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falsereality


Registered: 04/01/13
Posts: 4,112
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Private prisons are being shut down In the US! 6
#23552904 - 08/18/16 10:46 AM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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The Washington Post:
Quote:
The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the government.
Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced the decision on Thursday in a memo that instructs officials to either decline to renew the contracts for private prison operators when they expire or “substantially reduce” the contracts’ scope. The goal, Yates wrote, is “reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons.”
“They simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department’s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security,” Yates wrote.
[The Justice Department’s memo announcing the end of its use of federal prisons]
The Justice Department’s inspector general last week released a critical report concluding that privately operated facilities incurred more safety and security incidents than those run by the federal Bureau of Prisons. The private facilities, for example, had higher rates of assaults — both by inmates on other inmates and by inmates on staff — and had eight times as many contraband cellphones confiscated each year on average, according to the report. Yates said there are 13 privately run facilities under the Bureau of Prisons purview.
Disturbances in the facilities, the report said, led in recent years to “extensive property damage, bodily injury, and the death of a Correctional Officer.” The report listed several examples of mayhem at private facilities, including a May 2012 riot at the Adams County Correctional Center in Mississippi in which 20 people were injured and a correctional officer killed. That incident, according to the report, involved 250 inmates who were upset about low-quality food and medical care.
“The fact of the matter is that private prisons don’t compare favorably to Bureau of Prisons facilities in terms of safety or security or services, and now with the decline in the federal prison population, we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to do something about that,” Yates said in an interview.
The problems at private facilities were hardly a secret, and Yates said Justice Department and Bureau of Prisons officials had been talking for months about discontinuing their use. Mother Jones recently published a 35,000-word exposé detailing a reporter’s undercover work as a private prison guard in Louisiana — a piece that found serious deficiencies. The Nation magazine wrote earlier this year about deaths under questionable circumstances in privately operated facilities.
[Are private prisons better or worse than public prisons?]
The privately run facilities will not close overnight. Yates said the Justice Department would not terminate existing contracts but instead review those that come up for renewal. She said all the contracts would come up for renewal over the next five years.
It is possible the directive could face resistance from those companies that will be affected. In response to the inspector general’s report, the contractors running the prisons noted that their inmate populations consist largely of noncitizens, presenting them with challenges that government-run facilities do not have.
Scott Marquardt, president of Management and Training Corporation, wrote that comparing Bureau of Prisons facilities to privately operated ones was “comparing apples and oranges.” He generally disputed the inspector general’s report.
“Any casual reader would come to the conclusion that contract prisons are not as safe as BOP prisons,” Marquardt wrote. “The conclusion is wrong and is not supported by the work done by the [Office of the Inspector General].”
Yates, though, noted that the Bureau of Prisons was “already taking steps” to make her order a reality. Three weeks ago, she wrote, the bureau declined to renew a contract for 1,200 beds at the Cibola County Correctional Center in New Mexico. According to a local TV station, the county sheriff said the facility’s closure would have a negative impact on the community.
Yates wrote that the bureau also would amend a solicitation for a 10,800-bed contract to one for a maximum 3,600-bed contract. That, Yates wrote, would allow the Bureau of Prisons over the next year to discontinue housing inmates in at least three private prisons, and by May 1, 2017, the total private prison population would stand at less than 14,200 inmates. She said it was “hard to know precisely” when all the privately run facilities would no longer have federal inmates, though she noted that 14,200 was less than half the inmates they held at their apex three years ago, a figure she said indicated the department was “well on our way to ultimately eliminating the use of private prisons entirely.”
“We have to be realistic about the time it will take, but that really depends on the continuing decline of the federal prison population, and that’s really hard to accurately predict,” Yates said.
According to the inspector general’s report, private prisons housed roughly 22,660 federal inmates as of December 2015. That represents about 12 percent of the Bureau of Prisons total inmate population, according to the report.
In her memo, Yates wrote that the Bureau of Prisons began contracting with privately run institutions about a decade ago in the wake of exploding prison populations, and by 2013, as the federal prison population reached its peak, nearly 30,000 inmates were housed in privately operated facilities. But in 2013, Yates wrote, the prison population began to decline because of efforts to adjust sentencing guidelines, sometimes retroactively, and to change the way low-level drug offenders are charged. She said the drop in federal inmates gave officials the opportunity to reevaluate the use of private prisons.
Yates wrote that private prisons “served an important role during a difficult time period,” but they had proven less effective than facilities run by the government. The contract prisons are operated by three private corporations, according to the inspector general’s report: Corrections Corporation of America, GEO Group and Management and Training Corporation. The Bureau of Prisons spent $639 million on private prisons in fiscal year 2014, according to the report.
Yates said it was “really hard to determine whether private prisons are less expensive” and whether their closure would cause costs to go up, though she said officials did not anticipate having to hire additional Bureau of Prisons staff.
“Bottom line, I’d also say, you get what you pay for,” Yates said.
This post has been updated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/08/18/justice-department-says-it-will-end-use-of-private-prisons/?postshare=9221471534255226&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.8da783fcb6e0
This is great news for prison reform and drug laws. With any luck this will eliminate the prison "industry" in America and also disrupt lobbyist groups for harsh drug laws. This could rapidly accelerate the legalization of marijuana in the US, as the same special interest groups consistently lobby against marijuana reforms.
Quote:
Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest for-profit prison companies, revealed in a regulatory filing that continuing the drug war is part in parcel to their business strategy.
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Celestial Traveler
Random Observer



