{"id":1230,"date":"2011-12-06T11:06:02","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T16:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/the-private-prison-game-banking-on-bondage.html"},"modified":"2011-12-06T11:06:02","modified_gmt":"2011-12-06T16:06:02","slug":"the-private-prison-game-banking-on-bondage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/the-private-prison-game-banking-on-bondage.html","title":{"rendered":"The private prison game: Banking on Bondage"},"content":{"rendered":"Rania Khalek wrote for AlterNet 29 November 2011,\n\nThe Shocking Ways the Corporate Prison Industry Games the System<\/a>\n
\nJust a decade ago, private prisons were a dying industry awash in\ncorruption and mired in lawsuits, particularly Corrections Corporation\n\n<\/a>\nof America (CCA), the nation’s largest private prison operator. Today,\nthese companies are booming once again, yet the lawsuits and scandals\ncontinue to pile up. Meanwhile, more and more evidence shows that\ncompared to publicly run prisons, private jails are filthier, more\nviolent, less accountable, and contrary to what privatization advocates\npeddle as truth, do not save money. In fact, more recent findings\nsuggest that private prisons could be more costly.\n

\nSo why are they still in business?\n

\nIn a recently published report,\n\n“Banking on Bondage: Mass Incarceration and Private Prisons,”<\/a>\nthe American Civil Liberties Union examines the\nhistory of prison privatization and finds that private prison companies\nowe their continued and prosperous existence to skyrocketing immigration\ndetention post September 11 as well as the firm hold they have gained\nover elected and appointed officials.\n<\/blockquote>\nWe’d already heard from Bloomberg that\n\n\n\n<\/a>\n\nCCA’s stock went up by a factor of 10 since 2001<\/a> because of anti-immigration\nlaws.\nThe\n\nACLU report<\/a>\nalso goes into ALEC and lobbying,\nand how private prisons aren’t cheaper and are a danger to public safety.\n

\nHere’s a coincidence:\n

\nIn 1984, the Corrections Corporation of America was awarded a contract to\noperate a public jail in Hamilton County, Tennessee, and the nation\u2019s\nfirst-ever private prison was born.\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<\/a>\nHamilton County, Tenn., also the model for the recent push to\nconsolidate the school systems here, even though\n\nconsolidation in Hamilton County was a failure.<\/a>\nA push many of us successfully fought off:\n\neven though out financed ten to one, we won four to one.<\/a>\nThe community stood up against that scam.\nWe can stand up against this one, too.\n

\nAs\n\nACLU report<\/a> says:\n

\nThe time to halt the expansion of for-profit incarceration is now.\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<\/a>\nYou can help do that right here at home.\n\nWe don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.<\/a>\nSpend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.\nFollow\n\nthis link<\/a>\nto petition the Industrial Authority.\n

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