Does anyone know if any other country in the civilized world has for-profit prisons?

[Brigid]

Just askin'.

[PufPuf23]

1. I don't know but that is a very good question.

I looked at wiki and found only UK, USA, and Israel.

The USA has the highest jailed rate per capita.


wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison

A private prison, jail, or detention center is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned by a third party that is contracted by a local, state or federal government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with local, state, or federal governments that commit prisoners and then pay a per diem or monthly rate for each prisoner confined in the facility.

Today, the privatization of prisons refers both to the takeover of existing public facilities by private operators and to the building and operation of new and additional prisons by for-profit prison companies.

More at link including sections about UK, USA, and Israel.


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We have a western society strongly influenced by neoliberalism, Calvanism, and social Darwinism that is amoral, cruel. and not sustainable however much the Nature and how many human lives are degraded and destroyed. The society dominates an unstable World; unstable in Nature, politics, and economics.

[jmowreader]

2. Yes, other nations have them

http://www.realcostofprisons.com/index.html says:

There are 184 private prisons worldwide. They hold over 130,000 inmates.

The US has 158 private prisons in 30 states, Puerto Rico and DC.

This: http://www.economist.com/node/8599146 will give you some more information on prison privatization.

I did a few other searches, and one thing stands clear: the main way they save money in private prisons is by running a very thinly staffed hoosegow, which is why there are more prisoner control problems (riots, assaults, rapes and so on) in private jails than in public ones.

[markpkessinger]

3. Here's another fun fact about the for-profit prison industry ...

... One of its biggest investors is Barbara Bush.

[liberal N proud]

4. You knew there had to be a crony getting richer off ot it somewhere