Rallies Planned Against Private Prisons

[jugoso]

Background of CCR:

Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, is the largest for-profit prison corporation in the U.S. ^[1] CCA runs over 60 prisons in about 20 U.S. states plus Washington, DC. CCA has contracts with all three federal corrections agencies (Federal Bureau of Prisons, the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement), nearly half of all states and more than a dozen local municipalities.^[1] It is the fifth-largest corrections system in the U.S., with only the federal government and three states having larger prison systems.^[1] The company trades on the New York Stock Exchange with the symbol CXW. In 2006, revenue was $1.3 billion with profits of $105 million.^[

In May, 2011, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Harley Lappin was hired as Executive Vice President and Chief Corrections Officer of CCA.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Corrections_Corporation_of_America

The Protest:

The protest is the start of a week of action against CCA, which is marking thirty years in the private prison business by celebrating with parties at facilities, a trivia contest, and—as Bob Lidal of the group Grassroots Leadership puts it—"a general giddiness that makes one a bit ill."

On Tuesday, organizers along with civil rights leaders, people of faith, criminal justice reform groups and immigrant rights organizations are holding a rally and press conference outside CCA’s Correctional Treatment Facility in downtown Washington DC.

"The emergence of [CCA] as a leading prison profiteer is a result of a thoughtful promulgation of laws and policies on a federal and state level," said the ACLU in a statement which argued that such these efforts—many of them actively pushed by the private prison industry—have resulted in tremendous profits for CCA while simultaneously generating a trend of mass incarceration for huge numbers of African Americans, immigrants, and similarly vulnerable populations across the country.

Issues to consider:

Tough-on-crime sentencing policies in the 1980s included the expansion of mandatory sentencing, three strikes policies and abolishing parole on the federal level. Through tactics like pushing for minimum occupancy guarantees in its prisons, CCA has both contributed to and benefited from this explosion in incarceration.

Further, a number of studies demonstrate that for-profit prisons like CCA are more dangerous and have higher levels of violence than public prisons. The ACLU cites a recent study which found in one state assault rates in private prisons were two to three times higher than state-run prisons.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/05/07-2

[Rafterman]

Who has two thumbs and doesn't give a damn?

[Clarakore]

Privatization of prisons was never a good idea.

Edited May 7, 2013 by Leave Britney alone!

[aztek]

what is wrong with cca? what difference does it make, who runs the prison? just worry about not doing **** that gets you a trip there.

imo we don't profit enough, they should be sent to effing uranium mines, and work for free, and not live in warm and comfort, and run their gang, get drugs, money, and sometimes screw with female guards, (it does happen more often than many think) there. it can be hell for someone who is not a tough criminal, buit for gangs it is home sweet home. they only get more conections in jails, and come out carrer criminals,

Edited May 7, 2013 by aztek

[jugoso]

Who has two thumbs and doesn't give a damn?

Apparently you .......go figure that you are a proponent of private prisons Rafterman!!

[Ashotep]

I don't like the idea of private prisons. Gives too much of an incentive to send people to prison. They have lobbyists too.

[jugoso]

what is wrong with cca? what difference does it make, who runs the prison? just worry about not doing **** that gets you a trip there.

imo we don't profit enough, they should be sent to effing uranium mines, and work for free, and not live in warm and comfort, and run their gang, get drugs, money, and sometimes screw with female guards, (it does happen more often than many think) there. it can be hell for someone who is not a tough criminal, buit for gangs it is home sweet home. they only get more conections in jails, and come out carrer criminals,

You don´t profit anything. They work for private corporations and not for the government. I´m all for putting prisoners to work but believe it should be for the betterment of society as a whole and not to put $$ in private individuals pockets. .

[Michelle]

Where are these stiffer sentences and three strikes your out being implemented? The most certainly aren't where I live. A quick search of their arrest records prooves this.

[Dark_Grey]

what is wrong with cca? what difference does it make, who runs the prison?

See

I don't like the idea of private prisons. Gives too much of an incentive to send people to prison. They have lobbyists too.

[jugoso]

Where are these stiffer sentences and three strikes your out being implemented? The most certainly aren't where I live. A quick search of their arrest records prooves this.

Tennessee prisoners serve some of the shortest terms in the nation, according to a new study.

A report by the Pew Center on the States found that on average a Tennessee prison sentence lasts just under 2 years. That's about a year shorter than the national average.

Prosecutor Torry Johnson told The Tennessean (http://tnne.ws/Ts6dD1) that the state is ahead of others by enacting for alternative punishments and probation guidelines that help reduce and better control prison populations

State Department of Corrections officials point out that while offenders are serving less time for property and drug crimes, prison time has increased by 41 percent for violent crimes.

http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/tn-state-news/Tennessee-prison-sentences-among-shortest-in-the-nation--169098956.html

[+OverSword]

what is wrong with cca? what difference does it make, who runs the prison? just worry about not doing **** that gets you a trip there.

