This needs to happen EVERYWHERE: Idaho to take over privately-run state prison

[MADem]

10. The private prison model is failing.

This is a long, long article on the subject--it really is long--but it is worth reading.

A key part of the piece is here, but it's by no means the whole magilla:

Follow the Money

If private prisons are so bad, why do state governments continue allowing them? Brickner attributes this to an honest belief among policymakers that privatization is cheaper, but he also points to campaign contributions.

“We can’t ignore that there is a lot of money at play here,” says Brickner, citing the massive profits from private prison companies and the campaign contributions they give to politicians.

According to campaign contribution data from the Ohio Secretary of State, the GEO Group donated $10,000 to Kasich and $52,000 to the Republican Governors Association, which helped fund Kasich’s gubernatorial campaign, in 2010. Between 2003 and 2006, CCA gave $7,000 to Ohio Republicans and former Gov. Bob Taft. In 2010, CCA gave $50,000 to the Republican Governors Association. There were also reports that CCA gave $10,000 to Kasich’s transition fund in December 2010. Between 2007 and 2010, MTC donated a total of $99,000 to state policymakers.

That money might not seem like much in comparison to federal campaigns that raise millions of dollars a month. But in state terms, it’s a lot. Three contributors giving a few hundred thousand dollars is a decent amount of cash in the context of state elections, and that’s only what can be found in public records.

I can sense the worm is starting to turn on this issue. When they finally legalize pot, that will get rid of a ton of prisoners, and these private prisons need bodies--lots of them, living in substandard and barely tolerable conditions--to make the system profitable. Getting rid of all the weedies will cut the population enormously, and if they develop a new paradigm for the whole "drug" thing, they'd have a hard time ginning up the numbers to make the money they'd need.

They'll probably switch to running charter schools...!