Again, look at the bulleted list included in the article, which contains all the people profiting from all this mess.

This has morphed into an industry.

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It has always been an industry, they just got better marketers to market to the legislators to make more laws to help perpetuate this police state... :)

I remember reading last year that the prison industry is one of the fastest growing in the U.S. Calling incarceration an "industry" is the problem in a nutshell. "Industries" are for profit. SOs are low maintenance!

so very, very true!! i and my family like others on here know this for a fact. the whole political and Justice system is a profit base system today.

if you have the money you can buy whatever kind of justice you want.... or need.

Tipping point.
It is sad to say maybe the only way this will end is by more people suffer through the same pain we suffered?
I don't hope anyone will have to go through the path we are on now, but with the rate that so many adults are getting caught into this industry, maybe, maybe one day there will more SO and SO's families than the none SO/none SO families. So everyone will want the politic and policy to tip to the other side? So sad....

My problem has always been where does the money come from that pays for everything? Where is all this money that these private corporations are making originate?

When I was on probation, yes I was assessed a fee of something nominal every month or couple months. I paid a couple hundred bucks for a polygraph maybe a couple times a year, all said my expenses for being registered were probably 600-700 a year that I paid the state and or a polygrapher. I understand that is a lot for some people, but I didn't feel that it hindered me in anyway. It was a major annoyance, not the money but the having to jump through all the hoops.

But I cost the state a lot more a year then 600-700 dollars, for them to assign me a PO and pay for everything all the costs of having a probation and parole department. The state certainly is not getting rich off of us.

The state is not getting rich at all, not that I agree with privatization of prisons or probation, I do not. However, the states only privatized corrections because private companies can do what the state was already going to do to us at a supposed lower cost. Again I do not agree that we as a country should privatize corrections in any way shape or form, but to fiscal conservatives we are a math problem. How can they do what they think is right for the cheapest solution possible. Make no mistake, they think what they are doing is right, they are delusional and not listening to the social science behind it. BUT, they are not doing this to get their jollies, or line the pocket books of private corporations. They honest to God believe what they are doing is protecting the public.

And again let me say this again to be very clear, I do not agree with privatization of corrections, but that is not what is keeping the registry going or our prisons booked. Two facts stuck out to me from the really funny video Rew posted about prison which lead me to ask some questions:

1. Less than 10% of prisons are privatized
2. We have the biggest prison population in the world

Did private prisons lead to us having a massive prison population? No, they did not. Our country’s crazy beliefs around recidivism and giving people second chances lead to that.

Are private prisons a leading cause in the growth of our prison population? No, again they are less than 10% of our total prisons, and we already had the biggest prison population before they began.

Would the states and the federal government still be incarcerating people at the highest rate in the world without private prisons? I believe that answer is clearly yes, as we have seen for decades now.

Would banishing private prisons suddenly make our lives better as people who are/were on the registry? I do not believe it would impact our lives in the slightest way. The government would still do what it was going to do, but pay a little bit more money to do so.

While it does not help that private corrections companies have a monetary reason to come up with more draconian measures, the state and feds were already doing a pretty damn good job of that on their own. We as registered citizens/former rso's and anyone in jail is not a person but a math problem to politicians. All they care about is doling out the punishment they think we need at the least prohibitive price, nothing more and nothing less.

The money that pays for a lot of the costs comes in the form of federal grants to fight crime---cybercrime, drug crimes, etc.

Of course, the state also contributes a lot of this money by allocating it in their state budgets. That comes from the taxpayers.

Ultimately, all of this comes at the expense of the taxpayers of this country in one form or another. Taxation is the major method that a country uses to raise revenue.

Do I think at one time, someone started thinking, "Let's start a registry and pass all these regulations regarding probation so someone can make some money?"

Of course not. That is not the genesis of the problem. In the beginning there was probably a genuine concern, but as time passed the politicians just kept passing more laws to appease an increasingly frightened public. They learned quickly that the road to re-elected is always the "tough on crime" mantra.

But it is evident than dozens of agencies are making a lot of money off these laws.

Do I think private prisons became so popular just so the private prison corporations could make a healthy profit?

Of course not. The private prison industry gained a foothold because the state ran out of prison space and a private corporation saw a need.

BUT, now that the private prisons are here, the private prison corporations, like any corporation, want to make the largest profit possible. How do they do that? By keep the prisons full. If you owned a motel, would you make more money if it stayed at full capacity or if half the rooms were vacant? Easy answer.

And those private prison corporations lobby the lawmakers, so that is a factor. It has to be.

There is certainly a direct incentive for the private prison corporations to keep all these laws in place because ultimately it means more inmates and more money.

But, as I said, in some areas many of these entities would be hurting financially if all these laws and regulations were repealed. The "tough on crime" crowd has ensured a healthy income for many people.

BUT, BUT, BUT in some of these instances, particularly computer crimes such as solicitation child porn cases, the law enforcement agencies do have a real desire to keep it going as it means more money for their department.

The criminal enterprise that the sheriffs have created in South Florida with the solicitation entrapment schemes is a prime example. Do you REALLY think they would be running all these stings if it was not profitable for their individual departments? No, they would not. These stings generate income in the form of federal grants.