You're joking, right? Maybe you should read up on the dangers of privatized prisons. To effectively participate in this thread some level of knowlege about the subject may be appropriate. Edited May 7, 2013 by OverSword

[Michelle]

State Department of Corrections officials point out that while offenders are serving less time for property and drug crimes, prison time has increased by 41 percent for violent crimes.

http://www.wpsdlocal...-169098956.html

That doesn't sound completely honest to me. One example is a guy that stabbed his wife to death and got five years. He was released and then bludgeoned his live in girlfriend to death with a cast iron skillet. He got another twenty years. Those don't exactly sound like stiff sentences in my opinion.

[jugoso]

That doesn't sound completely honest to me. One example is a guy that stabbed his wife to death and got five years. He was released and then bludgeoned his live in girlfriend to death with a cast iron skillet. He got another twenty years. Those don't exactly sound like stiff sentences in my opinion.

Well it was released by the pew center which you can check out here.

http://www.pewresearch.org/about/

I´m sure they are dealing in averages. But I agree with you in the case you mentioned.

[Ashotep]

Here's some links you might find interesting about private prisons and their lobbyists.

http://www.infowars.com/imprisoned-u-s-drug-offenders-skyrockets-from-41000-to-507000-in-30-years/

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/11/politics/immigration-lobbying

http://www.infowars.com/private-prisons-the-more-americans-they-put-behind-bars-the-more-money-they-make/

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/06/23/251363/cca-geogroup-prison-industry/

[Clarakore]

The war on drugs has shifted the focus on mandatory sentencing toward them.

The prisons profiting are housing mainly drug users, not hard core criminals such as murderers or sexual offenders. Those are being released to make room for drug users.

The school-to-prison pipeline is a related issue to this topic as well.

Informing yourself of all these and other topics will provide a better top down view.

[MiskatonicGrad]

I think we should just shoot ALL the prisoners and start over. maybe we can learn from our mistakes?

[jugoso]

The war on drugs has shifted the focus on mandatory sentencing toward them.

The prisons profiting are housing mainly drug users, not hard core criminals such as murderers or sexual offenders. Those are being released to make room for drug users.

The school-to-prison pipeline is a related issue to this topic as well.

Informing yourself of all these and other topics will provide a better top down view.

School to prison pipeline

In recent years, a disturbing shift has occurred in our education system. Rather than employ traditional disciplinary measures, such as counseling or detention, when students misbehave, schools are becoming increasingly dependent on suspensions, expulsions, and law enforcement to punish students. Children are being arrested or removed from schools, even for minor discretions, at alarming rates around the country.

Students cannot learn, and teachers cannot teach, in unsafe schools. But suspension, expulsion, and arrest do not make schools safer. Instead, the American Psychological Association has found that these practices harm academic achievement for all students while increasing the chances that those excluded will be held back, drop out, and become involved with the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Despite these findings, school discipline rates are at their all-time highs – double those of the 1970s. Pressed by high-stakes testing and inadequate resources, many schools are choosing to forego mentorship and intervention for students in favor of exclusion and arrest. Indeed, the current approach to educational accountability offers educators the perverse incentive to choose whom to educate – and to remove the rest.

http://www.naacpldf.org/case/school-prison-pipeline

http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/school-prison-pipeline

[No Censorship]

School to prison pipeline

In recent years, a disturbing shift has occurred in our education system. Rather than employ traditional disciplinary measures, such as counseling or detention, when students misbehave, schools are becoming increasingly dependent on suspensions, expulsions, and law enforcement to punish students. Children are being arrested or removed from schools, even for minor discretions, at alarming rates around the country.

Students cannot learn, and teachers cannot teach, in unsafe schools. But suspension, expulsion, and arrest do not make schools safer. Instead, the American Psychological Association has found that these practices harm academic achievement for all students while increasing the chances that those excluded will be held back, drop out, and become involved with the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Despite these findings, school discipline rates are at their all-time highs – double those of the 1970s. Pressed by high-stakes testing and inadequate resources, many schools are choosing to forego mentorship and intervention for students in favor of exclusion and arrest. Indeed, the current approach to educational accountability offers educators the perverse incentive to choose whom to educate – and to remove the rest.

http://www.naacpldf....prison-pipeline

http://www.aclu.org/...prison-pipeline

This reminds me of the stories about handcuffed kindergarten students who are put in city jails and/or patrol cars. The situation is the worst in Mississippi where one boy was punished for wearing unmatched shoes. I wish that was a joke. If you treat kids like crooks at a very young age, they will internalize that label and resent the authority figures who gave it to them.

