Private Prison Company Used in Drug Raids in Private High School

Doesn't the article say that CCA was only one of four groups involved in the operation? And that the whole thing was run by City Police? We don't even know what CCA did. Quite possibly they guarded hallways and doors while the other three groups, all sworn LEOs, did their thing. Further, the article notes that a school administrator accompanied the group in each room search.

There is no evidence that CCA issued any tickets, arrested any people, or did anything that only LEOs should do.

Now, if you want to talk about how terrible private prisons are, Ok, but I thought the topic was something else.

Originally posted by Bspiracy

Originally posted by AGWskeptic
reply to post by Aloysius the Gaul

 

So you're ok with private prison guards doing some law enforcement outside of prison walls?

It's not a loaded question, it's a yes or no question.

edit on 2-12-2012 by AGWskeptic because: (no reason given)

You keep attributing "prison guards" as their title. A private firm can assign employees to different functions which means their title changes as well.. the title doesn't matter.. just the function..
Do government employees have to serve the food in the school or would you allow a private firm.
that's rhetorical as it has as little relevance as the speeding ticket.

b

If they are not sworn law enforcement officers they have business searching high schools.

I'm sure Halliburton or KBR could change a few job titles around also, doesn't make it right.

I'd want to make a general observation here in terms of the main OP point on private guards being used for law enforcement work. I object to this, on top of everything else, for the same reasons I object to the TSA being let out of their little areas in airports..and really object to them even being there to be honest. These are NOT Cops. Prison guards don't undergo the same psych batteries, months of POST Academy training, further months or more of training officers busting their every move, then sink or swim time in a world that not only means winning physically but also keeping to the right side of good public relations and not doing too much harm. Careers end otherwise.

All things prison guards aren't dealing with, equipped for or even trained to do. What do prison guards do when someone resists or makes a nusance of themselves? Hmm... Not what I want to think was roaming the halls of my child's school with Law Enforcement authority supporting their actions. Nope.... Cops we have to live with. Private add ons? Nope.


As a totally separate thing? I was trying to find the specific hiring requirements for CCA when I found this press release on their own site:

Eloy set to grow by thousands thanks to prisons!

Now having been a trucker helps here because Eloy and Casa Grande are both places that have truck stops serving the southern end of the greater Phoenix area. So I know by staying in both cities many a time that they are just a few miles apart. A few exits on the highway, literally. Interesting on that.

Here is another news story which comes from 2007...Mississippi, this time.

Governor says prison is the start of Mississippi's rebuilding

^^ Also linked in recent events from CCA's website. Ugh... Talk about looking for growth and opportunity in all the wrong directions. Reducing the inmate population is the need here, not building more space to stuff more people into. We already rank among the highest in the world in all areas for those confined or somehow connected to the corrections system. Now it's profitable. Uh oh...

reply to post by charles1952


Even if that is all they did, a step has been taken. What will they be allowed to participate in next?

What happens if private prisons become the norm? What happens if they start demanding more power, and have the financial weight to gain political support for their demands?

Everything starts with a single event, a single step, and when it's on a slippery slope...

Originally posted by ANOK
reply to post by charles1952

 

Even if that is all they did, a step has been taken. What will they be allowed to participate in next?

What happens if private prisons become the norm? What happens if they start demanding more power, and have the financial weight to gain political support for their demands?

Everything starts with a single event, a single step, and when it's on a slippery slope...

edit on 12/2/2012 by ANOK because: (no reason given)

They've already lobbied congress for longer sentences.

A corporation exists to serve itself, not a good combination in my book.

reply to post by AGWskeptic


Why any parent would send their children to these government reeducation camps to be subjected to NAZI gestapo tactics regardless of the private prison guards or not is beyond me... God watching the death of American freedom is painful especially as Americans sit on their thumbs and do nothing about it...

Originally posted by ANOK

Originally posted by magma

Errm they are prisoners, in jail for commiting crimes.

So they are really lucky to be getting any sort of payment.

Really not the point mate.

I mean cheap labour for the prison. You see private capitalist businesses make their money from exploiting labour.
The cheaper the labour the more work they can get, and the more profits they can make. It's why they outsource to cheaper foreign labour.

edit on 12/2/2012 by ANOK because: (no reason given)

So in this case they are using prisoners to do the work that normal free contractors would charge 10 times ++++ more to do.

Sounds like smart business to me. Ultimate in capitalism really.

Failing to see the problem here.

Business idea: Start a "private law enforcement" agency that specialises in investigating and busting the "private prison businesses". Considering that the whole concept of a private prisons is discusting I'm fairly sure there would be quite alot of business to do.

Originally posted by magma
So in this case they are using prisoners to do the work that normal free contractors would charge 10 times ++++ more to do.

Sounds like smart business to me. Ultimate in capitalism really.

Failing to see the problem here.

Are you being purposely obtuse?

Yes it's the ultimate in capitalism, only one step above the slave trade.

Exactly.
Their purpose would be to serve themselves and not the best interest of the country.
I think people in those positions of power that would cause harm our country to serve themselves belong in prison as well since they clearly pose a threat to society as well.

Originally posted by AGWskeptic

Originally posted by ANOK
reply to post by charles1952

 

Even if that is all they did, a step has been taken. What will they be allowed to participate in next?

What happens if private prisons become the norm? What happens if they start demanding more power, and have the financial weight to gain political support for their demands?

Everything starts with a single event, a single step, and when it's on a slippery slope...

edit on 12/2/2012 by ANOK because: (no reason given)

They've already lobbied congress for longer sentences.

A corporation exists to serve itself, not a good combination in my book.

reply to post by magma

So in this case they are using prisoners to do the work that normal free contractors would charge 10 times ++++ more to do.

