Private prisons wants government to maintain a 90% occupancy rate.

Yet again private business is looking for new way to take advantage of the crisis
facing governments and to maximizing profits.

At a time when states are struggling to reduce bloated prison populations and tight budgets, a private prison management company is offering to buy prisons in exchange for various considerations, including a controversial guarantee that the governments maintain a 90% occupancy rate for at least 20 years.

How can anyone guarantee how full a prison is going to be.are the courts going to have
targets to hit to keep the prision population up so it wont drop below 90%.
There are some in the local goverment who even think this is going to far.

Roger Werholtz, former Kansas secretary of corrections, said states may be tempted by the "quick infusion of cash," but he would recommend against such a deal. "My concern would be that our state would be obligated to maintain these (occupancy) rates and subtle pressure would be applied to make sentencing laws more severe with a clear intent to drive up the population," Werholtz said.

If you go to prision it should be because your guilty and nothing else.

Private purchasing of prisons locks in occupancy rates

Proposal to buy prisons raises ethical concerns

reply to post by skuly


Well that would be an easy fix!

Shut down the half the prisons...re-locate the prisoners from those prisons to prisons without a 90% population...and create more laws that send people to prison!

Sad...sad...I hope this proposal will be laughed at...90% guarantee...ridiculous!

I suppose we can take some comfort in the fact that this is not a new idea. Using prisons as money making ventures.... Georgia did it with the blacks for cotton crops and other things they could charge for the labor with. That ended. So will this.

It'll take some more real outrages and likely a MAJOR blowout like Attica in a private prison, but eventually that will come and the public will turn to focus their full attention on this industry.

Just don't be a prisoner for anything until then. lol.... I have heard some real bad horror stories about Private prisons. Then again.... I don't hear Government Prisons are exactly "correctional" in any form, either. Perhaps we just need to keep prisons for violent people and real DOWNSIZE the prison industry for all the rest.

reply to post by skuly


Cops already have quotas - even though they're illegal.

Soon everything will be stacked against the people.

We even see it coming...we should be able to stop it.

We know something is wrong with this system.

This prison deal would be promising people-
I call that trafficking in humans.


Somewhere, someone will be greedy enough to accept.
... and yet this will be agreed upon with a handshake.

A new corporate order
where you have to pay to stay healthy and pay to stay out of jail.

reply to post by skuly


Cross reference:

The Prison System Is Becoming Big Business in America - The American Gulags
www.abovetopsecret.com...
by ofhumandescent
started on 3/8/2012 @ 06:20 PM

From looking at a few websites, I get the impression that the average US prison occupancy rate is 108%. Some of course will be higher. Since the 90% rate is only locked in for a year and a half, I can see where the deal will be attractive for many states.

But no, I don't like the quota system either.

I posted this link in the thread this_is_who_we_are shared above, but it is also relevant here to.

Dean of Texas Senate rejects CCA prison purchase proposal

Yesterday, Frank wrote that the ACLU, Presbyterian Criminal Justice Network, and a broad coalition of civil rights and faith leaders were opposing CCA's recent offer to buy state prisons in return for states maintaining 90% occupancy at these facilities.

Now, these groups are being joined by Texas State Senator John Whitmire, the Dean of the Senate and long-time chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. Whitmire, speaking to USA Today ("Private purchasing of prisons locks in occupancy rates," March 8th), had this to say:

"You don't want a prison system operating with the goal of maximizing profits," says Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and advocate for reducing prison populations through less costly diversion programs. "The only thing worse is that this seeks to take advantage of some states' troubled financial position."

Former Kansas Secretary of Corrections Roger Werholtz also warned against the temptation of a "quick infusion of cash" saying

"[m]y concern would be that our state would be obligated to maintain these (occupancy) rates and subtle pressure would be applied to make sentencing laws more severe with a clear intent to drive up the population."

Im happy that someone in my state legislature is saying no to this.

I wonder if Prison Inc. is looking down the road at the possibility of decriminalizing drugs. Such a move would immediately cut into their profit margins.

Not to worry, if it's not drug charges, you might get arrested for "terror related" activities or they could simply start enforcing the myriad of ridiculous laws that are already on the books.

Just walking across the street means you probably broke six laws

reply to post by skuly


If the prisoner numbers drop, then create more crimes and criminalize more, and hand out stiffer sentences, for misdeamers. People you don't have to take any of this. You can say NO loudly to everyone and not vote any of them, you can also boycott their subsidiaries. Take affirmative action every week or day even. If we do that, it will be soon apparent that permissions weren't given.