Do you really think the net concerning child porn would be cast so wide if someone did not have an incentive to do so? I don't. Again, federal grants are the catalyst for much of this.

It is a difficult and confusing scenario, but this is what I believe----and I agree with Independent on most of the points he made.

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I would like to share my experience with the privately owned prison. My son is in a Louisiana privately owned prison. It is harder to get someone out of these privately owned prisons because they do not want to lose their revenue. My son has been there for 10 months now. They are required to have a library and guess what, they do, but it is never open. They do not have any type of education for my son to get as well. I believe it is NOW all about the money. I am sorry if I have offended anyone, but I am living through what my son is going through. They make so much more money with private prisons than state prisons. I am trying to get my son moved and I will let you know if I am successful. The system is not trying to help people get educated so when they get out they will be able to get jobs, etc. What the system is now doing is making sure that you cannot succeed when you get out so they can make more money. They don't want to lose you like a motel does not want to have vacancies. Just my opinion! The Lovely Louisiana where I live does this!

HB

Sounds like the problem is more of federal grants than private prisons. Grants are a way of the Feds dangling a carrot in front of the states to get them to do what they want. It really becomes a problem with the ideas the founders had about state's rights and all.

And the net is cast so wide in CP because we have a national hysteria about sec offenders. There would not be less of a focus on CP nationally if there was no private prisons. Private corrections are just filling a need that is so deeply entrenched that nothing could really change that till this country gets a paradigm shift. Before private prisons our prisons were full after we had private prisons our prisons were full and if they go away they still will be. It was drug crime that was the national hysteria, the Feds had a great big carrot for LE to find drugs. Now there is a great big carrot to rid our country of the oh so dangerous sex offenders.

The early bird gets the worm, that is why in this case Floriduh is as crazy as it is. Federal grants not private corrections are the cause of Floriduh.

Hi Heartbroken,

I live in Louisiana and my RSO fiancee lives in Texas. I am in agreement with you regarding the privatization of the prison system. It is BIG Business and everyone makes money out of it at the expense of our loved ones.

Our Governor did that so he could fill his coffers with campaign donations. UGH!

Hang in there.

Living, thanks. I am hanging in there, but something needs to GIVE! I was told that you could get with the DOC and see about your loved one coming closer to home, but everything I read, they say that the DOC doesn't care. I am getting with someone from my church who's son was in a Texas prison and she will give me some insight about the DOC too. You hang in there too! :-)

I agree 100% heartbroken that they do not do a good job of education in any prison, but especially in private prisons. They cut corners so they can "save" the state money. What fiscal conservatives fail to understand is that these people are not numbers. They don't all recidivate, and if you invest money in inmates it will pay a better rate of return later on as there is less crime than paying for them to be in prison again.

You'll get people who say why should we pay for criminals to better themselves? Um, because we don't want them to commit more crime? We send people out of prison ready to fail, not set up for success. Not only do sex offenders from prison have the mark of a convict but they bear the mark of the registry, we are all but guaranteeing failure by the way of our policy. It is incredible that the recidivism rates are as low as they are when our policies actually makes people less safe by not allowing former offenders to successfully reintegrate into society.

Well, the good thing is that my son has both his father and I to get him where he will have to get. It just ticks me off that they are doing this and getting away with it. They have a library, but its never opened. Stupid!!!

private prisons are profitable! they along with the county and state charge so much more for any item they you need to buy from the commissary. plus the cost of the phone calls thru private companies charge much more for any phone call. while in the county facility it would cost a little over $7 for my daughter to call home. in a fed facility it's now costing just over $3. also states prisons work out deals with companies to put manufacturing processes in. the gov of TX and Nike sealed a deal to start making their sneakers in at least one prison there which means that Nike moved some operations from over seas back to the states. this way they can pay the state for the privileged of using "cheap" prisoner labor, which is even cheaper than foreign labor. so yeah they are all making a profit except for the prisoners!
tell me where else in this country that anyone can get a guaranteed "captive, slave" labor force and get away with paying them less than a $1 an hour?

It may have already been mentioned in this post, but a lot of revenue is created through what is essentially slave labor. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of animosity Americans have towards illegal immigrants when it comes to the fact that we believe jobs that should be going to US citizens are instead going to illegal immigrants , because they will work for lower wages. REALITY CHECK! It's not illegal immigrants who will work for pennies on the dollar. It's inmates who are forced to. I have a friend in a private prison in AZ and he works at Hickmans egg ranch. They pay is $2.80/ hr BUT he only gets .15 cents of that $2.80. The rest goes back to the private prison that is housing him. It's a win win for the egg ranch and the private prison company. I guarentee a lot more jobs that were once filled by average American citizens are now being filled by inmates rather then immigrants. It's completely legal too. I know walmart employes inmates at their distribution center, nike employee them..look it up. A lot, I mean ALOT of companies are participating in mondern day slavery.

We should boycott companies that utilize inmate labor. Make a point of publicly telling them why we are boycotting them. I would do it like it was in defense of the average American who can't find employment rather then trying to explain to them that slavery is in fact WRONG.