Private prisons are making a comeback:
The Trump administration is rolling back an Obama-era plan to phase out the federal government's use of private prisons. Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a memo Thursday to the Bureau of Prisons rescinding the Obama administration's Aug. 16 order advising the bureau not to renew any contracts with private prisons, according to a copy of the letter. Then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates had instructed officials to either not renew private prison contracts or substantially reduce the scope of such contracts to ultimately end the department's use of privately operated prisons altogether.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions's four-sentence memo rescinding Justice Department guidance to reduce the use of private prisons sent stock soaring for the two companies that dominate the industry, Geo Group and CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America). That's not necessarily because the memo will lead to a ramp-up in Geo- or CoreCivic-run federal prisons. As of December 2015, about 12 percent of all inmates in federal prisons were housed in private facilities, representing only 22,660 inmates. That certainly won't decline under Sessions, but he didn't promise to increase it substantially. "I direct the [Bureau of Prisons] to return to its previous approach," Sessions wrote. Anyway, DoJ renewed a pair of contracts with CoreCivic despite the now-scuttled order, so it's unclear if the status quo ever stopped.
Also at CNN Money.
Review of the Federal Bureau of Prisons' Monitoring of Contract Prisons (August 2016).
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We had two Soylentils submit stories about Attorney General Jeff Sessions:
Trump fires Attorney General Jeff Sessions
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46132348
"US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been fired by President Donald Trump.
[...] Mr Trump said Mr Sessions will be temporarily replaced by his chief of staff, Matthew Whitaker, who has criticised the Russia inquiry.
[...] In a resignation letter, Mr Sessions - a former Alabama senator who was an early supporter of Mr Trump - made clear the decision to go was not his own.
[...] The president cannot directly fire the special counsel, whose investigation Mr Trump has repeatedly decried as a witch hunt. But Mr Sessions' replacement will have the power to fire Mr Mueller or end the inquiry.
[...] Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he looks forward to 'working with President Trump to find a confirmable, worthy successor so that we can start a new chapter at the Department of Justice'.
Mr Graham, of South Carolina, had said last year there would be 'holy hell to pay' if Mr Sessions was ever fired."
[...] House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said: "It is impossible to read Attorney General Sessions' firing as anything other than another blatant attempt by President Trump to undermine & end Special Counsel Mueller's investigation."
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday February 25 2017, @10:09PM
Who will fill them? Criminal Mexicans and other illegals who will serve their sentences here before being deported.
America is already being made greater and greater by the day. I'm glad my vote actually meant something this last election cycle. I can only have my fingers crossed that Trump will do something about visa (notably H1-B) abuse in the near-future.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25 2017, @10:18PM
Trump is a clown, a glorified used-car salesman (and that's an insult to used car salesmen), but he's no hitler.
The problem is, the retard surrounds himself with jackasses and knuckleheads of all stripes, and that's how you ruin a country.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25 2017, @10:25PM
It was pretty much ruined by limpwristed SJW'ers already. Trump is here to fix that for you.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25 2017, @10:31PM
Yep Hillary 'three strikes' Clinton would have done so much better.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25 2017, @10:59PM
I bought a metric shit-ton of CoreCivic and Geo before the election, along with some gun stocks, figuring that Hillary would win and both "bring them to heel" (we all know that she meant "blacks" by "them") and spark a gun-buying craze among the right wing. Wife thought I was crazy and wasting money on loser stocks that would go down the drain.
Forty percent return on investment to date overall. A quarter million after taxes if I sell this year (short-term cap gains), just from a few months of holding the right stocks.
The next time you hear the left or the right wing weeping about muh evil gov't oppressors, figure out how to make money off of it, because there is always a way.
(Score: 5, Touché) by iwoloschin on Saturday February 25 2017, @11:48PM
So you bought stock in a couple of companies with no redeeming qualities just to make a quick buck? Good for you, I guess, but I'll pass on supporting businesses that deal in misery and death.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 26 2017, @04:09AM
You should really read my post down below, on human trafficking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 26 2017, @10:09AM
It's called gamblng.
There's places you can do this all day long and you get free drinks. Try it. I think you'll like it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25 2017, @11:33PM
Yeah. Trump vs. Hlllary made me realize Mitt Romney should have been the one. The first mormon president to boot.
Oh well.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25 2017, @11:36PM
Christian and Evangelical conservatives like Rmoney and Cruz are dead memes. Alt-right is the new hotness.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by XivLacuna on Saturday February 25 2017, @11:38PM
We need the first (random whatever) president! That surely will fix all problems!
The usage of private prisons will go down as we deport criminal aliens to Mexico and let them deal with it.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25 2017, @10:40PM
Keep posting on this thread.
