It's Boom Times For Private Prisons
Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 02/23/2017 - 6:24pm
Private prison companies invested heavily in Donald Trump's campaign and now it appears that investment is about to pay off.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered the Federal Bureau of Prisons to continue using private prisons, rescinding an order by former President Barack Obama’s administration.
Sessions signed the order on Feb. 21, according to a Justice Department statement. The Justice Department last year halted a decade-long experiment of hiring private companies to help manage the soaring prison population.
Private prisons stocks jumped on the news, but it had already been jumping.
CoreCivic Inc., formerly Corrections Corp. of America, rose 3.7%, and The GEO Group gained 1.5% in immediate late trading after the move was announced. Both stocks suffered greatly in the wake of the Justice Department's announcement in August that it would phase out using private prisons, which closely followed a Mother Jones investigation detailing life in one of CoreCivic's facilities in Louisiana. CoreCivic took on its new name and slashed staff amid the fallout. Private prison companies rebounded after Trump won the election, however; The GEO Group has gained 98.2% and CoreCivic is up 136.8% since Nov. 8, 2016, even before Thursday afternoon's bump.
So who's going to fill these prisons?
Well, yes, poor people. But more specifically, immigrants.
Geo Group, one of the largest private prison corporations in the world, hailed President Donald Trump’s newly-announced immigration plans on a call with investors Wednesday and said that even more business could be on the way if a Republican congressional proposal to expand the incarceration of certain immigrants make it into law.
“With the respect to detention services, in support of border security, we would continue to be the largest provider of detention services to the three largest government agencies, that is ICE, the Bureau of Prisons, and the U.S. Marshals Service,” George Zoley, the chief executive of the company, boasted.
“With this increased and expanded approach to border security the first agency that will need additional capacity is ICE,” Zoley said, referring to the administration’s broad immigration orders.
It's a win-win, unless you are poor.
Comments
"Additional capacity"
"More cells" is a far more elucidating term.
But hey, no reason an amoral corporation should treat the warehousing of human beings any differently than that of any other commodity. It's all the same P&L to the shareholders anyway.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
#1 on my list of businesses which should not exist
are private for-profit prisons. It's hard to imagine another industry that is 180 degrees away from the personal freedoms we thought we were guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
Private prisons exist to lobby to put more people in jail so that they can profit. This industry needs to be shut down as quickly as possible. The USA has the highest incarceration rate in the world partly because businesses profit from this situation.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Used to be #2.
but then about 200 years ago they outlawed slave trading.
So now it's #1, just ahead of for-profit health insurance.
The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?
The only reason they outlawed slave trading was because
room and board became more expensive than minimum wage.
I am with you there. Adding a parasitical layer
of profit skimming and claim denial helps deliver health care services...How?
If the USA went to (improved)Medicare for All, unemployment and retraining benefits would be available for those in the insurance industry who lose their jobs. It's a better deal than people without access to health care now get.
"The justness of individual land right is not justifiable to those to whom the land by right of first claim collectively belonged"
Spicer's announcement of Marijuana Crackdowns...
Fits this to a tee.
Ah well, back to risking jail to not go crazy and suicidal.
If we get Reagan style doubling down, it'll take decades to get back to where we are now. Fuckers.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
What can they do?
Go after the licensed growers I suppose but there are too many users in the states where it is legal to be worthwhile. I going to disagree with you ever so mildly. I think there is going to be blow back that will force this into the courts. I know there are still federal laws banning pot but this could turn into a states rights issue.
FIRE IT UP!
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
The worst thing is that in both public and private
sector prisons there is no rehab. Slave labor. A good civil rights law firm needs to pull out he indentured servitude laws under the 13th Amendment. Laws that are highly underutilized.
"I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
John Cage
You need to work in one
to fully understand. Been there. Done that. Retired after seeing what they're up to.
This is a train wreck with the throttle at full speed and Obama did very little to stop it.
It doesn't matter if it's private or publicly owned. It's a business and it is treated that way from the start of the legal proceedings against anyone who isn't connected.
It won't get any better for those inside the walls.
Hangs head in shame.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Add war on states with legal pot, and bingo.
Pot is the linchpin of the war on drugs as 50% of arrests are for pot. It is the drug that generates arrests and prison cells.
Yes. An added bonus is that the non-violent pot smokers give
a higher profit margin for the industrial prison system.
"It's a win-win, unless you are poor."
...or an immigrant
'What we are left with is an agency mandated to ensure transparency and disclosure that is actually working to keep the public in the dark' - Ann M. Ravel, former FEC member