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February 13, 2009
Some Things Should Not Be For Profit

When prisons and the like are run for profit, such is certain to happen:

[T]he judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care.

While prosecutors say that Judge Conahan, 56, secured contracts for the two centers to house juvenile offenders, Judge Ciavarella, 58, was the one who carried out the sentencing to keep the centers filled.

In this case 5,000 juveniles were sentenced while the scheme was run.

How many people are jailed because of similar privatized prison corruption?

Posted by b on February 13, 2009 at 15:23 UTC | Permalink
Comments

I am glad you brought this up. I heard this on the news this morning and thought to myself “finally!”
this scam has been going on for a long time and has the full support of the populace because it is presented as being “tough on crime”. maybe now that the general public hears that judges are taking millions in bribes to send young people to “boot camps” and other correctional facilities they will realize that not everything that glitters is gold.
the US prison system is a blight on the country. unfortunately too many people want revenge rather than rehabilitation so there is no public outcry. most think that criminals are coddled and pampered.
so long as prisons get money per bed they will want to keep the beds full. seems so simple and yet our fearful citizens don’t realize that they are paying to keep even productive people who may have had a few drugs or two previous convictions on misdemeanor charges locked away for a long long time.

Posted by: dan of steele | Feb 13 2009 16:01 utc | 1

Capitalism run amok …………..

Posted by: Parviz | Feb 13 2009 16:16 utc | 2

Beyond the privatization issue: non-violent (or only petty theft) drug offenders are jailed to keep the prices up and the business tax-free. The druglords have a business to protect, so in a paradoxical turn-about, they need to repress some of their customers, be they consumers or end-of-the-chain sellers. When repression slumps, the ‘free market’ takes a hold, prices go down. (Afaik.)
The Taliban (before 01) slashed quite a bit of the poppy fields in Afgh, not for religious or moral reasons – no doubt some on the ground believed in that rationale – but because their view of the situation was limited to supply-demand!

Posted by: Tangerine | Feb 13 2009 17:08 utc | 3

How much of the US economy is state-financed?

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Feb 13 2009 17:13 utc | 4

The prison biz serves many functions. One:
It replaces discrimination against blacks and other minorities, who now are seen as individuals who are criminals, rather than members of an oppressed group. This must be one of the reasons for the stupendously high prison pop. in the US, slavery first, prison later.
A paper I read 3 yrs ago that analyzed wages (only for US blacks and whites) described a simple hierarchy: those who earn the most are white men, second are black women, which holds up in hourly wage (just, like 50 cents or so) but is impressive in weekly/monthly earnings, as they also work longer hours. Third are white women, with black men at the very bottom. The distance between these groups is of course small or impressive, depending. (no link)
See for ex. G Bush’s Condi Rice, who was not hailed as ‘black’ woman at top level. Her color was hardly mentioned, contrary to Obama’s, who would not have been promoted and elected had he been white.
Gender/racial stereotypes, pervasive.

Posted by: Tangerine | Feb 13 2009 17:45 utc | 5

Tangerine pretty much has it right. But, as truly awful as this is (and it is so truly awful it’s hard for me to even think coherent), it is NOT actually unconstitutional.
I suggest folks read the 13th Amendment (I read it at least monthly to remind myself:

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Slavery is STILL ALLOWED for those convicted of a crime. So, in contrast to Tangerine, I don’t see the purpose of the prison system to replace discrimination, though it certainly does that. The PURPOSE is to replace slavery, to replace the economic system of having some who provide free labor for the benefit of others. Felons can be enslaved. When they are released, they are still banned from education, from government benefits, from most jobs, and from most places to live. They are forced to take the worst jobs for the lowest wages, there by continuing the slavery in fact, if not in jure.

Posted by: Bill | Feb 13 2009 18:07 utc | 6

Cloned Poster asked: How much of the US economy is state-financed?
Good question.
This article, from Times-on-line, 25 01 09, about *Britain* is an eye opener:
snippet:
The study of “Soviet Britain” has found the government’s share of output and expenditure has now surged to more than 60% in some areas of England and over 70% elsewhere.
link

Posted by: Tangerine | Feb 13 2009 18:12 utc | 7

b
in the anglosaxon world – the prisons are largely privatised. in australia the detention camps are privatised. there was an excellent documentary on press tv that spoke of this privatisation, i do not remember its name but it was something like ‘outside woomera’ – the evident depravity, unconcsionable
the privatisation of prisons has been the central fight for ex black panther, professor angela davis – & she has spent the last 20 years or more in a constant fight with these companies who are largely american
when a jurisprudence is junk – crooked judges like these come as no surprise
& it is also essentially true – that the repressive apparatus of the state for some time – 3o years – is used as the first resort. this is becoming even more evident in the crisis. the stupid fucker tony blair’s anti social orders & surveillance were yet another elaboration on this repression
the state is always scared of the people – even when they have done their best to emasculate them – & this was said as recently as yesterday by a general before congress – saying the economic crisis was the primary existential threat to the united states
& the reality has been for a long, long time – you can buy justice
& where you can’t – as is evident in italy – berlusconi coerces it to serve his interests

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 13 2009 18:13 utc | 8

bill @ 6 i understand, and you are right, these are just different slants on the same issue. say.

