As Private Jails Reopen, Critics See Long Arm of the Lobbyists

[Rose Siding]

SACRAMENTO — The Schwarzenegger administration has quietly moved to reopen two private prisons a year after mothballing them — and after a company that stands to profit retained consultants close to the governor and his inner circle.

Administration officials attribute the reversal to an unexpected rise in the number of prisoners. Prisons Department critics point to the private prison company's lobbying.
The administration has decided to reopen two facilities, one of which is a 224-bed prison in the Central Valley town of McFarland. A Florida company ran the McFarland facility for 15 years until Dec. 31, 2003, when the state moved its last prisoners out.
...
A company that is a spinoff of GEO and owns the prison at McFarland placed Donna Arduin on its board of trustees in October, 10 days after she left her job as Schwarzenegger's director of the Department of Finance, which oversees all state spending.

"This was an administration that said they weren't going to be influenced by special interests," said Lance Corcoran, executive vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., the union that represents state prison guards and opposes private lockups.
"The private prison industry to us is a special interest."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prisons21jan21,0,5348670.story?coll=la-home-local

[UL_Approved]

1. Very bad.

This sounds like the start of a scandal. What a Stalinist tactic to use, making prisons into a for-profit organization.

When private prisons get made, people should feel betrayed. Prison is a social service, not a business. People should be in them because they did something wrong, not because they are making money for somebody.

[Benhurst]

2. Fascism in the literal sense of the word. NT

[TahitiNut]

3. The Constitutional limits on infringement of human rights ....

... do not, it is claimed, apply to private organizations. Thus, when governmental power is transferred to a private organization without the identical limits and constraints, we have a fundamental violation of human rights. This applies to prisons, schools, the military, and all manner of PIRACY (privateers having Letters of Marque). At the same time these pirates have few of the constraints, they have even less accountability. Not only are they Limited Liability organizations (by so-called virtue of incorporation), but they receive guaranteed profits exceeding any remaining risk and receive legislated entitlements.

Privatization of government is an abomination of the principles upon which we have founded our government. It is not just a threat to Liberty, it's a wholesale sell-out.

[Supersedeas]

4. now do the Federal Sentencing Guidelines make more sense?