Prisons for Profit: Under Kasich, Ohio Becomes Laboratory for Privatizing Public Jail

[debbietoo]

Read this article please. It's nauseating.

Ohio holds the distinction of being the first state to sell off a public prison to a private corporation. This happened in 2011 when Governor John Kasich oversaw the sale of Lake Erie Correctional Institution to the Corrections Corporation of America. The sale was promoted as a way to save the state money, but according to the ACLU of Ohio, the plan largely backfired. We speak to Mike Brickner, senior policy director at the ACLU of Ohio. The group released a report and short documentary film called "Prisons for Profit."

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/2/23/prisons_for_profit_under_kasich_ohio

[Common]

Most all private prisons are failing and the reason is simple. State run prisons dont operate based on a profit margin. Add profit, and services, medical and food and untrained and understaffing persists.

[Crepitus]

Read this article please. It's nauseating.

Ohio holds the distinction of being the first state to sell off a public prison to a private corporation. This happened in 2011 when Governor John Kasich oversaw the sale of Lake Erie Correctional Institution to the Corrections Corporation of America. The sale was promoted as a way to save the state money, but according to the ACLU of Ohio, the plan largely backfired. We speak to Mike Brickner, senior policy director at the ACLU of Ohio. The group released a report and short documentary film called "Prisons for Profit."

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/2/23/prisons_for_profit_under_kasich_ohio


Feds have been doing it forever. Why not the states too?

The Leavenworth Detention Center is a privately run maximum-security federal prison located in Leavenworth, Kansas. The facility is owned and operated by the Corrections Corporation of America under contract with the United States Marshals Service.


When originally constructed as a 460-bed private prison, it was the first correctional facility under direct contract with a U.S. federal agency. In May 2008 the facility underwent its fourth expansion to increase capacity to 1,126 inmates. It holds both male and female prisoners

[Common]

The Feds set all standards for state prisons. Because leavenworth worked states tried it. The problem is the Feds very closely monitor levenworth. The spend the time and effort and money to assure its being run to standards.

States notoriously do not do that, if they are saving money thats all they want to know. Fla privatized prisons by none other that the same corp that runs levenworth Corrections Corp of America was inundated with lawsuits and most were won by the plaintiffs. Medical was extremely substandard and they understaffed the prisons so badly that violence was extremely bad. Rick Scott Privatized them and finally had to put his tail between his legs and now they are taking the prisons back under state control.

[exploited]

I am generally opposed to such measures. I am not comfortable with introducing the profit motive into the justice system.

[Crepitus]

The Feds set all standards for state prisons. Because leavenworth worked states tried it. The problem is the Feds very closely monitor levenworth. The spend the time and effort and money to assure its being run to standards.

States notoriously do not do that, if they are saving money thats all they want to know. Fla privatized prisons by none other that the same corp that runs levenworth Corrections Corp of America was inundated with lawsuits and most were won by the plaintiffs. Medical was extremely substandard and they understaffed the prisons so badly that violence was extremely bad. Rick Scott Privatized them and finally had to put his tail between his legs and now they are taking the prisons back under state control.
Same here in Brownbackistan except the Sammy will never admit he was wrong so it is still happening.

[debbietoo]

States such as Florida, Ohio, Arizona, New Hampshire, and Utah have been considering beginning or expanding private prison expanding.

Vermont agreed to start sending prisoners to CCA facilities in Tennessee and Kentucky in 2004. This helped bring the proportion of inmates held privately from zero in 2003 to over 20 percent in 2004. This trend led to Vermont holding over 34 percent of its population privately in 2008, before declining to 27 percent by 2010.

Source:

http://sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Too-Good-to-be-True-Private-Prisons-in-America.pdf

[debbietoo]

I am generally opposed to such measures. I am not comfortable with introducing the profit motive into the justice system.

Corporations are exploiting the prison system and prisoners. It's nauseating and a form of cheap labor or human slavery.

[Subdermal]

I am generally opposed to such measures. I am not comfortable with introducing the profit motive into the justice system.

And why is that?

Institutions which have a particular niche of serving the public in the manner that jails or prisons do should be tax-free for-profit entities.

Profit motive ensures efficiency - which is something sorely lacking in Government enterprises.

[Subdermal]

Corporations are exploiting the prison system and prisoners. It's nauseating and a form of cheap labor or human slavery.

Easy solution: don't commit crime.

[Truth Detector]

We don't need no steenking prisons, just a place to house criminal cops. Release the prisoners; prisons are inhumane and a bane on society!!

Sorry, for a moment there I thought I was a Jill Stein supporter. :rofl:

[bajisima]

Vermont has been leading the nation for privatizing of prisons. What's even worse, is they have been sending inmates who are serving short sentences out of state to be housed in private prisons where they don't get to see their families and their legal representation is no longer local. Black eye for years on Vermont.

[debbietoo]

And why is that?

Institutions which have a particular niche of serving the public in the manner that jails or prisons do should be tax-free for-profit entities.

Profit motive ensures efficiency - which is something sorely lacking in Government enterprises.

That's a nauseating statement. I'm sorry.

[debbietoo]

Vermont has been leading the nation for privatizing of prisons. What's even worse, is they have been sending inmates who are serving short sentences out of state to be housed in private prisons where they don't get to see their families and their legal representation is no longer local. Black eye for years on Vermont.

Oh, my gosh. I never knew that. I wonder how many other Americans don't know that! You wouldn't believe how many people I've spoken with who don't even know that privatized prisons even exist!

[Docthehun]

Now that the Feds have decided to do away with private institutions, their (private prisons) stock tanked today.

[debbietoo]

Now that the Feds have decided to do away with private institutions, their (private prisons) stock tanked today.

Good!

Yes, U.S. locks people up at a higher rate than any other country


A more reliable way to compare incarceration practices between countries is the prison population rate. Even by that measure, the United States had the highest prison population rate in the world, at 716 per 100,000 people. More than half the 222 countries and territories in the World Prison Population List (http://www.apcca.org/uploads/10th_Edition_2013.pdf), by the U.K.-based International Center for Prison Studies, had rates below 150 per 100,000.

After the fact check published, a colleague challenged The Fact Checker with an interesting question: How does the United States’ incarceration rate compare to countries with similarly structured criminal justice systems? After all, the world prisoners list does not include any other indicators than prisoner populations. It took some digging but we finally found an answer.

The Facts

The 2015 World Justice project Rule of Law index (http://worldjusticeproject.org/rule-of-law-index) was published in June 2015, ranking 102 countries based on a host of indicators, including criminal justice. The criminal justice factor measures impartiality, due process and rights of the accused, and effectiveness of the countries’ criminal investigation, adjudication and correction systems. The United States ranked 23rd out of 102 countries, 16th among 24 regional peers, and 23 among 31 income peers.

Source:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/07/yes-u-s-locks-people-up-at-a-higher-rate-than-any-other-country/