The Justice Department Is Going To Stop Using Private Prisons

a reply to: FamCore

It seems like you're exaggerating our enthusiasm. Here are some quotes from different posts in this very thread:

The DOJ is going to start getting rid of for-profit prisons.

It almost seems way too good to be true. I'd never thought I'd see the day, still can't fully believe it until I see it happen.

Almost sounds too good to be true

Election trick. Won't be happening.

Let's just hope it's a shift in thinking - and then application. But, we all know, money will win out in the end

As of right now it looks like it's only federal for profit prisons. So a grand total of 13 I believe. That said, I'm sure some states will use this as a catalyst.

If true, this can be a solid first step.

In other words, we know there's a lot of work that needs to be done. But why can't we be happy or reluctantly optimistic about this? It's obviously a better situation than if the DOJ made no change in their stated position or stated that they would increase the use of for profit prisons. So what's the problem?

a reply to: enlightenedservant

I'm just being cynical I guess - the recent events in the US and abroad have left me quite discouraged. Didn't mean to be a let down, but I do think this seems like bread crumbs to appease the masses when much, much more could be done.

I agree, this is a start, BUT the same "leaders" and people in office have profited off of this type of private-public partnership (in various forms) for decades upon decades. It's about damn time, and I'm glad to see something being done, I guess to me it's just not enough to uplift my spirit. Especially when looking at the big picture of everything else going on with policymaking and systemic corruption and election rigging. My 2 cents

a reply to: FamCore

No problem. It's definitely an example of "incrementalism", which I loathe. But at the same time, I'm just glad they're turning away from for-private prisons rather than embracing it or doubling down on it.

I'd much rather sprint to the final goal. But I'll temporarily accept a few steps forward in place of more steps backward.

a reply to: FamCore

It takes decades for real change to happen

It's hard to sit by and watch things spiral out of control - and as polarized as we are right now it'll take longer because even when we do agree we're not permitted to work together

It's funny - everyone's reaction to something that's so sane, so reasonable

Kinda says it all

For profit prisons is one of the most overtly corrupt dystopian organizations in the us. We have the most prisoners on earth (by nearly double competitor) and to turn that into a slave class to milk labor from the inmate and funds from the loved ones is just repulsive behavior.

Prisons should cost the taxpayer a considerable sum in order to force states and law to find ways in reducing recidivism (and thereby incarceration), not make people rich whenever someone gets a sentence for some random non violent crime.

The faster these shut down and become a embarrassing moment of our past, the better.

a reply to: SaturnFX

I don't think the financial exploitation of inmates will change until we update the 13th Amendment. Though people think it ended slavery, it still explicitly allows for slavery and involuntary servitude in the case of imprisonment.

Amendment XIII
Section 1.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

www.law.cornell.edu...

a reply to: enlightenedservant

Private for-profit companies make a ****load of money off of inmates. I did a huge 19-page paper on the prison-industrial complex, the companies in partnership with these private prisons, and the lobbyists and politicians who have exploited this "industry". It's absolutely sickening. Inmates make something like $0.08 an hour for hard labor, and the companies they are indirectly working for are making a killing on this labor.

I can't tell you how much this subject makes my blood boil, that's probably why my initial reaction/response wasn't so positive. Baby steps are better than nothing..

a reply to: FamCore

I believe you. I could "feel" the fury a little bit, just beneath the surface. I think I'm just so used to officials ignoring the cries for justice that I'm genuinely impressed they'd acknowledge that there's a problem in the first place.

a reply to: Krazysh0t

When corporation own and run prisons the most important persons to that prison are the people who provide their product (the judiciary) and the people who define the sentence the prisoner must serve, the politicians.

This means the prison operator has a very strong incentive to make very good friends with politicians who pass laws, particularly those to claim they are tough on crime, and to make very good friends with the judiciary who had out sentences.

This creates a pressure in the legal system to keep a continuous flow of product, and perhaps, even an ever increasing flow of product, coming into the prison and to ensure the product remains in the facility for an extended period of time.

Now, irrespective of and perhaps independent of these pressures is another pressure that may be unrecognised by many.

We have all heard of the depopulation agenda and we all know that while men and women are in prison they do not breed and the longer they are in prison the longer they go without breeding. Indeed, many may never breed again.

We have all heard the phrase "every little bit helps."

originally posted by: FamCore
a reply to: enlightenedservant

Private for-profit companies make a ****load of money off of inmates. I did a huge 19-page paper on the prison-industrial complex, the companies in partnership with these private prisons, and the lobbyists and politicians who have exploited this "industry". It's absolutely sickening. Inmates make something like $0.08 an hour for hard labor, and the companies they are indirectly working for are making a killing on this labor.

I can't tell you how much this subject makes my blood boil, that's probably why my initial reaction/response wasn't so positive. Baby steps are better than nothing..

While I am all for putting prison inmates to work, to put something back into society, the use of what amounts to slave labour for big "for profit" corporations stinks and should be banned. The taxpayer foots the bill for prosecuting and jailing them, so society as a whole should benefit from the work they would be made to do, either inside or outside of prison, not some private corporation interested only in the bottom line.

Strangely, the day I saw this news about the DoJ stopping the use of private prisons, I also read another story about an American corporation who knowingly supplied defective helmets, made in prison, to the US Army and Marine Corps. Guess what..... $3million penalty, no prosecution and then further contracts!