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You wrote 2-3x. Per Wikipedia, WADOC has an annual budget of $2.2B.[0] Even if private prisons did cost Washington taxpayers another $10.6M a year, that is no

You wrote 2-3x. Per Wikipedia, WADOC has an annual budget of $2.2B.[0] Even if private prisons did cost Washington taxpayers another $10.6M a year, that is nowhere near 2-3x in a budget that large. Add another 10% to that, and we're still nowhere near 2-3x. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Department_of_Corrections https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Department_of... > the "usual suspects" in destroying the economy Where did I accuse anyone of "destroying the economy"? (Oh, I kinda did in my first post. And in the case of George "Open Society Foundation" Soros and Thailand, and probably some of these other hedgies, that is also the case.) But for the most part, these people have done wonders for the economy, and if by "the economy" we mean the sort of people who work at and buy into hedge funds, doubly so! Ordinary people and the environment, however, are another story.

gamblor956 3y ago
Private prisons cost 2-3x as much per prisoner, and the research demonstrates that. Of course they don't cost 2-3x more than an entire state prison system. Even the Southern states that love private prisons couldn't afford that.
- hello_computer 3y ago
  Why won't you cite that research then, instead of these baby numbers--quoting a top estimated savings of under $11M over an entire state system (i.e. with budgets on the order of billions)? The one I originally cited, which was arguing against private prisons, conceded that private prisons were nominally $5,000/yr cheaper than public prisons, but taking the 90-extra-days (on average) spent at private facilities into account incurs a "value of freedom" cost, which they have estimated at $1,000 per sentence. The paper they were paraphrasing[0] from claims, "delayed release erodes half of the cost savings offered by private contracting". In other words, the other half of the cost savings are still intact. Or there's this Brookings paper[1], which is a little more in your favor: > Private prisons cost the state an average of $46.50 per prisoner per day in 2012, while the state’s comparable public facilities ranged from $35.11 to $40.47. Taking the smallest state figure, the private prison is 32% higher; the largest state figure, and the private prison is 15% higher, neither of which are 2-3x more. [0] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2523238 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2523238 [1] https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/es_20161021_private_prisons_economics.pdf https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/es_2016...

gamblor956 3y ago

Private prisons cost 2-3x as much per prisoner, and the research demonstrates that. Of course they don't cost 2-3x more than an entire state prison system. Even the Southern states that love private prisons couldn't afford that.

hello_computer 3y ago
Why won't you cite that research then, instead of these baby numbers--quoting a top estimated savings of under $11M over an entire state system (i.e. with budgets on the order of billions)? The one I originally cited, which was arguing against private prisons, conceded that private prisons were nominally $5,000/yr cheaper than public prisons, but taking the 90-extra-days (on average) spent at private facilities into account incurs a "value of freedom" cost, which they have estimated at $1,000 per sentence. The paper they were paraphrasing[0] from claims, "delayed release erodes half of the cost savings offered by private contracting". In other words, the other half of the cost savings are still intact. Or there's this Brookings paper[1], which is a little more in your favor: > Private prisons cost the state an average of $46.50 per prisoner per day in 2012, while the state’s comparable public facilities ranged from $35.11 to $40.47. Taking the smallest state figure, the private prison is 32% higher; the largest state figure, and the private prison is 15% higher, neither of which are 2-3x more. [0] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2523238 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2523238 [1] https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/es_20161021_private_prisons_economics.pdf https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/es_2016...