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There is an incestuous network of profit driven companies who benefit from this. Apart from the bail bonds and insurance companies detailed in the article there

by throw2016 8y ago

There is an incestuous network of profit driven companies who benefit from this. Apart from the bail bonds and insurance companies detailed in the article there are also private prisons. All these interests are perfectly aligned to lobby and fund campaigns and 'grow their business'. Their presence and funding of DA and judges is a clear conflict of interest. This is basically a synergy of corruption and exploitation. Corporate drones and funded economists go on about 'freedom' and this is a perfect example of how markets can produce toxic outcomes for individuals. Other developed countries do not mix up private interests and profit motives in their justice system and do not have problems of this scale. But the worst thing for individuals is once tainted, even wrongly, it becomes difficult to get back to get back to normal life, be it employment, housing or credit.

wang_li 8y ago
According to ProPublica[1], in 2010 there were 1.6 million people in prisons in the US. Of those 128,195 were in private prison facilities. According to [2], the number of federal inmates in private facilities in 2016 was 22,000, which is down from 27,000 mentioned in the ProPublica piece in 2010. Additionally, in 2016 the Feds announced the intent to discontinue the use of private prisons. (Don't know if that has changed in the last two years or not.) It doesn't seem like private prisons make any significant portion of the system. [1] https://www.propublica.org/article/by-the-numbers-the-u.s.s-growing-for-profit-detention-industry https://www.propublica.org/article/by-the-numbers-the-u.s.s-... [2] https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/08/18/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-private-prison-phase-out https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/08/18/what-you-need-...
- throw2016 8y ago
  That Fed announcement was an Obama era directive and was reversed by Jeff Sessions in 2017 [1]. 8.5% is not a small number and the conflict of interest is untenable as the scandals have shown. That this could be reversed inspite of known abuses [2] and serious problems [3] with the private prison system is extremely troubling. Private prison operators are one of the largest lobbying groups and spend more than $45 million a year on lobbying. [4] There have been a series of serious scandals with private prisons [5], judges [6] and corruption [7] with people sent to prison simply to pad numbers in private prisons. It's unteneble for a civilized society that believes in rule of law to allow justice to be vulgarized in this manner and allow a system known to be corrupt to stand. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-department-will-again-use-private-prisons/2017/02/23/da395d02-fa0e-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justi... [2]https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/how-for-profit-prisons-have-become-the-biggest-lobby-no-one-is-talking-about/?utm_term=.7365ae9c7446 https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/... [3] http://time.com/5013760/american-private-prisons-donald-trump/ http://time.com/5013760/american-private-prisons-donald-trum... [4] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-yankovich/be-careful-private-prison_b_8144860.html https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-yankovich/be-careful-pr... [5] https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2011/08/12/pennsylvania-judge-gets-life-sentence-for-prison-kickback-scheme/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2011/08/12/pennsylv... [6] https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html [7] https://boingboing.net/2013/08/06/judge-who-accepted-private-pri.html https://boingboing.net/2013/08/06/judge-who-accepted-private...

wang_li 8y ago

According to ProPublica[1], in 2010 there were 1.6 million people in prisons in the US. Of those 128,195 were in private prison facilities. According to [2], the number of federal inmates in private facilities in 2016 was 22,000, which is down from 27,000 mentioned in the ProPublica piece in 2010. Additionally, in 2016 the Feds announced the intent to discontinue the use of private prisons. (Don't know if that has changed in the last two years or not.) It doesn't seem like private prisons make any significant portion of the system. [1] https://www.propublica.org/article/by-the-numbers-the-u.s.s-growing-for-profit-detention-industry https://www.propublica.org/article/by-the-numbers-the-u.s.s-... [2] https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/08/18/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-private-prison-phase-out https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/08/18/what-you-need-...

throw2016 8y ago
That Fed announcement was an Obama era directive and was reversed by Jeff Sessions in 2017 [1]. 8.5% is not a small number and the conflict of interest is untenable as the scandals have shown. That this could be reversed inspite of known abuses [2] and serious problems [3] with the private prison system is extremely troubling. Private prison operators are one of the largest lobbying groups and spend more than $45 million a year on lobbying. [4] There have been a series of serious scandals with private prisons [5], judges [6] and corruption [7] with people sent to prison simply to pad numbers in private prisons. It's unteneble for a civilized society that believes in rule of law to allow justice to be vulgarized in this manner and allow a system known to be corrupt to stand. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-department-will-again-use-private-prisons/2017/02/23/da395d02-fa0e-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justi... [2]https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/how-for-profit-prisons-have-become-the-biggest-lobby-no-one-is-talking-about/?utm_term=.7365ae9c7446 https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/... [3] http://time.com/5013760/american-private-prisons-donald-trump/ http://time.com/5013760/american-private-prisons-donald-trum... [4] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-yankovich/be-careful-private-prison_b_8144860.html https://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-yankovich/be-careful-pr... [5] https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2011/08/12/pennsylvania-judge-gets-life-sentence-for-prison-kickback-scheme/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2011/08/12/pennsylv... [6] https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html [7] https://boingboing.net/2013/08/06/judge-who-accepted-private-pri.html https://boingboing.net/2013/08/06/judge-who-accepted-private...