Should South Dakota consider privatizing its prisons?

[harvey007]

A northeast Ohio state prison will soon be sold for $72 million to Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). It is the first state prison in the country to be sold to a private company.

The reason for the sale appears to be a budget issue, not only on an ongoing basis, but to use the sale proceeds to plug a current deficit in the state's prison budget.

Four other Ohio prisons were offered for sale, but none of them drew large enough offers to sell.

http://madisonet.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1302&dept_id=181990&newsid=20466476&PAG=461&rfi=9

[provis99]

1. budget issue?

Here's a radical idea to solve their budget issue: quit throwing so damn many citizens in prison for frivolous things!

[RC]

2. Then how could the United States hold the world record for percentage of incarcerated citizens?

[saras]

3. Why not? We've already privatized the judges and lawmakers.

Seriously, our governments should only privatize things that are genuinely surplus and unneeded. If it's valuable enough to use, it's too valuable for us to be giving it away for pennies on the dollar to some private corporation.

You could also make a good case that our government shouldn't sell any real estate except for replacement cost plus profit. If THEY can't afford to replace it, then WE can't afford to sell it.