Police State: How For-Profit Prisons Have Become The Biggest Lobby No One's Talking About...

[paulitician]

Lock em up, and throw away the key!!


Several industries have become notorious for the millions they spend on influencing legislation and getting friendly candidates into office: Big Oil, Big Pharma and the gun lobby among them. But one has managed to quickly build influence with comparatively little scrutiny: Private prisons. The two largest for-profit prison companies in the United States – GEO andCorrections Corporation of America – and their associates have funneled more than $10 million to candidates since 1989 and have spent nearly $25 million on lobbying efforts. Meanwhile, these private companies have seen their revenue and market share soar. They now rake in a combined $3.3 billion in annual revenue and the private federal prison population more than doubled between 2000 and 2010, according to a report by the Justice Policy Institute. Private companies house nearly half of the nation’s immigrant detainees, compared to about 25 percent a decade ago, a Huffington Post report found. In total, there are now about 130 private prisons in the country with about 157,000 beds.

Marco Rubio is one of the best examples of the private prison industry’s growing political influence, a connection that deserves far more attention now that he’s officially launched a presidential bid. The U.S. senator has a history of close ties to the nation’s second-largest for-profit prison company, GEO Group, stretching back to his days as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. While Rubio was leading the House, GEO was awarded a state government contract for a $110 million prison soon after Rubio hiredan economic consultant who had been a trustee for a GEO real estate trust.

Read More:
How for-profit prisons have become the biggest lobby no one is talking about - The Washington Post

 

[Mad Scientist]

Just like Major League Sports make money with full stadiums, Private Prisons make money when they're at Max Capacity. Yes, it's written into their contracts with the States.

There is a Monetary Incentive for Lawmakers to pass Laws that assure Maximum Capacity by putting You and I in Jail. (But no Jail for Bankers of course)

 

[AVG-JOE]

Even without the recent profit incentives, the USA has a history of incarcerating more per capita than any other country, including places like China, Iran and N. Korea.

Something to think about when that tough on crime candidate touts the virtue of throwing your kids in prison for smoking a weed.

 

[paulitician]

Just like Major League Sports make money with full stadiums, Private Prisons make money when they're at Max Capacity. Yes, it's written into their contracts with the States.

There is a Monetary Incentive for Lawmakers to pass Laws that assure Maximum Capacity by putting You and I in Jail. (But no Jail for Bankers of course)

It's very disturbing. But most Americans don't care. They're too busy sittin around arguing about who's a 'Racist' or 'Homophobe.' It's a divide & conquer distraction strategy. Pit American against American and watch them dance. Meanwhile, the Police State grows larger and more oppressive by the day.

 

[paulitician]

Even without the recent profit incentives, the USA has a history of incarcerating more per capita than any other country, including places like China, Iran and N. Korea.

Something to think about when that tough on crime candidate touts the virtue of throwing your kids in prison for smoking a weed.

Yes, the U.S. imprisons more of its Citizens than any other Nation on earth. Most of that's due to archaic drug laws. Most drugs should be decriminalized. And then Millions of Citizens should be released from cages they never belonged in.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

Arresting let alone incarcerating people for any amount of time for the possession of marijuana is nonsense.

 

[Katzndogz]

With some of these prisoners, this is the first job they ever had.

 

[Katzndogz]

Even without the recent profit incentives, the USA has a history of incarcerating more per capita than any other country, including places like China, Iran and N. Korea.

Something to think about when that tough on crime candidate touts the virtue of throwing your kids in prison for smoking a weed.

China does not arrest nor imprison anyone for any drug offense. So China's prison population doesn't contain the numbers for drug users.

 

[Disir]

We were talking about it twenty years ago. Geo via ALEC writes the legislation for incarceration. It's why we were raising hell with Arizona's racist laws. Geo and CCA have mega lawsuits that tax payers pay for. Big bucks in detention facilities for immigration.

 

[Disir]

Even without the recent profit incentives, the USA has a history of incarcerating more per capita than any other country, including places like China, Iran and N. Korea.