[Michelle]

Paranoia hasn't helped the situation, jugoso. When you have schools suspending elementary school students for eating a Pop Tart or a slice of pizza into the shape of a gun or a little girl talking about a water gun with her friends there is something seriously wrong. Scaremongering at it's finest.

[pallidin]

A private prison in Montana, USA, fully built and ready-to-go, was deemed inapproriate for several reasons;

1) The town of Hardin, MT(where the prison resides), complained that the private prison guards coming into town were acting like "paramilitary" before the prison would open, roaming the streets in "official" looking vehicles and acting like total "jerks"

2) The primary investor, or the would-be director of that private prison(I think from California) was previously convicted of felony fraud.

As a result, the State of Montana shut down that prison, though fully constructed, before even a single prisoner was placed there. Not sure why MT didn't do a proper background check.

Not sure what will happen now, but I do know that it was considered as a "GITMO" replacement, but rejected by State legislature.

To my knowledge it remains as a multi-million dollar prison facility, fully built, but not allowed to operate at all.

For those interested, I think a Google search on this issue will yield results.

Edited May 8, 2013 by pallidin

[jugoso]

Paranoia hasn't helped the situation, jugoso. When you have schools suspending elementary school students for eating a Pop Tart or a slice of pizza into the shape of a gun or a little girl talking about a water gun with her friends there is something seriously wrong. Scaremongering at it's finest.

Agreed!

Science experiments don't always go the way they are intended. A 16-year-old Florida teenager knows this all too well.

This week Kiera Wilmot went to school and mixed some household chemicals in a tiny eight-ounce water bottle. It looked like a simple chemistry project, but then the top popped off when a small explosion occurred.

Wilmot, who is in good standing as a student, said it was an accident. The Bartow High Schoolprincipal told a local television station that the teen made a “bad choice” and called her a a good kid who has never previously been in trouble.

In another era, Wilmot may have gotten scolded and sent back to class. But in this age of zero-tolerance policies, Wilmot is in deep trouble. She was arrested on Monday morning after the incident and charged with possession and discharge of a weapon on school property and discharging a destructive device.

In turn, she was expelled and will finish her high school years in an expulsion program.

http://news.yahoo.com/teen-girl-expelled-charged-felony-science-experiment-goes-050006336.html

[Rafterman]

Apparently you .......go figure that you are a proponent of private prisons Rafterman!!

I'm a proponent of whatever is the most efficient and cost saving to the taxpayer and if that's private prisons, so be it.

The fact that someone might be making a <gasp> profit from doing this doesn't bother me either.

[jugoso]

I'm a proponent of whatever is the most efficient and cost saving to the taxpayer and if that's private prisons, so be it.

Great! Then do some research and get back to me when you understand that private prisons are NOT in the best interests in the long-run of the taxpayer

The fact that someone might be making a <gasp> profit from doing this doesn't bother me either.

So the taxpayers pay for all the costs for the judicial system and private corporations benefit from the sentencing? Hardly fair IMO

The current incarceration rate deprives record numbers of individuals of their liberty, disproportionately affects people of color, and has at best a minimal effect on public safety. Meanwhile, the crippling cost of imprisoning increasing numbers of Americans saddles government budgets with rising debt and exacerbates the current fiscal crisis confronting states across the nation.

Private prison companies, however, essentially admit that their business model depends on locking up more and more people. For example, in a 2010 Annual Report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) stated: “The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by . . . leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices . . . .” As incarceration rates skyrocket, the private prison industry expands at exponential rates, holding ever more people in its prisons and jails, and generating massive profits.

And while supporters of private prisons tout the idea that governments can save money through privatization, the evidence that private prisons save taxpayer money is mixed at best – in fact, private prisons may in some instances cost more than governmental ones. Private prisons have also been linked to numerous cases of violence and atrocious conditions.

http://www.aclu.org/prisoners-rights/private-prisons

Edited May 8, 2013 by jugoso

[No Censorship]

Paranoia hasn't helped the situation, jugoso. When you have schools suspending elementary school students for eating a Pop Tart or a slice of pizza into the shape of a gun or a little girl talking about a water gun with her friends there is something seriously wrong. Scaremongering at it's finest.

Two boys pointed their pencils at each other, like they were guns. They were suspended. These absurd stories would have been relegated to the realm of fiction and humor in the past. If common sense is still alive, it's on life support.

[preacherman76]

I'm a proponent of whatever is the most efficient and cost saving to the taxpayer and if that's private prisons, so be it.

The fact that someone might be making a profit from doing this doesn't bother me either.

Seriously?

Anyhow my personal take on all this is we are way to quick to put people behind bars like they were animals. Putting someone in a cage isnt something that should be taken lightly. We are the most imprisoned people on the planet, and that is horrible. We should end the war on drugs, and deport people who are here illegaly that commit crimes.