Privatized Prisons Don't Always Save Money

[P F Tinmore]

Policy Matters’ research was conducted by ex-Plain Dealer reporter Bob Paynter, a longtime investigation journalist who took the buyout bus in 2008. His mission was to examine whether or not the private prisons the state opened in 2000 really saved Ohioans at least 5 percent of what it would have cost the government to handle the work themselves, as the statute requires. Right now the government likes to say privatization has saved the state $45 million. But Paynter found out that the state’s work with a measuring stick has been spotty.

Their methods for calculating the seemingly robust savings have changed substantially and, in some case, inexplicably over the last several biennia. A detailed examination of those calculations shows them not only to be riddled with errors, oversights and omissions of significant data, but also potentially tainted by controversial accounting assumptions that many experts consider deeply flawed

In fact, revised calculations suggest that it may actually have cost taxpayers MORE to contract with a private vendor for operations at the Lake Erie Correctional Facility in Conneaut for fiscal years 2006 and 2007 than to have allowed the state to run it.

Policy Matters Ohio: Privatized Prisons Don't Always Save Money | Scene and Heard: Scene's News Blog

 

[uscitizen]

KY is in the same situation. The privatization of the prison system is actually costing more.
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[P F Tinmore]

KY is in the same situation. The privatization of the prison system is actually costing more.
'

Cost + profits = Less than cost ???

No wonder they found accounting flaws.

 

[editec]

Privatized prisons are EVIL INCARNATE.

They are without a doubt the DUMBEST THING a FREEDOM LOVING people can allow to happen.

It doesn't surprise me one whit, that NEOCONS and their many spin off lunatics of the right APPROVE of them.

They basically approve of everything that leads to turning people into SLAVES.

And nothing says slave like FOR PROFIT PRISONS.

 

[uscitizen]

Privatized prisons are EVIL INCARNATE.

They are without a doubt the DUMBEST THING a FREEDOM LOVING people can allow to happen.

It doesn't surprise me one whit, that NEOCONS and their many spin off lunatics of the right APPROVE of them.

They basically approve of everything that leads to turning people into SLAVES.

And nothing says slave like FOR PROFIT PRISONS.

Yep it is just basically morally wrong.

 

[Anachronism]

We don't have PRISONS in the United States. If we were to go back to a PRISON system there wouldn't be this sort of problem. The last real PRISON in the US was on an island in San Francisco Bay. Until we go back to that sort of PRISON system, don't whine to me that you're losing money. Get rid of the Cable TV, the Gyms, the Libraries, the Educational facilities, etc.... That should make plenty of room for more gas chambers, electric chairs, or whatever execution facility a particular state uses. Once we stop allowing these places to be resorts for criminals and make them truly places of PUNISHMENT, the cost of them will come down significantly.

 

[ba1614]

As a mostly conservative individual I think there is something very, very wrong with profiting from the incarceration of another person. I don't purport to have the answer, but this just feels wrong.

I do however think these fucked up politically correct policies that make the costs/hassles prohibitive for government to run need to be seriously reviewed. Make them work for their keep, and if they won't, lock them up with no privileges at all.

 

[P F Tinmore]

Private prisons hire lobbyists to push for more laws requiring prison time and longer sentences for existing laws so they can suck more money out of the taxpayers. This extra cost is not figured into the "savings."

California got suckered into the three strikes law and their prison cost is huge. I don't hear anyone complain about that cost when they talk about California's irresponsibility.

 

[Anachronism]

Private prisons hire lobbyists to push for more laws requiring prison time and longer sentences for existing laws so they can suck more money out of the taxpayers. This extra cost is not figured into the "savings."

California got suckered into the three strikes law and their prison cost is huge. I don't hear anyone complain about that cost when they talk about California's irresponsibility.

That's why we need to fix the laws.... Violent Criminals shouldn't go to jail. They should go to the Morgue. Quickly. Without undo excessive appeals and bureacratic red tape. That right there would create a massive savings in the system. Three strikes laws.... the third strike should be the same as the Violent Criminals. Additionally, keeping these animals locked in their cages 23 hours a day, without the "Rights" and "Privileges" that so many of them still get inside today would reduce costs.

 

[P F Tinmore]

Private prisons hire lobbyists to push for more laws requiring prison time and longer sentences for existing laws so they can suck more money out of the taxpayers. This extra cost is not figured into the "savings."

California got suckered into the three strikes law and their prison cost is huge. I don't hear anyone complain about that cost when they talk about California's irresponsibility.

That's why we need to fix the laws.... Violent Criminals shouldn't go to jail. They should go to the Morgue. Quickly. Without undo excessive appeals and bureacratic red tape. That right there would create a massive savings in the system. Three strikes laws.... the third strike should be the same as the Violent Criminals. Additionally, keeping these animals locked in their cages 23 hours a day, without the "Rights" and "Privileges" that so many of them still get inside today would reduce costs.

