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

[OverEasy]

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."


Source:

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/2/2...er_kasich_ohio

[I B Hankering]

If government is going to incarcerate an individual, the government needs be directly involved in that process and not subcontract its responsibilities to scheming crony capitalist. The potential for abuse is rife in a private prison system, and it always has been.

In 1971, Dr. Mark Carleton published a study about Louisiana's notorious Angola prison entitled Politics and Punishment: The History of the Louisiana State Penal System. Carleton describes the Medieval horror of that prison when it was a for profit system, during the 19th century, and how it corrupted government to serve its "for profit" ends.

Pennsylvania recently had this same experience with one of its juvenile prison systems wherein a judge, one Judge Mark Ciavarella, was caught and convicted for receiving kickbacks from the prison system based on the number of inmates he convicted and sentenced to prison.

Here's another excellent exposé on how a private prison system fails to meet the needs of the society it claims to serve.

My Four Months As A Private Prison Guard

by Shane Bauer July/August 2016

(Mother Jones)

[i'va biggen]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-libert...rison-industry

[OverEasy]

Originally Posted by i'va biggen

http://www.alternet.org/civil-libert...rison-industry

The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the government.

Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced the decision on Thursday in a memo that instructs officials to either decline to renew the contracts for private prison operators when they expire or “substantially reduce” the contracts’ scope. The goal, Yates wrote, is “reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons.”

“They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department’s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security,” Yates wrote.

[The Justice Department’s memo announcing the end of its use of private prisons]

While experts said the directive is significant, privately run federal prisons house only a fraction of the overall population of inmates. The vast majority of the incarcerated in America are housed in state prisons — rather than federal ones — and Yates’ memo does not apply to any of those, even the ones that are privately run. Nor does it apply to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Marshals Service detainees, who are technically in the federal system but not under the purview of the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Source:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.3c69b5f88e62

Corporations can no longer use prison labor to enhance their profit margins.

[I B Hankering]

Originally Posted by OverEasy

The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the government.

Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced the decision on Thursday in a memo that instructs officials to either decline to renew the contracts for private prison operators when they expire or “substantially reduce” the contracts’ scope. The goal, Yates wrote, is “reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons.”

“They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department’s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security,” Yates wrote.

[The Justice Department’s memo announcing the end of its use of private prisons]

While experts said the directive is significant, privately run federal prisons house only a fraction of the overall population of inmates. The vast majority of the incarcerated in America are housed in state prisons — rather than federal ones — and Yates’ memo does not apply to any of those, even the ones that are privately run. Nor does it apply to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Marshals Service detainees, who are technically in the federal system but not under the purview of the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Source:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.3c69b5f88e62

Corporations can no longer use prison labor to enhance their profit margins.

You really do need to learn how to read for comprehension, Silly Suzy Simpleton.