Public and Private Prisions...

[JoMoDo]

What is y'alls insights about Prison system in this country regarding how some are publicly funded while others are built by private corporations?

I know it has been this way for many moons, but haven't seen this topic on here.

Does anyone else see a conflict on interests with having private business' build prisions... if so feel free to state opinions and or facts with how freggin' flawed this whole concept is...

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Obviously the whole Prison concept in America is flawed. It really doesn’t matter to me if it’s publicly or privately funded, the bottom line is that we have the largest prison population in the world with over 2 Million locked in cages and an additional 4 million in the prison system (parole, house arrest, etc.).

Over 70% of released prisoners return to prison, which should clearly demonstrate to anyone that isolating a man in a cage will not rehabilitate him.

More than a half of the prison population is black men and women.

Anyone who thinks it’s always been this way is seriously misinformed.

In 1974, the number of Americans incarcerated in all state prisons stood at 187,500. By 1991, the number had reached 711,700. Nearly two-thirds of all state prisoners in 1991 had less than a high school education. One third of all prisoners were unemployed at the time of their arrests. Incarceration rates by the end of the 1980s had soared to unprecedented rates, especially for black Americans. As of December 1989, the total US prison population, including federal institutions, exceeded one million for the first time in history, an incarceration rate of the general population of one out of every 250 citizens.

For African Americans, the rate was over 700 per 100,000, or about seven times more than for whites. About one half of all prisoners were black. Twenty-three percent of all black males in their twenties were either in jail or prison, on parole, probation, or awaiting trial. The rate of incarceration of black Americans in 1989 had even surpassed that experienced by blacks who still lived under the apartheid regime of South Africa. source

It is clearly a racist system, which many studies have shown, according to the US Commission on Civil Rights, they found that “while African Americans today constitute only 14% of all drug users nationally, they are 35% of all drug arrests, 55% of all drug convictions, and 75% of all prison admissions for drug offenses.” source


…One-in-fifteen for young white males, one-in-ten for young Latino males, and one-in-three for young African-American males go to prison. Statistically today, more than eight out of every ten African-American males will be arrested at some point in their lifetime. (same source).

Obviously this system is heavily against poor individuals who cannot afford good representatives at trail and are forced to stick with public defenders. Any upper class or rich citizen is almost guaranteed to get the charges dropped completely or receive a much lighter sentence than that of a working class or poor individual.

I think the only way to fix this flawed system is attacking the social problems that exist in America that cause men & women to commit crimes in the first place. Why lock up a poor man for stealing bread to feed his family? Wouldn’t we rather create a society that people don’t have to steal food in order to survive?

Why lock up the crack dealer in the inner city trying to survive & feed his family when he is not responsible for importing the cocaine?

In the artic where the indigenous people sometimes might hunt a wolf they'll take a double edge blade and they'll put blood on the blade and melt the ice and stick the handle in the ice so only the blade is protruding. And that a wolf who smells the blood and wants to eat will come and lick the blade trying to eat and what happens is when the wolf licks the blade he cuts his tongue and he bleeds and he thinks he's really having a good meal and he drinks, and he licks and licks and of course he's drinking his own blood and he kills himself...That’s what the Imperialists did with us with crack cocaine, you have these young brothers out there who think they are getting something they gonna make a living with, they is getting something they can buy a car, like the white people have cars, why can't i have a car? they getting something they can get a piece of gold, white people have gold, why can't i have gold? they getting something to get a house, white people have a house, why can't i have a house? and they actually think that there’s something that’s bringing resources to them, but they're killing themsleves just like the wolf was licking the blade, and they're slowly dying without knowing it. that’s what’s happening to the community, you with me on that? thats exactly, precisely what happens to the community, and instead of blaming the hunter who put the damn handle and blade in the ice for the wolf, that what happens is the wolf gets the blame, gets the blame for trying to live, thats what happens in our community, you don't blame the person, the victim, you blame the oppressor, Imperialism, white power is the enemy, was the enemy when it first came to Africa, and snatched up the first African brothers here against our will, [/isss the enemy today, and thats the thing that we have to understand. - Wolves (1st track on "Let's Get Free", Dead Prez).

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

Dead Prez is beats...no doubt.

 

[JoMoDo]

^^^^
Exactly, it is a racist system which also discriminates against the poor...
Everytime you go to visit the clink who is there, poor & minorities...
These private prisons corporations lobby to enact or enforce laws to keep people flowing through the revolving door... 3 strikes is my classic example-- tryna lock up dope peddlars for life-- in the economy on the outside they generate about 15k-25k a year, locked up inside the costs run 50k+ per prisoner... now 50k provides a pretty high standard of living, but are any of the costs spread through the inmates??? No, not even the guards or support staff see's any of it, its the phat cats who invested in the top of the line state of the art security system...

