Prisons for Profit
Did the Tampa Bay Times edit out Brad Swanson’s reasons why Florida is spending too much on prisons?
He says we need to do “something different” to cure recidivism, but he doesn’t say how privatizing prisons is the answer.
He says that privatizing prisons will save taxpayers 7%, but doesn’t say how these companies can operate the prisons with less money, and still squeeze out new profits.
He says that existing correctional officers won’t lose their jobs, but doesn’t say what those new jobs will pay, or what benefits they will have to give up.
Without these answers included in his comments, it appears that this plan is designed only to enrich investors at the expense of the rest of us.
Has anyone thought about first trying to fix what we have before we hand off it off to someone else wanting to profit on what we should be able to do better ourselves?
<IMHO> Fred Jacobsen
Related articles
- U.S. Prison Business: Privatize Profits, Socialize Losses (truthsupport.wordpress.com)
- Exploring Capitalism: Private Prisons (bizgovsociii.wordpress.com)
- As Private Prisons Enrich Lawmakers, Florida Legislature Pushes Massive Prison Privatization Plan (thinkprogress.org)
- No Private Prisons in Florida (browardsblog.blogspot.com)
- Emotions running high in private prison battle (tampabay.com)
- The cynical world of America’s private prisons | Sadhbh Walshe (guardian.co.uk)
- Rick Scott and Florida Republicans Look to Privatize Prisons (crooksandliars.com)
- Prison privatization opponents take fight to Miami’s Spanish-language radio airwaves (miamiherald.typepad.com)
- The return of prison privatization sets off a furor (tampabay.com)
- Florida’s Private Prisons CorruptionFest 2012 (my.firedoglake.com)
February 15, 2012 at 3:29 am
My issue with private prisons is that their main objective is profit. Prisons should be a place where criminals rehabilitate to be able to return to society. Prisons with an ulterior motive, such as profit, could become easily corruptible.
On the other hand, some states spend a lot of tax money on incarceration. There are some alarming statistics that show that the cost of keeping a person in jail per year is higher than the national average wage.
What can be done?
February 15, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Maybe legalize most drugs and shift to rehabilitation instead of punishment?