Want Something To Get Upset About?

I saw this article today, and it shook me right to the bone. this can not happen. wow. I'll have to move to Canada. personally, I'm scared shitless, & if you live in the dang' ole' U - S - of - A, you should be too. hell, I'm not even a criminal...

Not upsetting at all.

what??!?

to garuntee(sp?) 90% occupancy for 20 years is insane!

they'll lock people up for *** & giggles!

/woggity boggity booooo!!!!!

Got to fill that quota ??

Keeping at 90% won't be hard with the currant decline of civilization. There's never a shortage of shady crooks and killers out there. I'm more worried about the growing number of bad people outside of prison, then getting thrown in jail to fill a quota.

This is hardly breaking news. The private sector prison market has been expanding in leaps, and bounds for years. This is just the next logical step in the process. Welcome to the fascist MegaCorporation controlled country we live in. Their agenda is working out pretty well for them. Civil liberties continue to decline right along with education so you end up with a populace that is too stupid to question where their rights, wages, and future went.

Inb4:

Don't forget the luxuries that keep us too lazy too do anything about it, if we do accidentally start questioning.

But ya, not too concerned about anything "changing" in order to fill the 90% quota. Looking around real quick, it seems that most states are already over 100% capacity.

Not that we shouldn't be upset and worried - we should already be upset and worried.

If we would quit locking up people forever for stuff that could be handled other ways (drug/alcohol treatment, castration, execution, ect.) we'd have plenty of room, & not be bankrupt. I don't want to incarcerate pot dealers & prostitues, it's silly.

meh, maybe it's just my hangup, but it seems we're too quick to throw fools in there already

Damn, beat me to it.
Or

This is nothing too shocking. I have worked in jails at both the county and federal level. Huntsville, TX State Pen (Gov. owned and run) and Johnson County Corrections (Private management) both as an on site EMT.

The only thing that really changes from state controlled to private owned is that the pay their officers and staff less. Which ultimately just brings in more "nuisance" contraband from the officers (i.e. cigarettes, food, drugs, etc... crap that is always gonna be there).

Privately owned and for profit jails aren't the end of the world. They have even been shown to pay inmates (not always with cash, but with free commissary, better facilities, more free time, etc.).

That makes sense. And really, I am all for prison industries. Learn skills, keep busy, make money for whoever is running the place, maybe make some money for yourself... seems pretty win win.

As long as we keep small-time drug offenders in prison it won't be hard to keep prisons filled at all. Legalize weed (I don't even smoke, so that isn't my angle) and get all of the offenders out of prison to make room for the people that deserve to be there. Tax the ***out of whatever ya make legal, and call it a day.

You are a brave one! Isn't that where the worst of the worst here go? Wasn't a couple members of The Texas Seven sent there in the late 90's?

Forgive me for not giving corporations or privately owned institutions of any kind the benefit of the doubt. After all these are the same embodiments that secretly and illegally create life insurance policies to cash out on from their own employees, outsource their workforce, diminish local wages, and other stuff that makes me sick to my stomach.

Honestly I never had any issues there. If you treat inmates like people, they tend to be pretty cool to you. And since I was just medical, not a PO, I never had anyone hate me "just because." My brother worked as an officer there in the segregated unit. He dealt mostly with 18~30 year old gang-bangers and still didn't have many problems.

People make prisons out to be like someone is getting raped in the shower every evening. When the fact is, it is mostly just a bunch of guys milling about all day asking stupid questions and wanting stupid favors to pass the time.

It's a bad idea... just like how Chicago sold its streets and the skyway toll way... It's a short term gratification that will lead to more fiscal problems for the state down the line.

Edit: I have to deal with the insurance side of prisons (mainly healthcare groups that work there) and it's a headache...

this is kinda my point, couple that with trying to create policies that imprisions more of the population instead of less, seems like a very dangerous path too take.

I hope you're equally skeptical about government agencies. They're almost totally unaccountable, can't adhere to any kind of budget, and have no incentive to be efficient. It's all bad. :(


But 90% capacity would be a decrease. (Again, still terrible.)

I'm all for legalizing weed, however I don't feel Evan taking all those charges away will drop us below 90%.

that's a damn good point I suppose

90% just seemed scary

I guess the 100-110% we're operating at now really blows

***' beaten.. :<

Seriously, that's like the first thing that went through my mind.

My uncle has spent about half his life there, he's there now in fact.. For violating his parole by drinking and driving (he wasn't even supposed to be drinking) and he was on parole for his 5th DUI.

I don't think it's the worst prison to be in, but it's not a good place to be.. I don't think anyone in my family BUT him could make it in there. He's told me some stories, and I know one of the times he was in there when I was younger, he somehow ended up owing hundreds of dollars to other inmates, and he was getting his *** kicked everyday and ***.. It was right around the time my grandparents filed bankruptcy, lost most of their property, including our own house, he kept calling and trying to get my grandparents to send him money, but we didn't have any to send.

This seems fitting.