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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPrivate for-profit prison threatens to close unless government finds them more prisoners
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/8/1/1686101/-Private-for-profit-prison-threatens-to-close-unless-government-finds-them-more-prisoners
The danger of private prison systems is that they do not make a profit unless there is a steady supply of criminals. If there is not a steady supply of criminals, then, pressures mount to bring in more.
The company that has operated a private prison in Estancia [New Mexico] for nearly three decades has announced it will close the Torrance County Detention Facility and lay off more than 200 employees unless it can find 300 state or federal inmates to fill empty beds within the next 60 days, according to a statement issued Tuesday by county officials.
That company would be CoreCivic, the new, not-as-tainted name for the private prison company you and the nation's investigative press both knew as Corrections Corporation of America. No guesses allowed on why they changed their name. Apparently the company needs to fill at least 700 beds to break even, and they don't currently have that because of reasons. Presuming the county isnt going to just go out and start arresting people until the quota is filled, it means the company is scrambling to rentsorry, houseprisoners from public state and federal facilities. Otherwise, the closure of the no-longer-profitable prison will be causing multiple problems for the county that now relies on it.
[County Manager Belinda Garland] said the prisons imminent closure will affect the county in a number of ways, not the least of which is that the county, which does not have its own jail, will have to find another place to house the 40 to 75 inmates it sends there each month.
CCA, or rather CoreCivic, has been having a generally bad time of late, with lawsuits and investigative reports on prisoner treatment and outbreaks of disease(!) and the 2016 decision by not-Trump to phase out use of private prisons as a result of all those other things. They got a bit of wind in their sails from the Trump election, when investors eagerly anticipated the new administration embarking on sweeping deportation raids that would fully stock America's for-profit prisons with potentially millions of new peaceful-but-profitable prisoners. But so far it hasn't been panning out for the company as much as those cretinous investors supposed.
Again, a thought: So, when the nation's long-term crime rate goes down or the nation's enforcement priorities change, what happens to private companies that rely on a stream of criminals to bring their shareholders ample returns?
Are we pressured to invent new crimes, or to step up punishments for existing crimessay, by launching a new war on "marijuana" out of nowhere, despite widespread public opposition to such moves?
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Private for-profit prison threatens to close unless government finds them more prisoners (Original Post)
mfcorey1
Aug 2017
OP
Not Ruth
(3,613 posts)1. Next will be laying off the police forces
If there is no crime (legalized drugs), why do we need cops?
Taken to the next level, with no war, why do we need a military.
Criminals and Kim Jongs have a function in our society, horrible isn't it.
Bladewire
(381 posts)2. I've been seeing a lot of Redhat Trump supporters in the news..
.. being arrested after triggering in public. The quicker they're tried for their crimes the quicker we fill up those private prisons. It's a win win
rockfordfile
(8,709 posts)3. Prisons for Profit, what a sick concept.
Fritz Walter
(4,292 posts)4. Never fear! Jefferson Beauregard Sessions the Turd is working on it!
If the for-profit prison operators shut down, their fat campaign contributions will undoubtedly dry up.
And the RepubliCONs simply cannot allow that to happen!
Zoonart
(11,891 posts)5. Yeah... don't worry.
We'll be rounding up these stoners and dime bag sellers again soon.