On: Alaskans vote to legalize marijuana

[mason240]

>many prisons are run by for-profit companies.

Citation for the "Many"?

Only about 5% of prisoners are in private prisons.

[Mikeb85 → mason240]

Given how many prisons are in the US, that probably still qualifies as 'many'...

[spacemanmatt → mason240]

I've got 8.4% (2013 U.S. DOJ statistics) via WikiPedia

[trhway → mason240]

if you add prison guards unions - which are formally non-profit, and that only means that they have no taxes to pay and they have nobody else to give the formal profit away, and as result they have all the money they collect to themselves - you'd get pretty much 100% of US prisons run by organizations with direct financial interests in growing the prisons in size and number.

[mason240 → trhway]

By that logic, wouldn't every part of government with unions be "run by organizations with direct financial interests in growing...?"

That seems like it would be a union problem and not a prison problem.

[cloudwalking → mason240]

Except in this case, peoples' freedoms are denied. Versus, say, waiting longer in line at the DMV.

[trhway → cloudwalking]

yep, there is a reason why military for example aren't allowed to form a union. I hope CIA/FBI/NSA aren't allowed to have it too. And prison guards and police shouldn't be allowed to. Holders of "license for violence" shouldn't have masters other than the government hierarchy they belong to thus minimizing conflict of interests.