A lot of the "private prisons" are detention centers for immigrants , so although I'm in favor of ending private prisons this seems like it's mostly aimed at getting the Hispanic vote, don't you think?

All depends on the state. As with anything that's privatized it tends to go kablooey after awhile. Ct tried privatizing it's motor vehicle inspection for the longest time and after so many years it got the boot. Ct had one private prison which also got the boot after finding it ineffective and conditions were worse. Now if only they'd get rid of the private lottery.

Oklahoma had six private prisons, but two have been closed so they now have four private facilities. Inmates' families have told me that the conditions are much worse in the private prisons and the programs for inmates almost non-existent. This is logical since private prisons are obviously there to make money, so the profit motive creates a harsher environment-----fewer COs to monitor the inmates, fewer programs toward any form of rehabilitation, a less liberal policy on visitation and phone calls, etc.
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Also if you ever get into any kind of prison reform work, you will notice that most state prisons, but especially private prisons, are located close to a small, struggling community and the prison becomes part of their economy. This is the case in Oklahoma as the prisons are usually located near a town of less than seven or eight thousand people. The people in that area certainly do not want the prisons to close as too many of them would lose their jobs.

The one hook I have noticed that private prisons use is this-----They will accept all the state inmates they possibly can at a certain rate, usually a per diem rate for each inmate. After a couple of years, when they know the state has nowhere else to house their inmates and the prisons are full, they present a huge rate increase for the state. In the state of Oklahoma, there was a 16% rate increase for housing the inmates from the previous year. This is a form of price gouging used by private prisons to increase their profits in the millions.

Oklahoma was almost forced to pay this increase as it had nowhere to place its inmates in the private prisons and in Oklahoma, a very conservative state, releasing inmates early, giving them more good time credits, or liberalizing parole is out of the question.

Mr. Sander's plan will be a daunting task for sure, but I am not sure where the inmates who were in these private prisons will be sent.

We will never have true prison reform until the DAs, who seem to have an insatiable appetite for sending men to prison and the politicians, who seem to know nothing except a "tough on crime" stance, change their policies so that fewer people are incarcerated.

Most all prison problems are due, directly or indirectly, to overcrowding; we have to get "smart on crime" instead of "tough on crime" and stop sending so many men and women to prison for non-violent, non-contact crimes.

rewdiazepam

Interesting link: ( http://www.attn.com/stories/941/who-profits-from-prisoners) "Even crazier, 65 percent of private prison contracts require an occupancy guarantee. That means states must have a certain amount of prisoners -- typically between 80 and 90 percent of occupancy -- or pay companies for empty beds. Talk about bad incentives -- a state throws money away if it does not have enough prisoners.

Brave New Films: Justice just released a video looking into the companies that profit from expanding prisons: http://www.attn.com/stories/941/who-profits-from-prisoners "

Somehow, I think we can all rail against the injustice of private prisons but I am cynical enough to believe that just as the banks that "were too big to fail" and so were bailed out by tax-payers after 2008, and are now larger than ever, and just as the Defense Contractors get bigger and bigger and never get audited, the Private Prison Corporations are so well entrenched and so rich that prison corporations under any other name (Black Water, Abu Grabe?) will continue no matter what Bernie Sanders says (or perhaps even what he might do if the sun forgot to shine and Mr. Sanders were actually elected.) Right now Utah sends so many "sex offenders" to prison that when/ if they actually release all the non-violent offenders their prisons would still be full. And what about re-entry "services" for the people/ kids who did learn to survive and are released to the street without any money put into re-entry programs ensuring that many will simply return to prison and ensure the required 90% occupancy rate. In NV Parole officers get paid $32.00 and hour + over time for swarming a SO house on Halloween and in OR a fairly "liberal" state, Prison Guards are the largest and highest paid union in the whole state. Tough on crime is far too lucrative a business to actually dismantle

Instead I propose, we simply take pictures of prisoners and put the pictures in each cell, let the guards guard, let the politicians rail, and the tax payers pay and the private prison corporations fill up, But once their picture is taken, allow the prisoners to quietly leave by the back door. Thus the system would remain lucrative and in tact and people could go on with their lives in the free world. Until next time.

And you imagined that Prison Industrial Complex was just some old time 60"s term? Recidivism has become a Business Model for these guys http://www.attn.com/stories/941/who... and that doesn't even touch the surface of the money to be made off "The registry"

as it says at the end of the article: "It's easy to dismiss the problem of profiting of off the prison industry because we all assume that we will never be in the prison system. But many of these issues affect innocent people who are only accused. And all of them affect us as taxpayers and as citizens who desire a just society."

Here's a link to a progressive blog related to private prisons here in AR: It's an interesting read.

http://www.bluehogreport.com/2015/08/04/prisons-profit-and-politics-how-arkansas-politicians-fixed-a-system-that-wasnt-broken-guest-post/

Ending Private Prisons Good In Theory... But A LONG Way To Go

Independent... I like your thinking and you and me have been through it. We can truly call ourselves "consultants"...lol. Not that we're gonna get paid or anything... but here is something that has been forgotten about:

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf...

http://amarillo.com/stories/2002/04...

