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I'm skeptical the public sector would do better. The U.S. defense and intelligence institutions are public and (from my perspective) seem to be quite eager to e

I'm skeptical the public sector would do better. The U.S. defense and intelligence institutions are public and (from my perspective) seem to be quite eager to engage in conflicts, same as a private institution with financial incentives to do so might. The real culprit here is prosecutors that have very little interest in actual justice, but instead have a strong desire to win cases and secure harsh punishments. Private prisons don't need to lobby prosecutors and legislators to do these things. Prosecutors and law makers are all too eager to be "tough on crime" all by themselves.

zensavona 10y ago
At the very least (I think? I'm Australian so not intimately familiar with US law) the public sector can't lobby/sue the government for infringing upon their business when laws are changed or relaxed.
cmurf 10y ago
Corecivic Inc NYSE: CXW. The market definitely anticipates more profit for the largest private jailer in the counter, post election. I think there is a very tribal incentive with elected district attorneys who should instead by nominated by the local executive, with advise and consent by the legislative body. Making a prosecutor be a politician pretty clearly is itself a conflict of interest.
- jaredklewis 10y ago
  There might be some improvement, but how much can be gained by shuffling things around? The U.S. is a democracy and prosecutors are aggressive because it's what the people want. If we shift that power to a local executive, committing to nominate hardline prosecutors will become a typical campaign promise (similar to our current situation with presidents and supreme court justices). I think the only real fix is education.
CalChris 10y ago
All that's true. But voters deserve a lot of the criticism. It's true that DAs run up the score to run for higher office. But voters vote for that. DAs didn't pass Three Strikes. Voters did.
FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago
There's plenty of blame to go around...congress for taking away the power of judges to actually, you know, judge with mandatory minimums, the public , for choosing to believe anecdotal stories of boogeymen over statistics, our political system for letting voters decide judges and DA's (who run on such attributes as number of years sentenced/convicted) and culture that values punishment and retribution over rehabilitatoin

zensavona 10y ago

At the very least (I think? I'm Australian so not intimately familiar with US law) the public sector can't lobby/sue the government for infringing upon their business when laws are changed or relaxed.

cmurf 10y ago

Corecivic Inc NYSE: CXW. The market definitely anticipates more profit for the largest private jailer in the counter, post election. I think there is a very tribal incentive with elected district attorneys who should instead by nominated by the local executive, with advise and consent by the legislative body. Making a prosecutor be a politician pretty clearly is itself a conflict of interest.

jaredklewis 10y ago
There might be some improvement, but how much can be gained by shuffling things around? The U.S. is a democracy and prosecutors are aggressive because it's what the people want. If we shift that power to a local executive, committing to nominate hardline prosecutors will become a typical campaign promise (similar to our current situation with presidents and supreme court justices). I think the only real fix is education.

CalChris 10y ago

All that's true. But voters deserve a lot of the criticism. It's true that DAs run up the score to run for higher office. But voters vote for that. DAs didn't pass Three Strikes. Voters did.

FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago

There's plenty of blame to go around...congress for taking away the power of judges to actually, you know, judge with mandatory minimums, the public , for choosing to believe anecdotal stories of boogeymen over statistics, our political system for letting voters decide judges and DA's (who run on such attributes as number of years sentenced/convicted) and culture that values punishment and retribution over rehabilitatoin