Something to think about when that tough on crime candidate touts the virtue of throwing your kids in prison for smoking a weed.

China does not arrest nor imprison anyone for any drug offense. So China's prison population doesn't contain the numbers for drug users.

Ahead of International Drug Day China Executes 6 The Diplomat

 

[Disir]

Limiting Judicial Discretion

• ALEC's "Judicial Sentencing Disclosure Act" requires that courts maintain a record of a judge's sentencing that will be subjected to public scrutiny, and will likely incentivize judges to increase sentences.

• ALEC's "Minimum-Mandatory Sentencing Act" limits judicial discretion by creating mandatory sentencing guidelines, which have largely led America to have the highest incarceration rate in the world.

• ALEC's "Mandatory Sentencing for Repeated Felony Theft from a Retail Store Act" increases criminal penalties for retail theft and reduces a judge's discretion in sentencing by requiring a mandatory minimum sentence. This bill would limit a judge's ability to impose alternate or lesser punishments based on the individual circumstances.

• ALEC's "Truth in Sentencing Act" requires that all defendants serve at least 85 percent of their sentence and not be eligible for parole or early release programs. This type of bill leads to higher incarceration rates, which is a burden on taxpayers.

Changing Juveniles' Status and Detention Programs

• ALEC's "Juvenile Boot Camp Act" and "Shock Incarceration Act" creates military-style basic training alternatives to traditional methods of juvenile incarceration and rehabilitation.

• ALEC's "Automatic Juvenile Waiver Act" would allow a prosecutor to decide if a juvenile will be judged in the adult or juvenile criminal justice system based on the crime committed.

Restricting Constitutional Rights

• ALEC's "Hearsay in Public Hearings Act" would roll back constitutional protections in criminal justice, specifically common law rules aimed at deterring police

misconduct. This bill would allow the admission of hearsay evidence in determining whether probable cause originally existed.

• ALEC's "Criminal Justice Drug Testing Act" authorizes agencies to require that all persons charged with a crime be drug tested, even if no probable cause exists to suspect a person of being a drug user. This would open the door to a conviction

for a non-drug relation crime not based on evidence, but bias.

Privatizing Prisons

• ALEC's "Private Correctional Facilities Act" would allow any unit of government to contract with the private sector to perform services currently performed by a corrections agency.

• ALEC's "Targeted Contracting for Certain Correctional Facilities and Services Act" allows state agencies to contract out incarceration and prison services.

• ALEC's "Housing Out-of-State Prisoners in a Private Prison Act" allows a private prison operating in one state to contract with another state to hold prisoners without the consent of the local government in which the private prison is located.

Securing Revenue for the Commercial Bail Bond Industry

• ALEC's "Conditional Early Release Bond" creates a new revenue stream for the commercial bail bond industry by collecting fees on the front end, from people seeking release from jail before their hearing date, and on the back end, requiring that

incarcerated persons pay bail bondsmen to get out of prison under supervised early release programs.

• ALEC's "Crimes With Bail Restrictions Act" would prevent courts and law enforcement from exploring alternative methods of pre-trail release. For the crimes listed in the bill, the only way the accused can be released is through paying a bondsman.

Supporting Reform That Benefits Corporate Backers

• ALEC is a member of the conservative "Right on Crime" campaign, which promotes criminal justice reform by cutting the budget of the state corrections department and reducing judicial sentences. The Right on Crime campaign sides with large corporations, many which are ALEC members, as it calls for reforming antitrust laws, which regulate corporate activities so monopolies are not formed, and calls for reforming the out-of-court prosecution of corporations. While the Right on Crime campaign claims these reforms would improve the criminal justice system, they clearly are a way to loosen corporate restrictions and give legal protection to corporations. The campaign also focuses on rehabilitation and reentry programs, which largely benefits ALEC members. U.S. Rep Jerry Madden, who heads the Corrections and Reentry Working Group, served as the Public Safety and Elections Task Force Co-Chair until the task force was disbanded in 2012. Other groups that were on the task force that would benefit from the "Right on Crime" campaign include the Prison Fellowship Ministries (a reentry nonprofit) and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which launched the "Right on Crime" campaign in 2010.
• ALEC Criminal Justice - ALEC Exposed

 

[paulitician]

Arresting let alone incarcerating people for any amount of time for the possession of marijuana is nonsense.

