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SSC wrote:9.1: Privatized, for-profit prisons would be a great way to save money.
No one likes criminals very much. Even so, most of us agree that even criminals deserve humane conditions. We reject cruel and unusual punishment, and try to keep prisoners relatively warm, clean, and well-fed. This is not only a moral issue, but a practical one: we don’t want prisoners to go insane or suffer breakdowns, because we want them to be able to re-adjust into normal society after they are released.
For-profit prisons have all of the flaws of for-profit companies with none of the advantages. Normal companies want to cut costs wherever possible, but this is balanced by customer satisfaction: if they treat their customers poorly or create a low-quality product, they won’t make money. In prisons, the ability to get new “customers” comes completely uncoupled from the quality of the product they provide. If the government pays them a certain fixed amount per prisoner, the prison’s only way to increase profits is by treating prisoners as shabbily as possible without killing them. Indeed, statistics show that prisoners in private prisons have worse medical care, terrible living conditions, and rates of in-prison violence 150% greater than those in public prisons. Private prisons refuse to collect data on recidivism rates, but a moment’s thought reveals that they have an economic incentive to keep them as high as possible.
But the real dangers lie in the corruptibility of the political process, something with which libertarians are already familiar. Private prisons have been active in lobbying for stricter sentencing guidelines like the Three Strikes Law, which encourages governments to imprison criminals for life. In a country that already imprisons more of its population than any other country in the world [1], it is extremely dangerous to create a powerful political force whose self-interest lies in imprisoning as many people as possible.
But the most striking example of the danger of private prisons is the case of two judges who received bribes from private prisons [2] to jail innocent people.
If this is the alternative, I’m willing to bite the bullet and accept the overpaid prison guards with annoying unions who dominate the public prisons.
This is an old copypasta so the links are old and some were dead.
"I know what you’re thinking now. You’re thinking 'Oh my god, that’s treating other people with respect gone mad!'" When I am writing in this font, I am writing in my moderator voice.
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clearspira wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 7:01 am
There is nothing wrong with a private corporation running a prison if its run well. Especially as the end result is going to be billions of taxpayer money.
"If it is run well" is always the qualifier isn't it?
"It is fine, so long as it is fine."
The problem, is that it creates many perverse incentives that cause the system to rapidly degrade.
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Fuzzy Necromancer wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 1:34 am
Holy Hecate, Biden is moving to ELIMINATE PRIVATE PRISONS. That alone is a huge reason to vote for him even if I have to take dramamine while I do it.
Already did that. You like booze, so I'd recommend a shot as you do so.
There is nothing wrong with a private corporation running a prison if its run well. Especially as the end result is going to be billions of taxpayer money.
I was relating more to Fuzzy Necromancer's dramamine comment in regards to voting. It was literally merely for my family's sake this year, and they pressured me into it.
Fuzzy Necromancer wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 1:34 am
Holy Hecate, Biden is moving to ELIMINATE PRIVATE PRISONS. That alone is a huge reason to vote for him even if I have to take dramamine while I do it.
Already did that. You like booze, so I'd recommend a shot as you do so.
There is nothing wrong with a private corporation running a prison if its run well. Especially as the end result is going to be billions of taxpayer money.
Yes, there is everything wrong. It means that they have a profit motive to keep people in prison, justly or not. It's how we get a Prison Industrial Complex. It means for-profit prisons have lobbyists pushing members of congress to put more people in prison, and pushing the mayor to stand behind police making questionable arrests, and lobbying against more money and training for public defenders.
And it does NOT save taxpayers money, it COSTS them money. Private prisons can sue the government if the government doesn't provide enough people to fill the cells. Private prisons use taxpayer dollars to get lucrative, exclusive contracts providing barely-edible swill at the price of Kobe beef.
Private prisons are one of the most unholy marriages between Corporate Interests and The State in our era.
"Believe me, there’s nothing so terrible that someone won’t support it."
— Un Lun Dun, China Mieville
Just wait. If there's any shred of responsible journalism left here in the cable news, they will have to discuss it. And I predict it will have put an even bigger focus on the VP debate, as hypothetically, either Mr. Biden or Mr. 45 could be dead in a month or so. And so Mr. Pence and Ms. Harris would be in line to succeed them.
