{"id":2101,"date":"2011-05-01T13:43:23","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T17:43:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/texas-still-susceptible-to-private-prison-boondoggle.html"},"modified":"2011-05-01T13:43:23","modified_gmt":"2011-05-01T17:43:23","slug":"texas-still-susceptible-to-private-prison-boondoggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/texas-still-susceptible-to-private-prison-boondoggle.html","title":{"rendered":"Texas still susceptible to private prison boondoggle"},"content":{"rendered":"Even though Texas has\n\ncancelled some prisons<\/a>\nand\n\nclosed at least one private prison,<\/a>\nprivate prison companies continue to push to privatize Texas prison services.\n

\nMike Ward wrote 30 April in the Austin American-Statesman,\n\nLawmakers chafe as push continues to privatize prison health care<\/a>\n

\n\n\nSome legislative leaders and others are chafing about the continued\nprivatization push, saying the idea has not been studied or vetted\npublicly \u2014 and is being advanced by outside interests even though\nneither the House nor the Senate has embraced it.\n

\n\n<\/a>\n“There is a push on to change the system we have, a system that is\ncost-effective and is a national model, even before we know whether there\nwill be any real savings,” said House Corrections Committee Chairman\nJerry Madden, R-Richardson .\n

\n“I think it’s something we should look at, to see what the real facts\nare, but I don’t think we should be rushing to a decision right now\nabout this,” Madden said. “Most of the Legislature, I believe, think(s)\nthat a decision this big \u2014 whether the system should be privatized\n\u2014 is one that we should make, not some board or agency.”\n

\n\n<\/a>\nThe American-Statesman first reported the privatization efforts in March\nand that top aides to Gov. Rick Perry have been involved in some of the\nmeetings with vendors and lobbyists.\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nMore from the article:\n\n\n

\nSkeptics say Texas could be embarking on the next privatization\nboondoggle.\n

\n\n<\/a>\n“Privatization usually means significantly higher costs and poorer care,”\nsaid Tom “Smitty” Smith, Texas director of Public Citizen, a government\nwatchdog group. “This should be done in the open, not in the dark,\nafter a full-blown analysis … or it will end up just being another\ncorporate giveaway.”\n

\nSmith noted a string of privatization failures by state government\nin recent years: outsourcing of human services benefits enrollment,\na massive data and information systems consolidation and the privately\nrun leasing of state office space, among others.\n

\n“A change this large should be vetted completely in the open, not in\nback room,” Smith said. “Certainly, if this were vetted in public,\nit would probably get a big thumbs down.”\n<\/blockquote>\nAnd the private prison boondoggle should get a big thumbs down\n\nin Georgia,<\/a> too.\n

\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even though Texas has cancelled some prisons and closed at least one private prison, private prison companies continue to push to privatize Texas prison services. Mike Ward wrote 30 April in the Austin American-Statesman, Lawmakers chafe as push continues to privatize prison health care","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,1113,14,2,1381,72,20,22,3],"tags":[4322,8817,2858,28,3747,8701,8718,8730,4620,7,3858,75,4619,60,237,4621,180,8749],"class_list":["post-2101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-cca","category-economy","category-government","category-immigration","category-incarceration","category-law","category-politics","category-transparency","tag-boondoogle","tag-cca","tag-corrections-corporation-of-america","tag-cost","tag-expense","tag-georgia","tag-health-care","tag-incarceration","tag-jerry-madden","tag-lowndes-county","tag-medical","tag-prison","tag-rick-perry","tag-tax","tag-texas","tag-tom-smitty-smith","tag-valdosta-lowndes-county-industrial-authority","tag-vlcia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-xT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}