Prison dilemmas
November 6, 2009 8:14 PM Subscribe
What is the best argument for keeping the prison system the way it currently is in the U.S?
Are there any real reasons for not privatizing? I've done my fair share of reading, but I just don't see real disadvantages of privatization of prisons?
What's more than that is I don't see any advantages of the current status quo over any other alternative. It seems to be inefficient, a drain on the economy, those who should be in prison are released early, the majority of those in prison are for non violent or drug related offenses. I just don't see what we're achieving with the way things work now.
Can someone please tell me what I'm missing here? Is it just not a priority for anyone to fix it? Is there something great about our system that I'm overlooking?
Are there any real reasons for not privatizing? I've done my fair share of reading, but I just don't see real disadvantages of privatization of prisons?
What's more than that is I don't see any advantages of the current status quo over any other alternative. It seems to be inefficient, a drain on the economy, those who should be in prison are released early, the majority of those in prison are for non violent or drug related offenses. I just don't see what we're achieving with the way things work now.
Can someone please tell me what I'm missing here? Is it just not a priority for anyone to fix it? Is there something great about our system that I'm overlooking?
This post was deleted for the following reason: this is sort of XYZ sucks AMIRITE and needs to be more of a question and less of a rant. -- jessamyn
Yup. That and get your own blog.
posted by Nick Verstayne at 8:19 PM on November 6, 2009
posted by Nick Verstayne at 8:19 PM on November 6, 2009
Response by poster: Sorry, delete away. I thought it was a pretty straightforward economics (albeit of prisons) question.
I don't need a blog, Nick Verstayne, thanks.
posted by ttyn at 8:21 PM on November 6, 2009
I don't need a blog, Nick Verstayne, thanks.
posted by ttyn at 8:21 PM on November 6, 2009
My understanding of the US prison system is that it's entirely driven by politics, grown from the American fear of random crime that (I believe) became epidemic in the sixties, around the time of the race riots.
After the riots, it became politically advantageous for candidates to be 'hard on crime' and almost entirely unviable for a candidate to be 'soft on crime.' Thus, politicians became unable to cut prison funding, and further 'hard on crime' measures (such as three-strikes laws and mandatory sentencing laws, which remove the opinions of the judge from the sentencing process) caused an unending explosion in the prison population.
And that puts us where you have things today: Really big prisons overflowing with non-violent offenders whose lives are now permanently broken.
posted by kaibutsu at 8:26 PM on November 6, 2009
After the riots, it became politically advantageous for candidates to be 'hard on crime' and almost entirely unviable for a candidate to be 'soft on crime.' Thus, politicians became unable to cut prison funding, and further 'hard on crime' measures (such as three-strikes laws and mandatory sentencing laws, which remove the opinions of the judge from the sentencing process) caused an unending explosion in the prison population.
And that puts us where you have things today: Really big prisons overflowing with non-violent offenders whose lives are now permanently broken.
posted by kaibutsu at 8:26 PM on November 6, 2009
What's more than that is I don't see any advantages of the current status quo over any other alternative. It seems to be inefficient, a drain on the economy, those who should be in prison are released early, the majority of those in prison are for non violent or drug related offenses. I just don't see what we're achieving with the way things work now.
Before you have an argument against something, you need to have an argument for something. As in. how would privatizing prisons solve those problems?
I realize that a lot of people run around saying that private enterprise is "more efficient" then government but that only makes sense when you have a competitive market. Just look at haliburton, KBR and other contractors in Iraq. They just looted the place. All over the country you see corruption and sleaze around local government contracts.
If prisons were run for a profit you would see two problems. 1) Those running the prisons would have every incentive to apply political pressure to increase the number of people in prison. You see that dynamic with the prison guards union in California, which always supports laws to build more prisons and keep people in prison longer. A more dramatic example would be the case of Mark Ciavarella who took 2.6 million dollars in kickbacks to send children to privately run prisons, who might otherwise have not been sent to jail.
The other more obvious problem is that private prisons would be in the business of profitability, and would try to squeeze every penny they could. That means treating the prisoners as bad as possible in order to make a buck. From scrimping on food, medical care, fitness, etc it would make the situation for prisoners as bad as possible, while currently there's no real incentive either way.
So anyway, what exactly do you see as the benefit of prison privatization?
posted by delmoi at 8:39 PM on November 6, 2009
Before you have an argument against something, you need to have an argument for something. As in. how would privatizing prisons solve those problems?
I realize that a lot of people run around saying that private enterprise is "more efficient" then government but that only makes sense when you have a competitive market. Just look at haliburton, KBR and other contractors in Iraq. They just looted the place. All over the country you see corruption and sleaze around local government contracts.
If prisons were run for a profit you would see two problems. 1) Those running the prisons would have every incentive to apply political pressure to increase the number of people in prison. You see that dynamic with the prison guards union in California, which always supports laws to build more prisons and keep people in prison longer. A more dramatic example would be the case of Mark Ciavarella who took 2.6 million dollars in kickbacks to send children to privately run prisons, who might otherwise have not been sent to jail.
The other more obvious problem is that private prisons would be in the business of profitability, and would try to squeeze every penny they could. That means treating the prisoners as bad as possible in order to make a buck. From scrimping on food, medical care, fitness, etc it would make the situation for prisoners as bad as possible, while currently there's no real incentive either way.
So anyway, what exactly do you see as the benefit of prison privatization?
posted by delmoi at 8:39 PM on November 6, 2009
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posted by Inspector.Gadget at 8:17 PM on November 6, 2009