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Private Prison Company to Demand 90% Occupancy

February 16, 2012 (graphic: criminalswanted.org) The nation’s largest private prison company is offering cash-strapped state governments to buy up their penitentiaries and manage convicted criminals at a cost-savings. But there’s a catch…the states must guarantee that are there are enough prisoners to ensure that the venture is profitable to the company. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has reached out to 48 states as part of a $250 million plan to own existing prisons and manage their operations. But in return CCA wants a 20-year contract and assurances that the state will keep the prisons at least 90% full. In the past CCA has operated its own prisons and contracted with states to house inmates. But until now the company never offered to essentially take over public corrections systems. Ohio already has sold one of its largest prisons to CCA. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal wanted last year to sell three of his state’s prisons to the company, but the legislature refused to go along. Critics of the plan warn that if states commit to CCA’s deal, they could find themselves with little bargaining power down the road once it comes time to negotiate new contracts. And, if the crime rate continues dropping, will police, prosecutors and judges feel compelled to supply human “product” for the prisons anyway?

http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/Private_Prison_Company_to_D
emand_90_Percent_Occupancy_120216

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Originally posted by Oonjerah: Excerpts from: The Economics of Incarceration By Nile Bowie => http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30469.htm February 07, 2012 Information Clearing House

"The United States of America has long held the highest incarceration rate in the world, far surpassing any other nation. For every 100,000 Americans, 743 citizens sit behind bars. Presently, the prison population in America consists of more than six million people, a number exceeding the amount of prisoners held in the gulags of the former Soviet Union at any point in its history. ...

"The number of people imprisoned under state and federal custody increased 772% percent between 1970 and 2009, largely due to the incredible influence private corporations wield against the American legal system. Because judicial leniency and sentencing reductions threaten the very business models of these private corporations, millions have been spent lobbying state officials and political candidates in an effort to influence harsher “zero tolerance” legislation ...

"Giant multinational conglomerates and weapons manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Corporation employ federal prison labor to cheaply assemble weapons components, only to sell them to the Pentagon at premium prices. At the lowest, Prisoners earn 17 cents an hour to assemble high-tech electronic components for guided missile systems needed to produce Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missiles and anti-tank projectiles. "In the past, political mouthpieces of the United States have criticized countries such as China and North Korea for their role in exploiting prisoner labor to create commodity products such as women’s bras and artificial flowers for export. Evidently, outsourcing the construction of the military equipment responsible for innumerable civilian causalities to the prisons of America warrants no such criticism from the military industrial establishment."

The moral of this post is: I should have grown up to be a right wing, naive, easily led, Republican voter like my parents. That way, I wouldn't know about some of the awful stuff I've learned in just the past two years. And I'd never say, "Hmmm. PN could be right."

"All I suggest is a man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest" ~Paul Simon

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1. Parolees, who often serve (and pay) an additional 300% time on parole - late for 1 appointment and it's back to jail/prison for the duration

2. Traffic ticket arrests at gunpoint under penalty of summary execution (see above)

3. Parking ticket arrests, don't pay and cops will beg to steal your car and/or kill you

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