Posted by: Tangerine | Feb 13 2009 18:24 utc | 9

ot
but i am so pissed off with constant demonisation of chavez on al jazeera – he has just privatised some gold mining – a50/50 deal which means that the company is oblifed to return profits to the community – christ they hate it when the people possess that which belongs to them – their natural resources – but of course ‘ hee is buying votes’ – well fuck these commentators & their crude calligraphy

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 13 2009 18:46 utc | 10

privatisation in line with the judges – perhaps one of our commentators from austalian could outline the police corruption that runs through australia like a riverh

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 13 2009 18:53 utc | 11

b, could you erase the first attempt to link
briefly, since colonisation – australia is a perfect & sometimes extreme example of how justice can be bought & of how deeply corruption is central – to its ‘character’
did a little research on this hood && he is often described in matey terms by the scum journalist who are owned by those who rule from the roll of dollars
& i think b – there is a larfer question in yur question – at a concrete & an metaphysical level what should not be for profit – but is

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 13 2009 19:01 utc | 12

To turn Ronald Reagan’s favorite quote on its head: The most terrifying sentence in the English language ought to be “I’m from the private sector and I’m here to help you!”

Posted by: ralphieboy | Feb 13 2009 19:06 utc | 13

I want the executives of these for-profit prisons IN PRISON. Why do the corporate scumbags get so little attention in the reporting of this story?

Posted by: Scott in Gibsons | Feb 13 2009 19:17 utc | 14

From Covert Action: quote:
Surprisingly, private prisons are nothing new in U.S. history. In the mid-1800s, penny-pinching state legislatures awarded contracts to private entrepreneurs to operate and manage Louisiana’s first state prison, New York’s Auburn and Sing Sing penitentiaries, and others. These institutions became models for entire sections of the nation where privatized prisons were the norm later in the century. These prisons were supposed to turn a profit for the state, or at least pay for themselves. Typically, privatization was limited: The state leased or contracted convict labor to private companies. In some cases, such as Texas, however, the corrections function was turned over wholesale to private interests which promised to control delinquents at no cost to the state. As the system spread, labor and businesses complained that using unpaid convict labor constituted “unfair” competition.
unquote.
link

Posted by: Tangerine | Feb 13 2009 19:18 utc | 15

The case of juveniles sentenced or condemned (etc.) and sent to private institutions is a case apart. (US.) Those institutions are private, or at the most para-state – receive some state funding, support, legitimization, recommendation.
It works because parents are easy marks, and seek to punish with authoritarian backup. The coerced are minors who have no ‘signature’ as we call it here, no power over their own lives.
Parents pay a lot of money to have their teens or even pre-teens controlled, diminished, brought to order, etc. Very lucrative biz. How much do the judges take in commission?

Posted by: Tangerine | Feb 13 2009 19:37 utc | 16

I feel anguished for these kids and the betrayal 5,000 times over and we are talking mostly young boys whose lives have been criminally detoured. Its a crime against humanity and an unspeakable outrage,
And if your White reading this & wondering what part of this you did’nt understand over the years and to this day about why a massively disproportionate number of Blacks are systematically & relentlessly locked-up, well good for you. The monster has begun eating your kids too,

Posted by: jony_b_cool | Feb 14 2009 1:24 utc | 17

I grew up in the south and remember the chain gangs on the side of road — they were not segregated as I recall which is the only positive thing I can think of that which this then ten year old boy thought was weird.
Years later, with my freak flag flying, I visited my dad in Florida and I recall prisoners shouting and waving high fives as we drove by in my dad’s car.

Posted by: Chuck Cliff | Feb 14 2009 6:36 utc | 18

DOD-DHS sends 350,000 teenagers to desert prison camps, and teaches them to murder,
then repatriates them, pushing 350,000 other teenagers out onto CONUS mean streets,
for which we applaud them with parades twice a year, and rain down $600,000M cash,
$2,000,000 a year for each teenager turned into brainwashed murderers for the State,
as against $10,000 a year for each teenager made into a pantywaist collegial clone,
then the Overlords pick out a judge here, or a colonel there to rack on the gibbet,
so we can sleep like babies at night, knowing our Republic is safe in their hands,
even as Vampiroyals hollow US out, and spirit our life savings off to Isle of Man.
Sheeple! Pablum suckers! They still haven’t found the sixth Minot nuclear warhead!
http://www.babelgum.com/html/clip.php?clipId=3011770

Posted by: Charles Darney | Feb 15 2009 17:31 utc | 19

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