5 ms·

@metrix many prisons are run by for-profit companies. It costs the taxpayers a lot, but there is profit to be made, and some elected officials benefit at leas

@metrix many prisons are run by for-profit companies. It costs the taxpayers a lot, but there is profit to be made, and some elected officials benefit at least indirectly. edit: awkward wording

mason240 12y ago
>many prisons are run by for-profit companies. Citation for the "Many"? Only about 5% of prisoners are in private prisons.
- Mikeb85 12y ago
  Given how many prisons are in the US, that probably still qualifies as 'many'...
- spacemanmatt 12y ago
  I've got 8.4% (2013 U.S. DOJ statistics) via WikiPedia
- trhway 12y ago
  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 12y ago
    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 12y ago
      Except in this case, peoples' freedoms are denied. Versus, say, waiting longer in line at the DMV.
      - trhway 12y ago
        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.
InclinedPlane 12y ago
That's a common narrative, but it's not the driving force behind the drug war. Look at corruption, look at hardened attitudes on drugs, look at race, look at civil asset forfeiture, look at the militarization of law enforcement. That's where the momentum for the drug war is coming from, not so much from for-profit prison systems (though that does add a small component).
- adventured 12y ago
  Not to mention private prisons have never been a large fraction of the prison system. The drug war dates to the late 1960s - and goes back further culturally. Corporate prisons were even less relevant when the drug war started putting tons of people in prison circa 1980, than they are today. The problem is the US Government, and always has been.
adventured 12y ago
The government is the for-profit prison system. The money made on prisons, is made by construction firms, labor that works at the prison, and slave labor used to manufacture things. There is a ton of profit being made from government prisons. I always find it bizarre that people point to the 5% to 8% problem - corporate prisons - and think that is the problem, while pretending the huge money that circles around the other 92% - the government prisons - is benign by comparison. The other 92% is even more vile than the 8% corporate prisons - it's 11 times larger.
smsm42 12y ago
If you look at who's making profit on war on drugs, look up how much money is taken by civil forfeiture. That's where the real money is. And by real money I mean millions, hundreds of millions. Just one case: http://www.government-fleet.com/news/story/2012/04/rhode-island-law-enforcement-agencies-plan-to-replace-fleets-with-windfall-from-google-lawsuit-sett.aspx http://www.government-fleet.com/news/story/2012/04/rhode-isl... There are many, many more. And not only from fatcats - there are thousand of forfeiture cases for sums like $300-$500.

@metrix many prisons are run by for-profit companies. It costs the taxpayers a lot, but there is profit to be made, and some elected officials benefit at least indirectly. edit: awkward wording

mason240 12y ago

>many prisons are run by for-profit companies. Citation for the "Many"? Only about 5% of prisoners are in private prisons.

Mikeb85 12y ago
Given how many prisons are in the US, that probably still qualifies as 'many'...
spacemanmatt 12y ago
I've got 8.4% (2013 U.S. DOJ statistics) via WikiPedia
trhway 12y ago
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 12y ago
  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 12y ago
    Except in this case, peoples' freedoms are denied. Versus, say, waiting longer in line at the DMV.
    - trhway 12y ago
      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.

InclinedPlane 12y ago

That's a common narrative, but it's not the driving force behind the drug war. Look at corruption, look at hardened attitudes on drugs, look at race, look at civil asset forfeiture, look at the militarization of law enforcement. That's where the momentum for the drug war is coming from, not so much from for-profit prison systems (though that does add a small component).

adventured 12y ago
Not to mention private prisons have never been a large fraction of the prison system. The drug war dates to the late 1960s - and goes back further culturally. Corporate prisons were even less relevant when the drug war started putting tons of people in prison circa 1980, than they are today. The problem is the US Government, and always has been.

adventured 12y ago

The government is the for-profit prison system. The money made on prisons, is made by construction firms, labor that works at the prison, and slave labor used to manufacture things. There is a ton of profit being made from government prisons. I always find it bizarre that people point to the 5% to 8% problem - corporate prisons - and think that is the problem, while pretending the huge money that circles around the other 92% - the government prisons - is benign by comparison. The other 92% is even more vile than the 8% corporate prisons - it's 11 times larger.

smsm42 12y ago

If you look at who's making profit on war on drugs, look up how much money is taken by civil forfeiture. That's where the real money is. And by real money I mean millions, hundreds of millions. Just one case: http://www.government-fleet.com/news/story/2012/04/rhode-island-law-enforcement-agencies-plan-to-replace-fleets-with-windfall-from-google-lawsuit-sett.aspx http://www.government-fleet.com/news/story/2012/04/rhode-isl... There are many, many more. And not only from fatcats - there are thousand of forfeiture cases for sums like $300-$500.