From an article by a prison guard titled “7 Horrifying Things You Didn’t Want to Know about Prison“:
You probably assume that prison is ordered a little like Dante’s hell and inmates wind up on different “levels” based on the severity of their crime. Nope! If you make it into a federal prison for a nonviolent drug charge, you might wind up cell mates with Johnny the Cop Stabber, who, despite his colorful nickname, is a serial rapist.
As a private prison, we were only supposed to get inmates up to a “medium” level of severity. We had a points system, and once they got above a certain number, we had to send them to the state. My job for a while was to do that paperwork, and guess what: The state would fiddle with the numbers all the time in order to dump the inmates on us. I’d go into their records and add up their infractions and realize that these guys were much more dangerous than the state had said. Whenever we wound up with someone who was WAY too violent for our prison, the state would wait forever to take him back.
Interesting, the guy works in the private (meaning run for profit) prison industry, and he all but admits that the kind of inmate they really want is a drug offender. Quite understandable. They are quite properly scared of violent criminals, and don’t want to be hurt.
But is that a reason for keeping drugs illegal? To make life is easier for the poor schlubs who run the for-profit prisons by guaranteeing a supply of more pliant inmates? I think it is an outrageous reason, yet prison guard unions are one of the biggest lobbying forces in support of stronger drug laws and harsh, inflexible sentencing laws, and of course more prisons. While it is bad enough for guards on the public payroll to be lobbying in such a way, the idea of private contractors lobbying to have citizens imprisoned so they can make money off them is beyond outrageous. I cannot think of a better argument against the privatization of prisons.
No doubt the bastards donate heavily to campaigns too.
Comments
2 responses to “Are there some things that shouldn’t be privatized?”
Dang. I was planning to write something like this for days. Thanks! Now it is off my plate for a while.
I don’t know, perhaps these for-profit prison companies may be a political blessing in disguise in the long run. No, really.
Let me explain. Over the last few years I’ve noticed numerous comments around the web from “liberals” blaming our largest-in-the-free-world per capita prisoner/parolee population on the mere existence of for-profit prison management companies. The underlying laws that make this possible (primarily our drug laws) rarely seem to be a consideration in their “OMG look what prisons for profits has done” diatribes.
As profit is a dirty word on the Left, the existence of these for-profit prison management companies might prompt “liberals” into supporting the reform of drug laws. Not because the laws are immoral or counter-productive, but because legalizing drugs will reduce prison populations, making it difficult, if not impossible, for these companies to make a profit.
I admit the above is somewhat facetious, but only a little bit. I’ve read too many comments from liberals damning and blaming these prison management companies for our prisoner/parolee populations to think there isn’t some truth in what I posted above. It is a sorry comment of the state of liberalism in our country that this is so.