REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

One part of the economy doing REALLY well: Private prisons

POSTED BY: NIKI2
UPDATED: Friday, August 3, 2012 05:18
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Thursday, August 2, 2012 9:15 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Welcome to one of America's growth industries--private sector, for-profit prisons. Gawd I hate them! The move to privatize EVERYTHING by the right is hurting us in numerous areas, but this one probably pisses me off the most:
Quote:

The U.S. is locking up more illegal immigrants than ever, generating lucrative profits for the nation’s largest prison companies, and an Associated Press review shows the businesses have spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying lawmakers and contributing to campaigns.

The cost to American taxpayers is on track to top $2 billion for this year, and the companies are expecting their biggest cut of that yet in the next few years thanks to government plans for new facilities to house the 400,000 immigrants detained annually.

After a decade of expansion, the sprawling, private system runs detention centers everywhere from a Denver suburb to an industrial area flanking Newark’s airport, and is largely controlled by just three companies.

The growth is far from over, despite the sheer drop in illegal immigration in recent years.

In 2011, nearly half the beds in the nation’s civil detention system were in private facilities with little federal oversight, up from just 10 percent a decade ago.

The companies also have raked in cash from subsidiaries that provide health care and transportation. And they are holding more immigrants convicted of federal crimes in their privately-run prisons.

The financial boom, which has helped save some of these companies from the brink of bankruptcy, has occurred even though federal officials acknowledge privatization isn’t necessarily cheaper.

This seismic shift toward a privatized system happened quietly. While Congress’ unsuccessful efforts to overhaul immigration laws drew headlines and sparked massive demonstrations, lawmakers’ negotiations to boost detention dollars received far less attention.

The industry’s giants — Corrections Corporation of America, The GEO Group, and Management and Training Corp. — have spent at least $45 million combined on campaign donations and lobbyists at the state and federal level in the last decade, the AP found.

GEO, which was part of The Wackenhut Corp. security firm until 2003, and Management and Training Corp. declined repeated interview requests.

“That’s a lot of money to listen quietly,” said Peter Cervantes-Gautschi, who has helped lead a campaign to encourage large banks and mutual funds to divest from the prison companies.

The total average nightly cost to taxpayers to detain an illegal immigrant, including health care and guards’ salaries, is about $166, ICE confirmed only after the AP calculated that figure and presented it to the agency.

Pedro Guzman is among those who have passed through the private detention centers. He was brought to the U.S. by his Guatemalan mother at age 8. He was working and living here legally under temporary protected status but was detained after missing an appearance for an asylum application his mother had filed for him. Officials ordered him deported.

Although he was married to a U.S. citizen, ICE considered him a flight risk and locked him up in 2009: first at a private detention facility run by CCA in Gainesville, Ga., and eventually at CCA’s Stewart Detention Center, south of Atlanta. Guzman spent 19 months in Stewart until he was finally granted legal permanent residency.

“It’s a millionaire’s business, and they are living off profits from each one of the people who go through there every single night,” said Guzman, now a cable installer in Durham, N.C. “It’s our money that we earn as taxpayers every day that goes to finance this.”

Dora Schriro, who in 2009 reviewed the nation’s detention system at the request of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, said nearly every aspect had been outsourced.

“ICE was always relying on others for responsibilities that are fundamentally those of the government,” said Schriro, now the New York City Correction Commissioner. “If you don’t have the competency to know what is a fair price to ask and negotiate the most favorable rates for the best service, then the likelihood that you are going to overspend is greater.”

One fundamental difference between private detention facilities and their publicly-run counterparts is transparency. The private ones don’t have to follow the same public records and access requirements.

CCA was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2000 due to lawsuits, management problems and dwindling contracts. Last year, the company reaped $162 million in net income. Federal contracts made up 43 percent of its total revenues, in part thanks to rising immigrant detention.

GEO, which cites the immigration agency as its largest client, saw its net income jump from $16.9 million to $78.6 million since 2000.

James Thurber, head of American University’s Center for Congressional & Presidential Studies, said amid the heated national debate over immigration, the companies have been savvy not to donate heavily to those sponsoring legislation, which could spark backlash.

There are more discrete and more powerful ways to influence policy, Thurber said.

“Follow the money,” he said. “If the money is being increased significantly for illegal immigration, then that is a shift in policy … a significant shift.”

The prison companies’ influence at the state level mirrors that in Washington, although the money is even harder to track since many states, such as Arizona and Illinois, where the companies have won lucrative detention contracts, don’t require corporations to disclose what they pay lobbyists.

