the largest operator of these facilities, and who once worked as a lobbyist for the firm — described the company’s operations as “representing the very best of the human spirit.” But The Times’s reports instead portray something closer to hell on earth — an understaffed, poorly run system, with a demoralized work force, from which the most dangerous individuals often escape to wreak havoc, while relatively mild offenders face terror and abuse at the hands of other inmates.

It’s a terrible story. But, as I said, you really need to see it in the broader context of a nationwide drive on the part of America’s right to privatize government functions, very much including the operation of prisons. What’s behind this drive?

You might be tempted to say that it reflects conservative belief in the magic of the marketplace, in the superiority of free-market competition over government planning. And that’s certainly the way right-wing politicians like to frame the issue.

But if you think about it even for a minute, you realize that the one thing the companies that make up the prison-industrial complex — companies like Community Education or the private-prison giant Corrections Corporation of America — are definitely not doing is competing in a free market. They are, instead, living off government contracts. There isn’t any market here, and there is, therefore, no reason to expect any magical gains in efficiency.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/opinion/krugman-prisons-privatization-patronage.html

Flashback...

February 2011:

Democrats fight Gov. Christie's plan to privatize N.J. government functions

By Matt Friedman/Statehouse Bureau

TRENTON — Democrats are pushing back against Gov. Chris Christie’s plan to privatize some state government functions by calling for a change in the state constitution to put a short leash on agencies that want to hire private firms.

<...>

A Christie administration task force last year recommended privatizing functions like health care for prison inmates, toll collections, state parks, highway rest stops and career centers for the unemployed. The task force estimated the state government could save $210 million through the changes.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority recently put out a request for proposals that calls for toll collectors to make $12 per hour — less than half what experienced employees now make.

Democrats said they were trying to avoid abuse and waste that occurred in the 1990s with the privatization of vehicle inspections and the installation of the E-ZPass toll system.

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http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/democrats_fight_gov_christie_p.html

July 2012 editorial:

Privatization no panacea for government

A task force assembled by Gov. Christie recently reported that New Jersey’s government could save a bundle simply by turning over many of its core functions — from motor-vehicle services to school facilities — to the private sector. But thanks partly to another governor named Christie, New Jerseyans need not wait in suspense for the results of this government innovation. That’s because the state already has some disastrous and relatively recent experience with privatization — much of it in the areas singled out by the task force.

Christie deserves credit for cutting the state budget and looking for more ways to do so. And so far this is only a report (though one ordered up and roundly praised by the governor himself). But given the state’s history, some of the task force’s ideas weren’t even worth examining, let alone pursuing any further.

In 1998, Gov. Christie Whitman’s outsourcing of motor-vehicle inspections to a private company led to epic lines and widespread outrage. It later emerged that the sweetheart contract had gone to a company associated with avid campaign giving. Whitman’s privatization of motor-vehicle agency offices also contributed to interminable waits, as well as corruption and security breaches. That helped end the Division of Motor Vehicles’ long death spiral and bring about an overhaul that replaced it with today’s Motor Vehicle Commission.

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http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq_ed_board/Privatization_no_panacea_for_government.html

Privatizing the DMV was worse than a disaster. Using Krugman's phrase, it was "closer to hell on earth."

The definition of insanity:

Christie Seeks to Weaken Oversight of Halfway Houses
By SAM DOLNICK

Gov. Chris Christie’s administration came under heavy criticism from legislators last month at hearings on New Jersey’s privately run halfway houses, which handle thousands of inmates each year. On Wednesday, Mr. Christie fired back, saying he would significantly weaken a measure approved by the legislators to increase their oversight of the system.

It was the second time Mr. Christie moved to weaken new regulations for halfway houses.

The Democratic-controlled Legislature approved a bill in June that required the state auditor to conduct reviews of major corrections contracts with private operators, including those with a halfway house company that dominates the system and has close ties to Mr. Christie.

But the governor, a Republican, said Wednesday that he would sign the law only if all existing contracts, including those with halfway house operators, were exempted from the audits.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/09/nyregion/christie-seeks-to-weaken-new-oversight-of-halfway-houses.html

New Jersey Fines Halfway Houses $45,000 Over Escapes

By SAM DOLNICK

The Christie administration said on Tuesday that it had issued $45,000 in fines against New Jersey halfway houses from which nine inmates escaped in recent months, the harshest penalties ever brought against the troubled network of private operators.

The halfway houses were fined for failing to quickly report escapees to state officials and for recording inmates who had escaped as present. In other cases, supervisors failed to keep track of inmates who had fled from work-release programs or slipped away before being sent back to prison, corrections officials said.

The inmates escaped from six different halfway houses, including two run by Community Education Centers, a company that dominates the state’s halfway house system and has drawn scrutiny because of its close ties to Gov. Chris Christie.

Hundreds of inmates escape from the state’s halfway houses each year, but authorities have previously done little to crack down on the problem. No penalties had ever been brought against halfway house operators until officials learned of The New York Times’s 10-month investigation into escapes and other problems at the privately run centers, which can be as big as prisons but have little of their security.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/nyregion/new-jersey-fines-halfway-houses-over-inmate-escapes.html

Christie open to 'smart' halfway house changes

BY MELISSA HAYES |AND JOHN REITMEYER

STAFF WRITERS

Governor Christie is now willing to sign bills to improve New Jersey’s privatized system of halfway houses if Democratic leaders can get what he called “smart legislation” to his desk.

“If they want to do something constructive and positive for the people of the state, I’m all in,” the Republican governor said Monday amid new reports of escapes from halfway houses in recent months, including some from a Newark facility that lost power during superstorm Sandy.

“I’m happy to sign smart legislation from either party that helps make our state a better place,” he said. “But if all they want to do is play games, then I know how to do that, too.”

Christie continues to deal with questions about the management of halfway houses as his administration says it is working to improve accountability and oversight of a long-troubled system that has been turned over to private operators who house inmates outside of the traditional prison setting. The halfway houses supervise inmates through multiple public contracts — including the federal Bureau of Prisons, the state Parole Board, county jail operators and the state Department of Corrections. Although they are regulated by state law in New Jersey, the facilities themselves are not supervised directly by any one part of any state government.

The Record reported Monday how state government leaders have failed to make significant changes to the troubled system despite a series of warning signs in recent years, including the 2010 death of a Garfield woman, allegedly at the hands of a man staying at a halfway house who was able to escape custody.

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http://www.northjersey.com/news/Christie_open_to_smart_halfway_house_changes.html