Trump reverses position on private prisons!

a reply to: MOMof3

Right, but that person is better in your eyes correct?

Essentially she was the alternative in the end. Same ol same ol

a reply to: WUNK22

originally posted by: WUNK22
Ummm don't judges sentence people? Prison is for housing and control of inmates. Laws and judges might be your issue. Don't do the crime if ya can't do the time.

Not with federal "mandatory minimums".

Its all tied together.

a reply to: EternalSolace

I see 2 sides.

The community i've called home for my whole life currently operates 4 federal prisons under GEO, and 1 under the BOP. When they talked about closing 4 prisons in my hometown, unemployment fears went through the roof. They just closed a plant that does coca cola bottle manufacturing employing 200, and a couple of years ago lost a call center employing 400 and a mobile home manufacturing plant employing 180. Not to mention the price of oil and the complete lack of oil employment over the last few years.

I had mixed feelings. I do not think we s hould have private prisons. No one should profit from the seizure of rights from another individual.

morrisoninstitute.asu.edu...

When it becomes very profitable for huge corporations and their political allies to put people in prisons, we will put more people in prisons. Maybe even your child or grandchild. These corporations already command 20 - year contracts in
Arizona that guarantee payment for 90% occupancy. It is just a matter of time before these corporations become “too big to fail” and even more involved in the front end of law enforcement to make sure that their prisons stay filled. As reported i
n Business Insider, CCA pitches itself as a “unique investment opportunity,” and has valued the existing prisoner “market” at $70 billion.

Bolded emphasis mine.

So we have people being made a commodity so we can do irrational stuff like let murderers out early and imprison more nonviolent offenders.

The pull of that “market” is so strong that Arizona has private prisons that only house prisoners from other states.
In this market prisoners become valuable commodities. Each inmate’s body in a private cell has a specific dollar value to the
prison corporation. This dehumanization of prisoners flies in the face of international human rights movements and offends the 5th, 8th, 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Transporting shackled people across state boundaries
—primarily people of color— to enrich private, profitmaking institutions looks a lot like another “peculiar institution”—slavery.

For your own reference, the text of the above mentioned Amendments:

5th:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

8th:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

13th:

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

14th:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

a reply to: GraffikPleasure

Actually, I am a Bernie supporter, but my state said otherwise.

a reply to: TrueBrit

It's a perpetual process as you've said. There really isn't an incentive to rehabilitate or provide education and work skills to stop repeat offenders. It's also why these politicians will never legalize the likes of marijuana and get rid of petty jailable offenses. It's too much of a money making machine for them.

Sickening really.

originally posted by: Swills
a reply to: EternalSolace

Trump flip flopped?

No, say it ain't so?!

So long as he flopped the right direction...
Why must you all on the left attack someone for becoming more informed and educated about something then changing their stance. Like personal and individual growth is forbidden or something.
Even when he does something the left agrees with, you all go into piranha attack mode.

a reply to: JAY1980

How is supporting private prisons "becoming more educated about a stance"? If Trump ACTUALLY became more educated about this topic he'd be moving away from supporting them since public opinion of private prisons is in the crapper and there are several studies that show how private prisons are full of rights abuses.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: JAY1980

...and there are several studies that show how private prisons are full of rights abuses.

I was getting ready to bring that up in a reply to Texan. There's no doubt in my mind guards at these private prisons manufacture infractions just to add days to sentences. It wouldn't surprise to learn that the guards are even pressured to find reasons to add time.

The prison industry should be a money pit with no profits whatsoever.. It should cost the tax payers dearly. So when elections come up and constituents ask what a politician is doing to bring down crime rates and support reform... they might actually have a good answer or lose.

It's actually a good thing to block privatizing such things.

The reasoning is the federal still pays because these corporations in privatizing are then put under an exclusive contract or a sanctioned monopoly where there is no competition... then what happens? The rates for such keep increasing and increasing costing taxpayers more and more and more like the US postal service becoming privatized has steadily increased it's cost and labor to the U.S. taxpayer without really any better quality of the service; so much so several other companies have arisen in direct competition in all sectors of it except for letter delivery.

Privatization becomes an entrenched pork barrel with no competition in it's monopolized contract with either state or federal governments.

Such as Ford or Chevrolet monopolizing contracts for agent and police at the state and federal level vehicles, when Toyota happens to be the most American made automobile, they are not cheap either I sometimes wonder why there are so many sports car police vehicles around such as Mustangs and Cameros costing after being police equipt close to 1/4 million each.

It's bloat and unwarranted; and due to contract monopolies of "privatization".

When you combine the lobbying of for-profit prison companies with their financial support of Senators and Congressmen, the result is the prison companies having influence on laws, sentencing and policing. It is in their best interest to create as many prisoners as possible and for them to spend more time inside their prisons.

For profit prisons are an insane concept in a government structure that allows them to financially influence law makers.

a reply to: JAY1980

Jay...

Trump did not become more informed about the best way to reduce recidivism or rehabilitate individuals. He did not become more informed about what constitutes a moral crime, he did not become more informed about how to lessen the effects of the drug war, he did not become more informed about how to best keep the past from destroying the future.

He became more informed about the best way to make money from an infrastructure which should have ZERO interest in profit, only in producing what society wants from it, which is the provision of a place where only the dangerous and most evil people are ever sent, and from which they have next to no chance of escape. That is all people want from prisons. They do not want addicts, homeless persons and people who have committed no moral offence, no offence against the person, no offence against property, locked up for large amounts of time, over what amounts to matters of personal choice, and I think if you gave most people the choice, they would rather have a prison system whose purpose, when boiled down, is to have money spent on it, not to make it.