The AP reviewed campaign contribution data from the three companies’ political action committees and their employees over the last decade, compiled by the National Institute on Money in State Politics. From 2003 to the first half of 2012, state candidates and political parties in the 50 states received more than $5.32 million.More at http://nation.time.com/2012/08/02/immigrants-prove-big-business-for-pr
ison-companies/
only do I hate that they are profiting like this, but the lack of transparency has led to horrific things I'm sure Frem is familiar with:

http://news.yahoo.com/feds-young-inmates-abused-private-miss-prison-18
2625214.html

http://my.firedoglake.com/mt6112a/2012/04/06/some-of-the-worst-abuse-e
ver-seen-in-a-private-prison
/
http://www.examiner.com/article/wackenhut-geo-private-prison-abuse-spo
tlight

http://mediafilter.org/mff/prison.html

It's horrible, unconscionable, and nobody's paying attention!

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Thursday, August 2, 2012 10:14 AM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important


Hello,

If we make the keeping of prisoners into a profit-making enterprise, then we are re-instituting slavery through other means.

--Anthony



Note to Self:
Raptor - woman testifying about birth control is a slut (the term fits.)
Six - Wow, isn't Niki quite the CUNT? And, yes, I spell that in all caps....
Wulf - Niki is a stupid fucking bitch who should hurry up and die.

“The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.” -Thomas Szasz



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Thursday, August 2, 2012 11:54 AM

FREMDFIRMA



Yep, we're fighting this one locally as well.
This bit from Augustus and his crew, mostly.

column: Passing House Bill will worsen already pressing civil rights issue
http://www.annarbor.com/news/opinion/passing-house-bill-will-worsen-al
ready-pressing-civil-rights-issue
/
Quote:

The focus of the forum was to discuss the impact of House Bill 5174, a proposal asking the State of Michigan legislators to make it a law to allow private corporations such as the Corrections Corporations of America, or CCA, and GEO (formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections) to take over our public prison system. If HB 5174 passes, it will have a profound effect on the African American community as well as the broader community of Michigan.

And you *KNOW* how I feel about Wackenhut, yes ?
Quote:

Many of our public officials have taken a defiant stand in support of mass incarceration as a means of addressing crime, yet, mass incarceration have not proven to be a solution to crime or to safer communities. Also, there are no incentives for employees of the justice system to advocate for crime reduction because their livelihood is intricately tied to the prison system. Therefore, it only stands to reason that an entity driven by profit motives have absolutely no incentive to keep people out of prisons.

A common message conveyed by each of the presenters likened the current incarceration of African Americans to slavery. In many states, including Michigan convicted felons cannot vote, have difficulty finding employment and in many cases without strong family or community support are destined to return to prison. The mass incarceration of African Americans is one of the most pressing civil rights issues of our day and private prisons will only exacerbate this problem. It is incumbent upon the African American community to “own” this problem and for the broader community to voice opposition to HB 5174. If you are opposed to private prisons, call your State Representative and/or congressmen to let them know that HB 5174 is bad public policy.


-Frem

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Friday, August 3, 2012 3:51 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Seriously, PRIVATIZED PRISONS!!!!!!!!!!

We can't even get Privatized Post Offices.....

THIS IS BULLSHIT!!!!!

3/4ths of anyone in prison shouldn't be in prison. I have old "friends" who were no longer friends after they got out. They were so weird, and we all assume they got raped on multiple occasions.

I NEVER even show up for "jury duty" but if I was dragged in kicking and screaming I'd flat out tell them while they were checking me that I will 100% in ANY SINGLE CASE find them not guilty.

When I was 22, I sent a man back to prison who physically stabbed me in the back and sent me to the hospital. Somehow, after knowing friends of mine and how abormal they were after getting out of prison, I FEEL LIKE I DID A BAD THING THERE!!!

I'll tell them that too. I was there. I physically witnessed my own ass beating and my back bleeding all over my carseat as I drove to the police station. If I had it all to do over again, I wouldn't have put him back in jail. (Not that it matters anyway, since he was out 2 years later since I wasn't dead).


Consider me in any case about a civilian from here until the day I die to be Henry Fonda...





That's before knowing that prisons are going to be privatized.

Now that I know that little tid-bit of info, I'll be sure to bring that up in the juror screening as well.


O.J. Simpson, Robert Blake, Scott Peterson, Martha Stewart.... They're all free to live there lives with me on the Jury.

Put me in charge of a jury for GWB or Obama though....

Boy, would I love to see how they act once serving life sentences for their crimes on Americans.



"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." ~Shepherd Book

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Friday, August 3, 2012 5:18 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...


Yeah, Frem, I thought this one would have special meaning to you. It's burned me ever since I found out about it...the mere idea of private, FOR-PROFIT prisons is just ripe for abuse and, doubtless, flaunting of the law and prisoner's rights. People should know about it, which most of them don't...but then, maybe most of them wouldn't care anyway. They're certainly eating up for-profit private and on-line schooling! I know if they had their way, the right and ALEC would privatized EVERYTHING, but I don't want to live in that world.


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