I myself have a current medical condition and it was present at the time of my incarceration as well. If I had a nickle for every time I had heard/seen injustice whether it came to hearing horror stories about state care or witnessing first hand how the federal system handles the health care for prisoners, both you and I would be able to retire rich.

I said the above to say this. I can also tell everyone firsthand just how many times I witnessed the feds cutting corners and slashing benefits of any kind, whether it be:

1. Safe bedding
2. Personal hygiene items
3. Medical care
4. 4th and most importantly good food.

Prisoners truly have needs sometimes. Like the mattress you have couldn't support anything whatsoever, little lone you. Personal hygiene items are paltry at best. The toothbrushes? Don't get me started. They don't care if your teeth rot... they will just pull them all out and make you wait 3-5 years for dentures. Trust me... they have a waiting list... even now.

Normal medical care... as you have read in the articles, do you seriously want any of those jokers working on you? The answer if you don't know it is "Awwwww HELLLLL NAWWW!" I used to work in the medical field as a basic medic (no not a quack doc...lol) and I can't tell you how many times I have had to correct a Dr. in simple things. And of course they are not going to have a piece of scum inmate tell them how to do their jobs. I had a friend that was with me at a facility and he obtained info through his family that the doc that was treating him was like one of the ones in the articles. He was currently going up the chain of command to file a lawsuit.

The most important thing we can talk about is the food. You can't imagine but prisoners eat some of the most vile things that can be served a human being. Thing is... we need good food to stay healthy... and most importantly to heal if you have a medical condition. We are fed the scraps that others won't buy or eat. Sometimes we do get bad food shipments from semis that have either overturned in an accident or there was something wrong with the temperature during the shipment and because of rules the end party cannot accept the shipment because there was a temperature discrepancy. The B.O.P. gets these shipments for pennies on the dollar. The CO that is the head kitchen manager could care less about food temperatures or if food is cooked correctly. If an inmate or two dies...well... not their fault. I cannot count how many times I have had to pick at my chicken and had only got a tiny morsel of chicken because the rest had blood veins that still looked alive sometimes. Really bright red in color. So you know that it wasn't cooked through.

C.O.'s would blatantly steal the better meat sometimes I had heard.

In one facility I was in the chow hall that was in one building on one side and on the other side adjacent to the chow hall was the officers mess hall. They had personal inmate chefs that would cook up whatever they were going to eat that day. Inmates clamored to get that job because of the perks.

One thing I had forgotten about. Counseling. Some of it was good. But other times you were just shaking your head saying to yourself, "They just didn't ask me that did they?"

Chasing bunny rabbits a little... sorry... Again, I shared all of that because yes there are some C.O.'s that cared. I can tell you more often times than not that there are more rotten C.O.'s that will steal from the very mouths of prisoners, thinking that the prisoner deserves it.

My physical therapist at the last facility I was at....was NOT a nice person at all. Just about anything I asked for that I needed I was turned down or it took me to start filing BP-8's and BP-9's to get her attention. They actually teach C.O.'s that ALL prisoners are liars and are just trying to get something that they don't need.

I will never forget it. I came out of surgery in prison and I was housed in the recovery section and there were other inmates with me of course. Now don't get me wrong, there are some inmates that screw everything up for the rest, but this one fellow inmate had a legitimate request. He was in severe pain due to the type of surgery he had. Of course my small amount of training in emergency medicine told me that he was telling the truth. He was denied pain medication either because:

1. They wanted to see an inmate suffer
2. They were trying to save a buck
3. They thought the inmate was lying
4. All of the above

In my own case. I had to have surgery. As I was recovering the pain was starting to get unbearable and now was unbearable. I called the nurse and she basically was telling me that she wasn't going to help me. However, because of my training in other areas and things that I picked up in the medical field, I told her of my medical background knowledge and said, "I don't think that my doctor had taken into consideration the amount of pain killer versus how much I weighed. (I am a big kinda guy...lol... and I weigh a lot...lol) I think she was either surprised at what I said or was impressed on of the two. She said, "I'll see what I can do." Which in inmate translation means "no."

It was the darndest things and it blew my mind. I was in pain but in my fogginess of the pain I could see the nurse bringing a syringe and she was heading towards me. Alas, I wasn't completely pain free but thankfully someone had 1. A heart and 2. They believed what I was telling them.

As I write this I remember a good friend of mine told me what happened to one of our christian brothers concerning his care. He was on dialysis. He started to have heart complications due to his treatment. The long and short of it is, because of the lack of knowledge of the medical staff, because the B.O.P. cuts corners, he passed away. Sure... he could have died regardless if he was in one of the best hospitals in the world. However, my good friend that is still in and was on the same floor as he as I once was, and we are all brothers in Christ, knew all what was going on with his care. Another brother in Christ was stabbed over a locker of food in the wee hours of the night. When it came to his care, the nurses didn't want to do C.P.R. on him. This came from first hand knowledge of other inmates that were there in the dorm. He would have died anyway from what was eventually told to us... but again. He had a slim chance of living, but we will never know because the staff didn't want to do the jobs that they were paid to do.

Okay this post is long...lol. Sorry in advance. Again, I said that all to say this. Whether it's a state facility or whether it is a federal one... They will ALWAYS skimp on everything when it comes to prisoners.

Always.

Thanks for lending me your ears.