
Myths of the private prison industry - allanlasser
https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2015/oct/19/5-myths-private-prison-industry/
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rcurry
I really don't think prisons should be run by private corporations. I was
already kind of leery about it, but the whole "kids for cash" scandal in
Pennsylvania was the last straw. There's no way I can be convinced that we can
ever trust a for-profit corporation to manage a prison. There are just too
many opportunities for corruption.

~~~
nosuchthing

      They speak roughly once a week in a 15-minute phone call, 
      and speak for another 25 minutes on a video chat. Jones 
      says she’d travel to Texas to visit her son in person, 
      but Hays County Jail, where he is locked up, banned 
      visitations in November 2013. That happened shortly after 
      the county jail entered into a contract with Securus.
       
    
      Since then, all family communication with inmates at Hays 
      County goes through Securus, which charges Jones about 
      $10 for a phone call and about $8 for a video visit.
    

[http://atavist.ibtimes.com/fcc-prison-telecom-
industry](http://atavist.ibtimes.com/fcc-prison-telecom-industry)

~~~
orangecat
See also [http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/10/inmate-calling-
compa...](http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/10/inmate-calling-companies-
sock-prisoners-families-with-endless-fees/)

Apparently a large amount of those fees are paid back to the prisons via
"commissions", so it's basically governments auctioning off the right to take
advantage of prisoners and their families.

~~~
mindslight
It's essentially the same thing that has happened across many other areas of
the economy - it's impractical to own slaves, so they're rented instead.

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nateabele
I know someone who stayed in a GEO prison. Based on everything I heard about
it, I have to imagine that there's some mid-level accountant who knows
exactly, down to the penny, how much money they make per inmate per day.

One example: when you're given a spork with your first meal, you might think
that was the spork for just that meal, and toss it out with your meal tray.
Wrong move. That was your prison-issue spork. Enjoy eating with your hands for
the remainder of your incarceration.

~~~
hugh4
That gives me an idea: prison vouchers.

Give each prisoner a voucher for a certain amount and let them choose where
they want to serve out their sentence. Prisons will compete to offer tolerably
humane conditions to inmates while still keeping under budget. (Prison escapes
will be punished by huge fines so there's no incentive to cheap out on
security.)

Flaws with this system: do prisons have to take a given inmate? If not, there
will be troublesome inmates nobody is willing to imprison. If so, there will
be a lot of incentives to try to get rid of these troublesome prisoners as
soon as they arrive. Also, there's potential for cosy arrangements between
gangs and prison operators to direct business towards them in exchange for
favourable treatment.

~~~
marcoperaza
You're not supposed to like prison. It's a punishment for serious misdeeds. If
your suggestion was implemented, the result would be despicable. Prisons would
be competing to have the most plush accommodations. The guy who was raping
little kids in his van shouldn't serve his time in a nice hotel.

~~~
zeveb
> The guy who was raping little kids in his van shouldn't serve his time in a
> nice hotel.

He shouldn't _live_ , period: he should go straight from the jail where he was
waiting trial, to the gallows. Prison should be for those who are bad enough
to remove from society for a time, but not bad enough to execute; and since
they will be returned to society, we should try to make sure that when they
re-enter it they do so as productive, mentally-well members of society, rather
than as beaten, brutalised future recidivists.

~~~
gambiting
It's a matter of personal opinion, but I don't think anyone has the right to
give out a death sentence. Yes, even to a child rapist. As a society we are so
rich we can easily keep those people in prison for life, and spare ourselves
the moral implications of actually killing people.

~~~
zeveb
> As a society we are so rich we can easily keep those people in prison for
> life, and spare ourselves the moral implications of actually killing people.

But not the moral implications of keeping someone caged like an animal for the
remainder of his life. What's worse: to die in a week, or to spend decades in
prison?

~~~
gambiting
What's worse - finding out an innocent man spent 20 years in prison before
being exonerated, or that he was killed? I know it's an extreme minority if
cases - but there really is no _reason_ to kill people. We are perfectly
capable of keeping people locked for life, and that's what we should do for
the worst offenders. Is it horrible? Of course. But the alternative is much
worse.

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jacquesm
> American correctional standards have been a sort of standard for policing
> and punishment abroad

I don't see much support for that statement, fortunately. There may be
countries for which this is true but for the vast majority of countries in the
developed world this is not the case.

~~~
Broken_Hippo
Not only that, but some country's citizens would be appalled if their prison
system started mimicking the American system.

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fredkbloggs
While I'm not sympathetic to prison operators or the mass-incarceration system
in general, this is a weak article with little substance. Declaring an
assertion to be myth requires a substantial investment in disproving it.
Indeed, there is not a single fact presented in opposition to what is perhaps
the most important myth #1. It is possible (or damned well ought to be, and if
it isn't, then that's a cause of action by itself) to account for exactly what
the government and inmates are paying. Someone who makes a concerted effort to
figure out what that is would be a top-notch investigative reporter. Someone
who writes "Does anyone actually have proof of this? Seriously, is anyone sure
that this happens?" is either ranting or a hack. When you write an article
asserting that a political opponent's views are myths, you take on the burden
of proof. Simply asserting (without even a reference) that no one has proven
the opposite doesn't cut it, even if that's true.

There are similar problems with the other "myths", such as attempting to rebut
the notion that private prison operations have limited influence by showing a
graph of private prison populations (one that, I might add, doesn't exactly
bolster the case). So what? If 8% (or 20% or X%) of prisoners are in private
prisons, how does that affect their influence on incarceration as a policy? If
that rate is different in various states, can you connect the differences with
the kind of policy influence you expect to find? That's legwork. That's
investigative reporting.

Anyone who would like to see significant prison reform deserves, and needs,
much better than this. If this were truly a reflection of the prison reform
movement's best arguments, it's small wonder it's not having much success.

~~~
testrun
I agree hundred percent. A very bad piece that does not clarify or enlighten.

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aaron695
Pretty clickbaity.

It's just '5 things wrong with the private prison industry'

All of them are pretty well known possible issues.

I certainly don't know anyone who thinks the 'myth' is true, some people at
best might be 'I don't know' or 'I'm pretty sure it's complicated.'

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blipblitz
For more: [https://www.muckrock.com/project/the-private-prison-
project-...](https://www.muckrock.com/project/the-private-prison-project-8/)