Amen!

 

[hipeter924]

They sue the states if they refuse to jail enough of the 'quota', so states are incentivized to put people in jail on trumped up charges and violate constitutional rights of citizens.

Private prisons are a sham, and a miscarriage of justice.

If anyone deserves to be locked up, it is people that run private prisons.

 

[g5000]

China does not arrest nor imprison anyone for any drug offense.

Where in blazes did you ever get that idea!?!

The World s Scariest Places to be Busted For Drugs

According to the Drug Policy Alliance, China adheres strictly to its zero tolerance stance on drug use. By some conservative estimates, China executes between 2,000 and 15,000 people a year for assorted drug offenses. In 2009, for example, British national Akmal Shaikh was put to death for smuggling heroin, despite the strong objections of Britain’s then-prime minister, Gordon Brown.

 

[The VOR]

China does not arrest nor imprison anyone for any drug offense.

Where in blazes did you ever get that idea!?!

The World s Scariest Places to be Busted For Drugs

According to the Drug Policy Alliance, China adheres strictly to its zero tolerance stance on drug use. By some conservative estimates, China executes between 2,000 and 15,000 people a year for assorted drug offenses. In 2009, for example, British national Akmal Shaikh was put to death for smuggling heroin, despite the strong objections of Britain’s then-prime minister, Gordon Brown.

The idiot just made it up. This is what nitwits do.

 

[Agit8r]

That can only be called tyranny.

 

[LoneLaugher]

There are people talking about it. Why don't you know that?

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

Arresting let alone incarcerating people for any amount of time for the possession of marijuana is nonsense.

Amen!

Seriously. I'm not even a pot smoker. I have no dog in the fight...

 

[Flopper]

Lock em up, and throw away the key!!


Several industries have become notorious for the millions they spend on influencing legislation and getting friendly candidates into office: Big Oil, Big Pharma and the gun lobby among them. But one has managed to quickly build influence with comparatively little scrutiny: Private prisons. The two largest for-profit prison companies in the United States – GEO andCorrections Corporation of America – and their associates have funneled more than $10 million to candidates since 1989 and have spent nearly $25 million on lobbying efforts. Meanwhile, these private companies have seen their revenue and market share soar. They now rake in a combined $3.3 billion in annual revenue and the private federal prison population more than doubled between 2000 and 2010, according to a report by the Justice Policy Institute. Private companies house nearly half of the nation’s immigrant detainees, compared to about 25 percent a decade ago, a Huffington Post report found. In total, there are now about 130 private prisons in the country with about 157,000 beds.

Marco Rubio is one of the best examples of the private prison industry’s growing political influence, a connection that deserves far more attention now that he’s officially launched a presidential bid. The U.S. senator has a history of close ties to the nation’s second-largest for-profit prison company, GEO Group, stretching back to his days as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives. While Rubio was leading the House, GEO was awarded a state government contract for a $110 million prison soon after Rubio hiredan economic consultant who had been a trustee for a GEO real estate trust.

Read More:
How for-profit prisons have become the biggest lobby no one is talking about - The Washington Post

The biggest problem with private prisons is they work diligently to keep them full since that's how they make money. It is certainly not in their interest to rehabilitate prisoners. Parole and early release depends on a good report from the prison personnel, again not in there best interest to see prisoners leave.

If we going to have private prisons, they should be paid based on successful rehabilitation, not how successful they are at keeping them full.

 

[paulitician]

Arresting let alone incarcerating people for any amount of time for the possession of marijuana is nonsense.

Amen!

Seriously. I'm not even a pot smoker. I have no dog in the fight...

I don't smoke either. But arresting and shoving someone in a cage for Marijuana, is just stupid and barbaric. Decriminalize it and immediately release millions of Citizens from cages they don't belong in.