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The issue is your argument doesn't make any sense, that's why you're being down-voted. You're making a huge assumption that people's dislike (or "fear" as you'

The issue is your argument doesn't make any sense, that's why you're being down-voted. You're making a huge assumption that people's dislike (or "fear" as you've called it) of private prisons is somehow related to the distribution of prisoners between Government and private prisons. What gives you that impression?

adventured 10y ago
There is no argument. The government prison complex is and has been radically worse than the private prison industry, and that fact is always aggressively ignored here. I'm not making any assumptions, I've read dozens of threads on HN about this for example, spanning years. The fear is almost universally directed at private prisons, while the posters strictly ignore that almost all of the people went into government prisons during the incarceration boom. Where's the fear and hysteria for the government prison complex that has always dwarfed the private prison industry? And prior to the last ten years, dwarfed was extremely understating the situation.
- 0134340 10y ago
  I think a lot of people are arguing for accountability. Society tends to source important roles to government because it is 'for and by the people', there's direct relation and accountability there. To me, private prisons are like Linux depending on 3rd party modules for something as important and ubiquitous as ext3 support. I'm all for cutting the needless cruft off of government and keeping the kernel from getting bloated, so to speak, but prisons and other major roles of society where accountability and direct communication with the people is of utmost importance, this is something that should reside within government. Like the Linux kernel, I think all important functions should stay within direct reach and have direct interoperability. At the cost of resorting to slippery slope and being light-hearted here, what's next, a McDonald's-sponsored drive-thru DMV? On second thought, DMV could learn a few things from McDonald's there but I'd be very leery of McDonald's handling my important tasks and the direct power of the people would get watered down with every government function relegated to corporations.

adventured 10y ago

There is no argument. The government prison complex is and has been radically worse than the private prison industry, and that fact is always aggressively ignored here. I'm not making any assumptions, I've read dozens of threads on HN about this for example, spanning years. The fear is almost universally directed at private prisons, while the posters strictly ignore that almost all of the people went into government prisons during the incarceration boom. Where's the fear and hysteria for the government prison complex that has always dwarfed the private prison industry? And prior to the last ten years, dwarfed was extremely understating the situation.

0134340 10y ago
I think a lot of people are arguing for accountability. Society tends to source important roles to government because it is 'for and by the people', there's direct relation and accountability there. To me, private prisons are like Linux depending on 3rd party modules for something as important and ubiquitous as ext3 support. I'm all for cutting the needless cruft off of government and keeping the kernel from getting bloated, so to speak, but prisons and other major roles of society where accountability and direct communication with the people is of utmost importance, this is something that should reside within government. Like the Linux kernel, I think all important functions should stay within direct reach and have direct interoperability. At the cost of resorting to slippery slope and being light-hearted here, what's next, a McDonald's-sponsored drive-thru DMV? On second thought, DMV could learn a few things from McDonald's there but I'd be very leery of McDonald's handling my important tasks and the direct power of the people would get watered down with every government function relegated to corporations.