Are private prisons the best investment in America these days?

Seems like it. CCA expects its prison populations to grow as US population grows and predict around 18.4 million more Americans to be added to their already expensive and overcrowded facilities by 2016. So why not add it to your portfolio? It seems like the most stable "growth industry" there is in America these days, lmao. Why do bleeding-heart lib pukes think that investing in the incarceration of criminal thugs is a bad thing, anyway?

 

Incarcerate non violent black men for recreational drug use=massive profit. It's disgusting, but that's the reality of what's going on.

 

The prison system in this country is a national disgrace. It's the modern day plantation.

 

Where's Silicon? I know he loves this kinda (*)(*)(*)(*), lol.

 

Prisons are a good example of where privatization goes awry.

We need to do three key things to reverse the insane incarceration trend:

1) decriminalize all drugs

2) nationalize prisons

3) break up prison guard unions

Until then, we'll have these unions and corporations lobby for policies that increase incarceration rates.

 

The prison-industrial complex is a classic example of fascist economics. In a free market, prisons would likely be extremely rare or non-existent as only state-coerced blood money in the form of taxation can pay for such things. There are many ways for a voluntary society to deal with criminals. Giving them a monopoly of the use of force, eg the state, is probably not the greatest idea.

State prisons or state-funded prisons operated by blood merchants is not "privatization." Real privatization means no state involvement; supply and demand via voluntary transactions.

 

How can there be a "free market" for prisons? When someone is sentenced to prison, there isn't a "bidding" process for which facility will house them.

 

This is one of the few areas where private industry is best left out. There is the obvious problem of profitting off of the incarceration of people, and without constant oversight, things could get out of control quickly (like Abu Ghraib out of control). Since it's government that arrest and sentences you, they should also follow through with the incarceration.

If I had the ability to do so, I'd see to it that inmates did something useful to society while serving time. Nothing they produce would be intended for profitting individuals, but to help cover the cost of incarceration, while easing the tax burden.

 

If you understand what I am saying, you will realize that I am saying this is NOT a free market. Anything paid for by taxation is a distortion of the market, paid for by coerced blood money. Like I said, in a free market, there would likely be no prisons, or very, very few.

 

Sorry but no matter how you try to spin it, CCA is a private company whose profit margins depend on an increased pool of inmates. Why are "state-run prisons" so much worse if there is no financial incentive to lock more people up?

 

Wrong. They depend on money from the goverment, which only comes from borrowing, printing, or coerced taxation (robbery). That's like saying the amount of food stamps are determined by supply and demand.

 

Why are (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)-ass right-wingers afraid of defending the system they created?

 

You must work for CCA.

Private prisons are a scam.

 

And if there were few prisons, they could just charge even more for them due to a lack of competition.

As long as there is a private profit motive with prisons, there will continue to be a vested interest of making more prisoners.

 

How else could you fund the incarceration of someone?

Think of it like this. Say someone is convicted of murder. If all prisons were private and the market was open for them, then someone has to pay for the convict to be imprisoned, unless you're saying that we should instead execute prisoners or exile them to an island (which still costs money).

Making it a freer market just expands an industry that would lobby more for making more mandatory sentencing to therefore fill more prison cells for their own profit.

 

I'm pretty sure the "liberal pukes" remark was sarcastic.

 

Well, without a state, things would be substantially different. For example, in a stateless society, insurance and dispute resolution services would be high in demand. The companies which provide these services may choose to contract with a prison to hold criminal violators (there would be private law production, also based on competition and demand). The problem, as I see it, as that prisons would be especially unlikely to occur, if at all. The reason being is that it is always a business's interest to keep overhead down and profits up, while delivering a service/product that individuals wish to purchase. The dispute resolution organizations (DRO's) would only be able to collect money from its customers based on providing better services at prices their customers can afford, relative to whatever else is available to them on the market.