Registered: 03/03/11
Posts: 7,639
Loc: Idaho
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Re: Private prisons are being shut down In the US! [Re: falsereality] 1
#23552962 - 08/18/16 11:04 AM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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That sounds pretty awesome. Definitely taking it with a grain of salt though, as it kind of sounds too good and simple to be true.
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specialpeopleclub



Registered: 04/10/14
Posts: 5,584
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If you go to prison for more then a decade, you should just be executed. If we are confident enough to ruin you mentally, just finish the job
government monopoly on force
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ReposadoXochipilli
Here, there, inbetween



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Re: Private prisons are being shut down In the US! [Re: falsereality]
#23552971 - 08/18/16 11:06 AM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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Yay fuck these prisons. I have a friend that was going to the big house in California and they sold him to az who should him to la sold him to Mississippi.
Never going to get to visit him
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blewmeanie



Registered: 10/01/06
Posts: 28,984
Loc:
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It's only federal prisons.
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Le_Canard
The Duk Abides


Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 94,392
Loc: Earthfarm 1
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Quote:
Celestial Traveler said: That sounds pretty awesome. Definitely taking it with a grain of salt though, as it kind of sounds too good and simple to be true.
Actually all the major news outlets are reporting on it now, so it looks legit.
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musiclover420
psychonaut



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Re: Private prisons are being shut down In the US! [Re: Le_Canard]
#23553031 - 08/18/16 11:26 AM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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Legit or not that doesn't mean this will work out for the best though I hope it does.
I could see this being an excuse to let federal prison have a monopoly...
-------------------- Don't worry about me, I've got all that I need. And I'm singing my song to the sky You know how it feels, With the breeze of the sun in your eyes. Not minding that time's passing by I've got all and more, My smile, just as before. Is all that I carry with me I talk to myself, I need nobody else. I'm lost and I'm mine, yes I'm free
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The Ecstatic
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Re: Private prisons are being shut down In the US! [Re: Le_Canard]
#23553034 - 08/18/16 11:26 AM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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No. This only applies to the 13 federal prisons that are currently privately run.
Wake me when it applies to state prisons. And good luck convincing the red states to ban "free enterprise" prisons in favor of "nanny state socialist" prisons.
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hex_enduction
satta massa gana



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Re: Private prisons are being shut down In the US! [Re: The Ecstatic]
#23553057 - 08/18/16 11:31 AM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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Great news, or a step in the right direction at least.
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Connoisseur said: oh ive cried on drugs sunshine said: Tragic. I told the cop not to do it but he didn't listen.
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Celestial Traveler
Random Observer



