Private Prisons Experience Business Surge

[Joanne98]

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
1 hour, 56 minutes ago



NEW YORK - Though state governments are no longer fueling a private prison boom, the industry's major companies are upbeat — thanks in large measure to a surge of business from federal agencies seeking to house fast-rising numbers of criminals and detained aliens.


Since 2000, the number of federal inmates in private facilities — prisons and halfway houses — has increased by two-thirds to more than 24,000. Thousands more detainees not convicted of crimes are confined in for-profit facilities, which now hold roughly 14 percent of all federal prisoners, compared to less than 6 percent of state inmates.

Critics, including prisoners rights groups and unionized corrections officers, contend the policy amounts to a federal bailout of an industry that would otherwise be struggling with a checkered record. The companies and the government say they provide a flexible, economical alternative to building new federal prisons as get-tough policies boost demand for space in an overcrowded system.

"If the Bureau of Prisons is going to build capacity for themselves, they have to plan eight years in advance," said John Ferguson, chief executive of the Corrections Corporation of America, the biggest company in the field. "It takes a lot longer in the public sector than private sector to get things done."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050730/ap_on_re_us/private_prisons

[Moderator]

1. Post a link please

Thank you

[Joanne98]

2. Got it. Thanx

[tabasco]

3. The police state is here. It exists not to protect us ....

but to perpetuate itself.

We are in big trouble if working class people that vote republican don't wake up. Yes, a lot of Dems are bought off too, but the republicans exist for the SOLE PURPOSE of furthering the corporate agenda.

[pretzel4gore]

4. because nazipoos want it that way....

i notice the biggest baddest most venal unions have attached themselves to public service, and that aint because there aren't plenty of union men who'd like to see public services cost effective; it's because public services and killer unions are a natural fit in the minds of your rupert merdock pigmedia assholes...

[William Bloode]

5. Private prisons are badly run.

I know 1st hand having been sent to one in Texas from my home state in the early/mid 90's. Poor, poor conditions, super over crowded, very limited food, bad medical care etc. It was so bad that we infact got on the national news because we rioted and took over the prison :D Nothing like taking a surly corrections officer and making him your bitch :headbang:

We got tired of getting starved and beaten, maced, and left to rot. The incident that got it all started was a hack cracked one of our boys on the hand. His hand was on a sharp edge and the blow resulted in broken lacerated fingers. He requested treatment for days! Do you know how he got it finally? One of our state reps came thru and asked him about it, because it looked so bad. Well they got on it quick, but after our state rep was gone treatment ceased, and we got starved out for complaints. So we took the joint over ;)

Many of us got charged with inciting and participating in said riot. They dropped the charges soon after because of liability in court for their own actions. Our charges were dropped, as long as we signed an agreement to not sue.

Just a scant month later we were all resent back home to N.C., and our state was actually good enough to get right to work on bringing back all outsourced prisoners.

Yes state prison sucks to, but they do take much better care of you. In our state there is a minimum standard of care/space etc that protects you, not so out of state.

[TroglodyteScholar]

6. Good story...thanks for sharing n/t

[merh]

7. Of course, lodging with 100% occupancy.

No need for a vacancy sign. Our disposable society believes in using private land fills, prisons are the human land fills of our society. No recycling, no rehabilation, no vacancies.

:cry:

[wli]

8. the fascists drool at the prospect of imprisoning 100 million or more

They wouldn't even have to pay the workers at all anymore.

[54anickel]

9. The prison torture scandal at home - Adrian Lomax

ADRIAN LOMAX spent 24 years in prison in Wisconsin until he was paroled last August. Behind bars, he became a jailhouse lawyer, prisoner-rights activist and prolific writer.

His articles have appeared in the book The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry, the Isthmus newspaper of Madison, Wis., and other publications. Since his release, he has continued his involvement in the fight against the criminal injustice system.

Here, Adrian writes about torture in U.S. prisons--in Iraq and at home.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

WITH AMERICAN military personnel being sentenced to prison for abusing Iraqi prisoners of war and Amnesty International calling the military detention facility at Guantánamo Bay a “gulag,” the world’s attention is being drawn to this nation’s treatment of the prisoners it takes on foreign battlefields.
That’s an encouraging development, but as someone who’s spent more than his share of time in prisons right here in the U.S., I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. More than 2 million people languish in prisons and jails here, frequently enduring conditions of confinement that rise to the level of torture.

more...