A DRO that thinks it's a good idea to house criminal violators in a prison, and maybe some would advertise this to promote their company as being superior to others, would have to pay for this via funds acquired from their customer base. Housing prisoners is very expensive. This would drive the cost of DRO insurance premiums up substantially higher than their non-prison employing competitors. It would be far more likely that DRO's would simply not do business with criminal violators until restitution (if appropriate) has been made and would share their information with all other DRO's (as customers would likely demand this). This would pose a very serious problem for criminal violators, as no one would want to do business with them, contract with them without DRO insurance. Social ostracism might also be employed.

In this example, you begin to see how the state distorts everything it touches. In the case of the prison-industrial complex, it actually provides financial incentives to outsourced prison providers to house more inmates. I cannot imagine a more grotesque and corrupt arrangement. Prison companies lobby for stricter laws, longer sentences, while accepting increasing funds from the state. The state obtains all of its money from illegitimate means - either borrowing on the backs of future generations who cannot give their consent (and certainly wouldn't), print the money and thus devaluing all of our earnings and labor, or simply robbing people via coerced taxation. The state turns prisons into a massive corporate welfare fraud, paid for by government blood money. No f**king thanks.

 

In a stateless society, you just go from having one manager of force to a "competition" of force where, eventually, only one provider is left or possibly an oligarchy.

Either way, the only thing you accomplish by removing the state is switching over who the potential oppressors are.

 

The state is the only thing that creates and protects monopolies. There is far too much profit incentive to other competitors to undercut already-existing companies. Moreover, the larger a business gets, the less flexible and more bureaucratic it gets. Smaller business (such as upstarts) are far more flexible in meeting demand. Finally, any company that succeeds (without the state helping, that is) does so based on voluntary transactions; on consumer's choices. If the company stops providing these what people want (as if they were a corrupt monopoly), then people would simply send their money elsewhere, and other businesses would see the opportunity.

 

The state is the only thing that creates and protects monopolies. There is far too much profit incentive to other competitors to undercut already-existing companies. Moreover, the larger a business gets, the less flexible and more bureaucratic it gets. Smaller business (such as upstarts) are far more flexible in meeting demand. Finally, any company that succeeds (without the state helping, that is) does so based on voluntary transactions; on consumer's choices. If the company stops providing these what people want (as if they were a corrupt monopoly), then people would simply send their money elsewhere, and other businesses would see the opportunity.

I would much rather have services provided by those who had to earn their money via voluntary transactions instead of government, which simply takes all of its money by force. Wouldn't you?

 

Competition is a transitional phase for most industries. It wasn't government that allowed Standard Oil to be so powerful. They simply succeeded at a level in their industry far beyond any competition. Anti-trust laws were later created to try and counter this power, but even they were somewhat impotent.

Some industries are competitive enough that you don't end up with oligarchy, but a lot of the most profitable industries aren't like that.

Government can certainly aid in the development of a monopoly, but it's not dependent on government action. It's merely dependent on how well a company can force out competition.

There are ways to do that with or without government.

 

Sure, that logic works for something that isn't a basic government function. For prisons, it doesn't though.

 

This is a c/p from an essay I did last year before Rick Scott's failed effort to privatize more prisons in Florida.



As I said, this issue deserves to be looked at again, particularly with our loony governor pushing it.

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The article goes on, and is an excellent expose of the crime of privatization.

Here in Floriduh, as I stated above, our governor and Republican-led legislature are going to extreme measures to ensure prisons within the state are privatized, hence lining their pockets with the benefits of crony capitalism:

Just how anxious are Scott and his minions to pass this legislation? Ask (R) Sen. Mike Fasano, who lost his committee chair:

Huh. For a bunch who proclaim "Chicago Style Politics" while criticizing the President it sure seems like they're practicing a lot worse...

 

I won't invest in prisons. That market is over.

A few months ago I saw parts of a documentory about the failed private prison system in America. Apparently they over expanded in the boom years before the recession started but the projections of crime statistics never happened and so the funding needed to sustain them never appeared.

There are prisons across the USA sitting empty and abandoned today.

 

Profiteering on the misery of others. Disgusting!