I will only say, I popped out of the same school Trump did, the Wharton School. The dope is a New Yorker, thru and thru, he ain't no Hitler, but he's a genuine slime ball, exactly like the stereotype the Ohio folks think of New Yorkers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25 2017, @11:25PM
I will only say, I popped out of the same school Trump did,
One does not simply graduate from the Wharton school, one is popped out, expelled, as it were, like a fresh turd.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25 2017, @11:43PM
What is it with useless retards who post anonymously and talk about how stupid everyone else is who graduates from a prestigious school? You're the worthless nobodies, not them.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 26 2017, @12:11AM
What is it with useless nobodies who post anonymously and talk about how stupid people who talk about how graduates from prestigious schools are stupid are? Chances are, we're all worthless nobodies here, and just graduating from a prestigious school would not change that. Trump has actual accomplishments and fame (whether you like him or not) that don't just involve graduating from a "prestigious" school. That's a fairly pathetic reason to feel important.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 26 2017, @04:20AM
What is it with useless, indeed...The $1 million that Trump initially got from Daddy, plus the additional $10 to $50 million he got (depending on your source) from Daddy could have been put in an unmanaged blue-chip trust fund by a functionally retarded adolescent and, today, said adolescent could have lived comfortably off part of the capital gains and would still be worth at least an order of magnitude more than Trump. Just by virtue of improvement of the market over 40+ years and not doing anything as "retarded" as Trump did with his tens of millions. There is your "actual accomplishments and fame."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 26 2017, @04:11AM
Prestigious schools? Really? Can you name a few? Damned near no one has heard of Wharton.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 26 2017, @12:13AM
To your point: "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups." .. republicans ..
These clowns should be considered extremely dangerous, like you would with a rabid pit bull.
What they're doing to this country has been done before, in 1940 Europe.
Same messages and same methods. Same bigotry and same hate.
Trump may or may not be "like" Hitler, but his record is white supremacist all the way, which is just as bad, for a nation founded on a melting pot of diversity.
And the death toll continues to rise because of his racist beliefs.
Blood is now on the bastard's hands making him a murderer. Responsible for the actions of all under him following his directions.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 26 2017, @04:19AM
Go ahead, make another SJW accusation that "Trump is literally Hitler!" Obviously, you never actually studied Hitler, the Nazi party, or how they came to power. I presume that Hillary is/was your idol - and that woman has more in common with Hitler than Trump could ever hope to have, if he were to try hard. If you have problems with that idea, you might start with the charisma thing. Hitler was very charismatic. He knew how to move individuals, crowds, and even nations. When he spoke, people listened.
Trump doesn't have enough charisma to lead a shipload of horny sailors and marines to a whorehouse advertising Freebie Fucks for Friday.
If you're going to Godwin a conversation, you should at least have some idea what the hell you're talkiing about.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 26 2017, @08:49AM
If you're going to Godwin a conversation, you should at least have some idea what the hell you're talkiing about.
Take it from Runaway! He's thought about this a lot. He has lots of experience with this. He's just angry because he can't read, and he has had a crush on Hilary since she was his first Lady, the first time. So try not to Godwin. Not sure about this new "shading" thing, or what or where Wharton is. Was that a school founded by Daddy Warbucks, from "Li'l Orphan Annie" fame?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 26 2017, @03:38PM
Hillary charismatic? Please. Trump is the charismatic douchbg, hillary is the aloof ice queen who couldn't fake sincerity and charisma to save her life. Have YOU learned about the rise of Hitler? Cause I ha e, and it is eerily similar to Trump. Maybe you're too old, brain and memory playing tricks on you?? I guess we'll have to double our prison population, have a few "incidents" in border camps, then maybe you'll start catching on.
The main difference between Trump and Hitler? Trump is more concerned with money, his handlers are the one to watch out for. And the world is a bit different, harder to pull off the straight evil of the Nazis.
But hey, ithurts your feels to compare Trump to Hitler so we'll all ignore the most compelling historical example of a populist fear monger. Yup, getting right on that forgetful train to suffering town.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Snotnose on Sunday February 26 2017, @02:13AM
Here in CA prison guards make something like 70k/yr starting. It only goes up from there. I suspect the private prison guards make minimum wage. So....
a) how many abuses occur in regular prisons as opposed to private prisons?
b) how much does it cost to keep a low level offender in a private prison as opposed to a regular prison?
c) how do the escape rates compare?
d) how about the recidivism rate?
I live in California, and I suspect the private prisons come out ahead on all 4 of these. I'd have to go to prison to be sure, but, well, I'm not that committed to that.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 26 2017, @04:06AM
I think you're asking the wrong question. Please see my post, just below your own.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Sunday February 26 2017, @06:53AM
At the Federal level the DoJ found that private prisons did worse on every measurement I can remember including officer safety.