Private corp. has no place in the penal system (unless white collar criminals are locked up)... Drop 3 strikes and all victimless crimes (i.e. drugs use/sale, prostetution. ect).

What about moving major violent offenders into prison camps in the middle of the desert? (not that I am a proponent of this idea, just wanting to stimulate conversation)

 

[TOKZTLI]

I think private prisons have their benefits and minor setbacks, such as contracts coming up, unions and such and are more efficient than government prisons. I found a site that gives tons of information on the topic. http://www.ncpa.org/ba/ba191.html

Also, if we are going to discuss prisons (government vs private) that is one thing but to throw in how we feel that they are racist, oppressive, and the problems with the criminal justice system as a whole in the US, then it is a non-productive topic. Throwing separate things into the pot and addressing them as one issue makes for a confused, misinformed discussion and is the bane of the liberal intellect.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

How can we talk about prisons without bringing up those factors? It’s like talking about the current state of Iraq without mentioning what brought us there.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

US Crime rate lowest in over 3 decades; prison population continues to increase


2005-10-24 09:21:35


WASHINGTON, Oct.23 (Xinhuanet) – The United States has the world's largest prison population and the figure is still growing, a government report said Sunday.

According to a report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics of US Justice Department, the US prison population, already the largest in the world, grew 1.9 percent to 2,267,787 people last year.

However, the growth rate was lower than the average 3.2 percentin the last decade.

The report said the US incarceration rate, also highest among all countries, hit 486 sentenced inmates per 100,000 last year, up 18 percent from 411 a decade ago.

The five states with the highest incarceration rates in 2004 were all from the South, led by Louisiana with 816 sentenced prisoners per 100,000 residents.

Meanwhile, the five states with the lowest rates were all from the North, with Maine experiencing 148 sentenced inmates per 100,000 residents.

Paige Harrison, coauthor of the report, attributed some of the prison population rise to tougher sentencing policies implemented in the late 1990s.

She said the average time served by prisoners today is seven months longer than it was in 1995.

"You bring more people in, you keep them longer......inevitably you’re going to have growth," she said.

The Justice Policy Institute, a legal think-tank, said the statistics show little relationship between prison population growth and the crime rate, which has been falling in recent years.

An earlier government report said the US violent crimes during 2004 were at the lowest level in over three decades.

Given the ever-expanding prison population, US legal experts urged policy-makers to reconsider current sentencing policies, in order to avoid expensive incarceration costs and to invest in more productive prevention and treatment approaches to crime.


:::
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So what does this tell us? A number of things.

1). The prison industry is making a whole lot of money.
2). Non-Violent criminals make up the majority of the Prison Population.
3). The highest rates are in the south which are a direct result of the south being the poorest region in the US (with poverty comes crime).
4). The War on Drugs is a sham!
5). Prison sentences are much harsher then they were in the past.
6). The US prison population is closely reaching the per capita amount of Hitler and Stalin!

 

[Merciedez]

please send your donations to public schools. by providing better education you bring up the quality of life for the children who will soon be the new thinkers of society. build their minds to believing life does not end in shame, degradation and no hope. from this point...we can rest a little better that the past will not be repeated again.

 

[Blight]

When JAIL is a CORPORATION you want people to stay in jail to make money. Id say if no one went to jail ever again from right now, a lot of people would loose jobs. A lot of people including: Cops, Psychiatrists, Paroll Officers, Jail Wardens and the people who work inside prisons, including calfeteria workers

about VIOLENT OFFENDERS into the Desert... You can keep them anywhere in the US actually. HOW ABOUT taking the violent psychos and dropping them off in Iraq.

 

[Cheaptimes]

^^^ like turning offenders (violent or non) into soldiers?

 

[WHITE DEVIL]

What about the people who are simply fucked in the head? (Habitual killers, crackheads, child molesters, etc.)

Should we just let them go on liberal goodwill?

 

[JoMoDo]

^^^ If the crackheads only crime is being a crackhead, I don't see how they fit into the above catergory...

All though with the current racist and econimic oppressed system, the crackhead is more likely to spend his life in jail with the B.S. 3 strikes rule for basin' a couple of times, as opposed to the Chestors and Psycho's who can get parolled... why is that?

Maybe b/c there is so many more drug dealers and addicts that the economic incentive is to keep 'em in and out like a revolving door...hence padding the pockets of the private prision system, who lobby for the current legislative laws to maintain.

I'm finally getting tired, i'll finish later...

 

[ESCOBAR]

modern slavery

 

[JoMoDo]

^^^
In other words, exactly...