They get payed for everything. If they give
you a green apple, they get payed. If you flush the toilet, they get
payed. If they hit you with their sticks, they get payed. I've been kidnapped and held at County for seven days once over a damn traffic ticket. The ticket was bullshit. I even went to court and they couldn't find the damn thing in their computer. So they wound up issuing a warrant for a court date that I DID appear for! Dirty extortionist pirate bastards! It's all about milking as much money out of the public they can. To protect and serve my ass!
Imagine living in a country where prisons are private
corporations that profit from keeping their beds stocked at, or near,
capacity and the governing officials scramble to meet contractual
“lockup quotas.” Imagine that taxpayers would have to pay for any empty
beds should crime rates fall below that quota. Surprise! You already
live there.
A new report from In the Public Interest
(ITPI) revealed last week that private prison companies are striking
deals with states that contain clauses guaranteeing high prison
occupancy rates. The report, "Criminal: How Lockup Quotas and 'Low-Crime
Taxes' Guarantee Profits for Private Prison Corporations," documents
the contracts exchanged between private prison companies and state and
local governments that either guarantee prison occupancy rates
(essentially creating inmate lockup quotas) or force taxpayers to pay
for empty beds if the prison population decreases due to lower crime
rates or other factors (essentially creating low-crime taxes).
Some of these contracts require 90 to 100 percent prison occupancy.
In a letter to 48 state governors in 2012, the largest
for-profit private prison company in the US, Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA), offered to buy up and operate public state prisons. In
exchange, states would have to sign a 20-year contract guaranteeing a 90
percent occupancy rate throughout the term.
While no state accepted CCA’s offer, a number of private prison
companies have been inserting similar occupancy guarantee provisions
into prison privatization contracts and requiring states to maintain
high occupancy rates within their privately owned prisons. Three
privately run prisons in Arizona have contracts that require 100 percent
inmate occupancy, so the state is obligated to keep its prisons filled
to capacity. Otherwise it has to pay the private company for any unused
beds.
The report notes that contract clauses like this incentivize
criminilization, and do nothing to promote rehabilitation, crime
reduction or community building.
"[These contracts run] counter to many states’ public policy goals of reducing the prison population and increasing
efforts for inmate rehabilitation," the report states. "When
policymakers received the 2012 CCA letter, some worried the terms of
CCA’s offer would encourage criminal justice officials to seek harsher
sentences to maintain the occupancy rates required by a contract. Policy
decisions should be based on creating and maintaining a just criminal
justice system that protects the public interest, not ensuring corporate
profits."
In a press teleconference about the report, Reverend Michael
McBride, director of Urban Strategies and Lifelines to Healing at PICO
National Network said the real human impact of having lockup quotas was
unjustifiable.
“It’s important for us to step back and look at this from a
moral perspective; all people of any faith or no faith at all can claim
it’s reprehensible to imprison someone for making money or financial
motives,” he said. “It’s important to always remember every single
person is a human being … even if they have done something we may find
problematic or illegal. They are not profit incentives.”
Here are six of the most shocking facts about prison privatization and corporatization, from the report.Read the rest of the story here.
No comments:
Post a Comment