It costs us thirty grand a year to keep someone in prison for smoking a joint on probation.

That doesn't make any sense to me.

A small minority of people are in prison for violent crimes.

 

[Leweman]

How can a prison system ever be privatized? Who is going to pay for the services offered by the prison. The criminals? The victims? This idea of privatization of prisons makes absolutely no sense to me. Please explain.

 

[GHook93]

The 13th amendment had a specific crave out for inmates! They were not (and should not) expected to be protected from indentured servitude. After all they are criminals. Prisons bankrupt counties, when they get privatized they usually cut cost and run more effectively. However, like any business some do better than others, some succeed and some fail. However, when the government runs a business, the result is always the same, failure!

Privatized prisons are EVIL INCARNATE.

They are without a doubt the DUMBEST THING a FREEDOM LOVING people can allow to happen.

It doesn't surprise me one whit, that NEOCONS and their many spin off lunatics of the right APPROVE of them.

They basically approve of everything that leads to turning people into SLAVES.

And nothing says slave like FOR PROFIT PRISONS.

 

[P F Tinmore]

How can a prison system ever be privatized? Who is going to pay for the services offered by the prison. The criminals? The victims? This idea of privatization of prisons makes absolutely no sense to me. Please explain.

Private companies build, or lease from the government, prisons that are run for profit. The government then pays them on a per bed basis.

Of course the more prisoners, the more profit. That is why they have lobbyists.

 

[Anachronism]

It costs us thirty grand a year to keep someone in prison for smoking a joint on probation.

That doesn't make any sense to me.

A small minority of people are in prison for violent crimes.

I agree it doesn't make any sense. It shouldn't cost half of that to keep them in jail.

Of course I have a different feeling on those who commit Moral Crimes (like drug possession). They don't get a trial. They don't get incarcerated. They have Justice handed out by the "Arresting" Officer on the scene and go directly to the morgue.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

How can a prison system ever be privatized? Who is going to pay for the services offered by the prison. The criminals? The victims? This idea of privatization of prisons makes absolutely no sense to me.

Wait'll the..........

.....pro-privatizing-clowns, in Florida.....

.....get a load o' THIS!!!!​

"The story of Boydton is playing out in small towns across Virginia and around the nation. Many depressed rural communities welcomed prisons in recent decades as sources of jobs and revenue — The Post dubbed it “salvation through incarceration.”

But budget woes and moves to jail fewer nonviolent offenders are leading states to mothball dozens of correctional facilities — an unexpected blow for communities already suffering from the recession. In 2o10, the overall U.S. prison population declined for the first time in four decades to 1.6 million and at least 13 states closed prisons. Virginia alone has closed 10, in addition to Mecklenburg, since 2009.

Many in towns that saw factories go overseas and farms wither never imagined a prison could disappear too. The jobs were supposed to be recession proof. After all, it was government work and there was always more bad guys to lock up. They built their lives and communities around that belief.

Now they are watching their last economic lifelines go away and wondering: How will we survive?"

Locking-Up "Those People" No-LONGER Profitable​

 

[tinydancer]

I have a huge issue with privatized penal colonies.

This issue sets me clean off. It is inherently wrong to incarcerate any individual for any crime as a government and as the law of the land and then turn that individual to a private business who profits from criminal behavior.

Makes my head spin like Linda Blair's on this. It is just so blatantly wrong.

 

[Seawytch]

I have a huge issue with privatized penal colonies.

This issue sets me clean off. It is inherently wrong to incarcerate any individual for any crime as a government and as the law of the land and then turn that individual to a private business who profits from criminal behavior.

Makes my head spin like Linda Blair's on this. It is just so blatantly wrong.

But so "free market"...

 

[editec]

Privatized prisons are an affront to the very concept of democracy and freedom.

It is probably wise to assume that anyone who supports the concept of for-profit prisons is a fascist motherfucker.

You know, like Cheyney?

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Privatized prisons are EVIL INCARNATE.

They are without a doubt the DUMBEST THING a FREEDOM LOVING people can allow to happen.

It doesn't surprise me one whit, that NEOCONS and their many spin off lunatics of the right APPROVE of them.

They basically approve of everything that leads to turning people into SLAVES.

And nothing says slave like FOR PROFIT PRISONS.

Mike Fasano (R) surely does know that....

.....NOW!!!!​

"The biggest critic of a massive prison privatization scheme in Florida was stripped of his chairmanship of the Budget Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriation for opposing Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) plan to outsource prison oversight to the lowest bidder."

 

[Mr. Shaman]

We don't have PRISONS in the United States. If we were to go back to a PRISON system there wouldn't be this sort of problem. The last real PRISON in the US was on an island in San Francisco Bay. Until we go back to that sort of PRISON system, don't whine to me that you're losing money. Get rid of the Cable TV, the Gyms, the Libraries, the Educational facilities, etc....

....And, you were doing-time for what??


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