Registered: 03/03/11
Posts: 7,639
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Re: Private prisons are being shut down In the US! [Re: Le_Canard]
#23553090 - 08/18/16 11:43 AM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
Le_Canard said:
Quote:
Celestial Traveler said: That sounds pretty awesome. Definitely taking it with a grain of salt though, as it kind of sounds too good and simple to be true.
Actually all the major news outlets are reporting on it now, so it looks legit.
Yeah right after I typed that, I walked into my living room and heard it on the news.
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Nova

Registered: 10/16/02
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GEO and CXW (Corrections corp of america) stock down ~40% ATM. Getting absolutely thrashed.
GEO
CXW
Edited by Nova (08/18/16 11:49 AM)
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falsereality


Registered: 04/01/13
Posts: 4,112
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Re: Private prisons are being shut down In the US! [Re: Nova]
#23553131 - 08/18/16 11:54 AM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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Quote:
Nova said: GEO and CXW (Corrections corp of america) stock down ~40% ATM. Getting absolutely thrashed.
GEO
CXW
Damn. That's a crazy drop.
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plasma
ɹoʇɐɹǝpoɯ

Registered: 09/17/08
Posts: 10,001
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Re: Private prisons are being shut down In the US! [Re: falsereality]
#23553142 - 08/18/16 11:56 AM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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I was at a GEO prison for 2 years. I spent a year in BOP first.
The differences are just as they are stated in that article. BOP is militant. GEO prisons were highly sought after for good adjustment transfers. Cell phones, drugs, laid back staff. Violence happened, stabbings rape murder. I've seen people get caught with shivs only to get it confiscated and thrown back in population
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Moonshoe
Blue Mantis


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Re: Private prisons are being shut down In the US! [Re: falsereality] 1
#23553222 - 08/18/16 12:36 PM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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This is great news.
I am always happy to read good news.
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Everything I post is fiction.
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nooneman


Registered: 04/24/09
Posts: 14,568
Loc: Utah
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Re: Private prisons are being shut down In the US! [Re: falsereality]
#23553227 - 08/18/16 12:39 PM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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Thank god someone finally came to their senses. I bet some backwards states are still going to try to use private prisons though, but this is a major win no matter how you look at it.
Someone acting sanely in government based on evidence? Unbelievable!
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Sophistic Radiance
Free sVs!



Registered: 07/11/06
Posts: 43,135
Loc: Center of the Universe
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Quote:
ReposadoXochipilli said: Yay fuck these prisons. I have a friend that was going to the big house in California and they sold him to az who should him to la sold him to Mississippi.
Never going to get to visit him
Whaaat
That's insane.
Anyway, IMO the entire penal system needs a drastic overhaul in the US. Private prisons are just one part of the problem. Our prisons need to be about rehabilitation, not punishment. Our prisons do far more harm than good to the communities they "serve", regardless to who owns them.
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
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Konyap

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privatised prison is actually a anti lgbt cult
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specialpeopleclub



Registered: 04/10/14
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Re: Private prisons are being shut down In the US! [Re: Konyap]
#23553824 - 08/18/16 04:07 PM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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what about all the prison banging?
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Enjoywho
Rags to Bitches



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Re: Private prisons are being shut down In the US! [Re: specialpeopleclub] 1
#23554077 - 08/18/16 05:14 PM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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I've watched orange is the new black. Way too much gay sex in privatized prisons. I disapprove.
-------------------- "I don't give nothin' to nobody, I just pay the cost to do business." - Riley "Young Reezy"-Boondocks "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." "In the days of kings and queens I was a jester." "And then the great lord created bears... too many bears... shoulda really dialed back on the bears." Squidbillies "Can you start speaking words instead of your damn filthy lies!"- Louise "Bobs Burgers"
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Moonshoe
Blue Mantis


Registered: 05/28/04
Posts: 27,202
Loc: Iceland
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Re: Private prisons are being shut down In the US! [Re: Konyap]
#23554097 - 08/18/16 05:19 PM (7 years, 5 months ago) |
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If anything it would seem prisons generally are a Pro- gay cult.
In fact , dramatically increasing the amount of gay sex people have is a far more common outcome of imprisonment than any kind of correction or rehabilitation.
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Everything I post is fiction.
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