Recidivism? Recidivism is their business model.
Running a prison is inherently labor-intensive. You can't automate something like recruiting a snitch or learning to see early signs of trouble.
There are two ways to save money on a labor-intensive task. One is to use fewer workers. One is to pay them less. Understaffing kills people. Underpaying leaves you with turnover so bad that the new people are training the new people. See the Mother Jones article about the private prison in Louisiana.
There is only one thing private prisons can do that government-run prisons can't. That's to bribe officials to win contracts. http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/08/epps-bribery-civil-lawsuit/97645586/ [clarionledger.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 26 2017, @04:04AM
Seriously, what American citizen EVER believed that some corporation, or any group of individuals should PROFIT by incarcerating people?
Let's be clear here - being put into prison is not slavery. But, being put into prison TO PROFIT some other person is very much akin to slavery.
The prison industry is always working to ensure that their prisons stay full. An empty bed is lost revenue, in their view. They really want their prisons to be filled over capacity. It's no problem for them to make inmates sleep on the floor, with or without a blanket or two.
PRISON FOR PROFIT IS EVIL!
If the state finds it necessary to lock up a lot of people, then the state should bear responsibility for housing those inmates. That still leaves room for abuse, but it removes the profit motive. It separates prisons from slave camps by several degrees.
I truly believe that every corporate officer whose income derives from housing prisoners should be put on trial for human trafficking. They are no better than the pimps who put teenage kids on the street for prostitution. No better than people who lure, then entrap, servants from third world countries to work 100 hours or more at shit jobs that pay nothing. Prison for profit is human trafficking.
Every for-profit prison in the country should be shut down. The government should just take possession, and tell those corporations that they get NOTHING in exchange. Put the bastards all on trial, determine their level of responsibility, put the worst in prison for forever, fine most of the rest severely, and let the best of them on probation for ten years.
WTF are "human rights" and "civil rights" worth, if you can be locked up, so that some corporate chief can get a huge increase on an annual bonus?
(Score: 5, Informative) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Sunday February 26 2017, @07:07AM
What American citizen ever believed that?
I can think of two who believed it, both of them judges. They were getting kickbacks from private prison operators in exchange for making sentences harsher. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kids_for_Cash [wikipedia.org]
That scandal illustrates another key objection to private prisons. They create a lobby for mass incarceration. Private prison lobbyists can get their employers more business by pushing "tough on crime" laws. Nuanced report on how that goes: http://www.snopes.com/drug-law-lobbying-by-corrections-corporation-of-america/ [snopes.com]
It reminds me of Bruce Schneier's phrase "bad civic hygiene".
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 26 2017, @08:35AM
The facts, as I read them, don't indicate that the judges believed it right, or proper, to imprison people for profit. What I gather, is that they believed their own personal financial health to be more important than prisoner's rights to due process, or fairness in sentencing.
That's really just a nitpick. We can't know what they believe, unless they tell us what they believe.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday February 26 2017, @02:38PM
Since we are nitpicking here: No, even if they tell us what they believe, we cannot know it. We cannot know whether they really believe what they say, or whether they just claim it.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Sunday February 26 2017, @09:38PM
No, even if they tell us what they believe, we cannot know it. We cannot know whether they really believe what they say, or whether they just claim it.
This will confuse Runaway, but definitely they could be lying. But even worse, when it comes to the alt-right, the Trump-right, and all the basically wrong-right, when they say they believe it, they may actually believe it, even though they know for a fact that it is wrong. It's a river in Egypt, cognitive dissonance, Dunning-Kroeger; they might be lying to themselves, as well as to us.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday February 26 2017, @09:46PM
It's called doublethink.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Monday February 27 2017, @07:37AM
I got modded "flamebait"! Oh, the humanity! It is so sad the people strike out at those who are just trying to help them! All you who think you might be alt-right, this is just orientation confusion, and you do not have to be a conservative to make up for the fact that you are attracted to members of your own gender! Let go of the hatred and abuse, let love be love, and vote Democratic. We know you can do it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 26 2017, @09:19AM
Just look at these incredibly depressing statistics including the number of prisoners and per capita figures. Land of free my ass.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 26 2017, @06:52PM
prison is how the rich get the middle class to pay the "taxes" for the poor. If you're too poor to "contribute to society" then you have to go to prison (after all, they can't have you hanging around stinking up the place) and the middle class has to pay for it or else stab happy MS13 wannabes or "Tavandre the shurm monster" might get them or their children. Of course, the alternative is educating all the little morons (hint: socialist indoctrination centers don't create free and educated people) before they grow into these nuisances and having a diamond shaped socioeconomic structure, but that's harder than preying on the weak or creating business models/governments not based on slavery/fraud/serfdom.