Sounds like smart business to me. Ultimate in capitalism really.

Failing to see the problem here.

Capitalism does not use government intervention to create forced markets that is socialist/fascism...

Originally posted by hawkiye
reply to post by magma

 

So in this case they are using prisoners to do the work that normal free contractors would charge 10 times ++++ more to do.

Sounds like smart business to me. Ultimate in capitalism really.

Failing to see the problem here.

Capitalism does not use government intervention to create forced markets that is socialist/fascism...

Posts like this are why we need a MegaStar option.


I'm truly amazed that there were even 2 people here that failed to see the problems here. I guess that's why we're in the mess we are.

What is so hard to believe? Baby Bush and Rumsfeld tried to take the National Defense and U.S. military private for eight years. After all, private soldiers fight for who pays them, not the country or the average citizens. So, the "anti-crime" people will do it with the police. After all, private "security police" protect who pays them, not the citizens.

reply to post by hawkiye


Can't give you enough stars.

second line

yes, the president of the united states, official driver of the "choom" wagon and who admitted to "doing a little blow, when he can afford it", is doing nothing about having your kids lined up against a wall by grown men armed with machine guns using murderers and who knows what else to do their dirty work.

having their futures ruined because they are in the possession of a plant that grows naturally in the wild around the world, while he himself became president of the united states, harvard graduate, lawyer and senator.

seems fair to me.

meanwhile these pussies don't have the balls to do lockdowns and drug sweeps where the real hardened drug dealers and cartel members operate.

what's next, harvesting organs. i'd say complete totalitarian hell is about 35% complete.

when will americans react, at 40%, 75% or will you guys just bury your heads in your sands and say electronic chips and shock collars are just a small price to pay for freedom.

Originally posted by ANOK

Originally posted by magma

Now, if they were doing a raids and planting drugs and conspiring to put innocent people in jail, then you would have a good reason to retaliate.

What about rehabilitation? Isn't prison supposed to be about making people fit to move back into society? Not to be used as cheap labour to make profits for private individuals?

So what would you do if they started conspiring to put innocent people in jail? What happens when crime is low and the prisons profits go down? Do they close the prison, lay-off the prisoners lol? Or find a way to make their business grow?

Where does their interest lie, in rehabing convicts, or exploiting people for profit?

edit on 12/2/2012 by ANOK because: (no reason given)

I am not really qualified to comment on their agenda or rehab program. However, if prisoners learn trade skills and can leave the prison with better skills than they started, thats gotta be a good thing right?

I think if 'they' started to conspire to put innocent people in jail, there would be some pretty serious backlash. If the prison is run for profit they would have to have a business model. Is there such a thing?

Originally posted by hawkiye

Capitalism does not use government intervention to create forced markets that is socialist/fascism...

That is completely wrong.

Socialism is the workers ownership of the means of production, an economic system that requires no government.

"Anarchism is stateless socialism" Mikhail Bakunin

Fascism is a political system that incorporates a capitalist economy.

What do you call wars in foreign nations to spread capitalist interests? Is that not government being used to create market forces? Or do you really think the wars are about terrorism?

They don't need a "business model" when the tax payer is paying for it that is backed by our government.

Look at all the government funded programs and how outrageously expensive they are to get an idea.

Medicare by private insurance companies, Overpriced military hardware from private contractors, Government funded student loans backed by Wall Street. The list is endless.

Originally posted by magma
If the prison is run for profit they would have to have a business model. Is there such a thing?

CCA's history isn't all quite so positive as they'd have it on their web site.... Interesting things are there to be found as I've spent a bit more time on it. A couple items... The first is from an article about a CCA guard who plead guilty to molesting women under his care. Indeed...

Since staff expenses (salary, benefits, training) comprise the largest portion of any facility’s budget, private prisons often pay dramatically less to their staff in the name of profit.

The problem with this approach lies in the fact that private prisons, because they offer less in salary and benefits, aren’t able to attract as high-quality candidates as government-run prisons. Just recently, when Hernando County Florida took over operation of its jail from CCA, the sheriff hired only about 1/3 of the private company’s employees to work for his department (and remarked at the time that he couldn’t believe a lot of CCA’s employees weren’t incarcerated themselves).

Source

and a link with far more local detail added about the conditions CCA people were in themselves and left the facility in when done.

Hernando County's takeover of jail brings year of sweeping changes

Finally, I'll make this my last thing to share and I hope the OP hasn't minded my adding material here but given the post above about CCA's press release on Mississippi development being helped, the irony was hard to miss.

Guard Dies in Riot at CCA Prison in Mississippi

There may not be a lot of things I really think Government needs to be 100% and totally in charge of....but Policing and Corrections are definitely one of them. It's not that I trust them more. It has nothing to do with that. It's that I can FIRE the people running it poorly when it's run by my local, state or..to some degree, federal Government. (Federal doesn't care what we think..but state and local run the vast majority of correctional facilities....or SHOULD be if not for private ones.)

Just my opinions with a wooden nickle tossed in....but the "business" of human warehousing should never carry a profit with it.

Originally posted by magma
I am not really qualified to comment on their agenda or rehab program. However, if prisoners learn trade skills and can leave the prison with better skills than they started, thats gotta be a good thing right?

I think if 'they' started to conspire to put innocent people in jail, there would be some pretty serious backlash. If the prison is run for profit they would have to have a business model. Is there such a thing?

They don't need to be used as cheap labour to be taught something.

But you keep missing the whole point. The conflict of interest between the need for the private owner to make profit, and societies desire to reduce crime. Their interest would not lie in reducing crime.

Public services should not be ran for profit, as the interest of "public services" should be the public, not making profit for private entities.