SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the or-else-they-will-send-you...-to-prison? dept.
California law bans for-profit, private prisons, immigration detention centers
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill on Friday [October 11] that would eliminate private, for-profit prisons, including those used for immigration detention, by 2028.
Starting on Jan. 2020, the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation won't be able to enter into or renew a contract with a private, for-profit prison to incarcerate people.
Operating a private immigration detention facility and incarcerating people in for-profit prisons will be prohibited after Jan. 2028, according to the newly signed law.
[...] The Adelanto Detention Facility, which is one of the nation's biggest privately-run immigration detention centers, will be phased out under the new law.
This past summer, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General released a report that found "egregious violations of detention standards" at the Adelanto Detention Facility, including "nooses in detainee cells, improper and overly restrictive segregation, and inadequate detainee medical care."
[...] GEO Group, a for-profit prison company with dozens of facilities in California including the Adelanto Facility, previously has stated that the bill "works against the state's Proposition 57 anti-recidivism goals approved by the voters," referring to a ballot proposition passed in 2016 to reduce the number of people who were re-incarcerated in the state.
The company reported revenues of $2.33 billion in 2018, up from $2.26 billion in 2017. The facilities have been criticized for employing immigrants for as little as $1 a day.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Alfred on Monday October 21 2019, @08:55PM (7 children)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 21 2019, @09:05PM (2 children)
If you have private prisons, you have corporations with incentives to lobby for stricter laws to lock people up, and keep drugs criminalized for another few decades. They can pay off judges to give harsher sentences, as with the kids for cash scandal in Pennsylvania. Other companies in the system aren't great either, like the prison phone industry. There are many problems here.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday October 21 2019, @10:18PM (1 child)
While we're discussing this here, let's also talk about public utilities, and has long as they have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders, we in California are going to go full Venezuela in our power outages.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday October 21 2019, @11:01PM
Wow, that wasn't even racist or nothing. I guess I know what to expect here in the near future.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday October 21 2019, @09:05PM (1 child)
The contract between the prison company and the government includes a minimum number of prisoners that will be housed at all times in the prison. Which means that if there aren't enough crimes being committed, the government has to create some criminals.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Tuesday October 22 2019, @01:37PM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ilPapa on Monday October 21 2019, @09:07PM
All prisons are costly and ineffective. Experience (and data) has shown that private prisons are even more so.
Anyone who would profit from incarceration needs to be locked up.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by RamiK on Monday October 21 2019, @09:30PM
Nope. The feds were about to to shutdown the private prisons after a damning cost-effectiveness and safety analysis report but Trump intervened to save the pork for his buddies: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/08/18/justice-department-says-it-will-end-use-of-private-prisons/ [washingtonpost.com] from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_federal_prisons#Private_correctional_institutions [wikipedia.org] .
Nope. It's a checks and balances issue. Even the best contract wouldn't change the incentive for private prisons to bribe legislators, judges and cops to send more inmates down their way. Like standing armies, private prisons are just unmitigated sources of corruption. But while you can't do away with standing armies, you can certainly cut off the prison pork distribution system.
compiling...