Private companies still can’t do what the Gov does any cheaper or better.

[JTsyo]

Once the private company wins the contract, the government is beholden to them since they can't send the prisoners anywhere else? What happens if the private company under estimated their costs during the bidding process? I've seen this story before. No thanks.

They let loose a few until they are breaking even again?

 

[PokerGuy]

They're both customers, and the taxpayers can't just go to a different service provider either.

No, they are not both customers. The taxpayer is the customer by way of the government. Their tax dollars fund the purchase of the "product". The prisoners are consumers. Society has to decide what the standards are for their treatment, but they are not the paying consumers.

 

[werepossum]

What does prosperity have to do with anything? The prison companies are very prosperous. Private insurance companies are very prosperous.

When the public is paying for a service, there is no reason to waste a big chunk of that on tax money profits for some private corporation...

Prosperity has everything to do with it. If the government can really do everything more efficiently than can the private sector, then the most prosperous countries would be those where the government does the most. Do you really think that North Koreans are innately less industrious and/or less intelligent than South Koreans? (Well, except where North Korea's collectivist policies have resulted in stunting and malnutrition.)

There is absolutely no big chunk of tax money being wasted. The OP's article states that private prison corporations provide little or no savings; it did NOT state that private prison corporations cost more money. For the record I'm against private prison corporations - I find that disturbingly close to slavery or at least indentured servitude - but I have a BIG problem with this war on profit by the young and the stupid. The profit motive (enlightened self interest) is what made this country and, indeed, the West so successful, and the further we move away from it the more we will approach North Korea and Cuba.

 

[1prophet]

They're both customers, and the taxpayers can't just go to a different service provider either.

If you're going to play the semantics game at least do it right call the prisoners clients:biggrin:

The general distinction between a customer and a client is that a customer purchases products, whereas a client purchases services

 

[Zebo]

Whether they save or not, seems state is abdicating responsibility to me. One of the main reasons we even have a sovereign is to enforce rule of law at home and protect us from enemies abroad otherwise why have it?

 

[ayabe]

Locking up our citizens for profit or to provide jobs for other citizens is a pretty sickening prospect and inevitably leads to abuses such as judges taking bribes to lock people up as was the case in PA.

"In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/2914265..._courts/t/pa-judges-accused-jailing-kids-cash

 

[Tom]

Prosperity has everything to do with it. If the government can really do everything more efficiently than can the private sector, then the most prosperous countries would be those where the government does the most. Do you really think that North Koreans are innately less industrious and/or less intelligent than South Koreans? (Well, except where North Korea's collectivist policies have resulted in stunting and malnutrition.)

There is absolutely no big chunk of tax money being wasted. The OP's article states that private prison corporations provide little or no savings; it did NOT state that private prison corporations cost more money. For the record I'm against private prison corporations - I find that disturbingly close to slavery or at least indentured servitude - but I have a BIG problem with this war on profit by the young and the stupid. The profit motive (enlightened self interest) is what made this country and, indeed, the West so successful, and the further we move away from it the more we will approach North Korea and Cuba.

Baloney. What made this country is a combination of government actions by and large in the interests of the people, and the "profit motive" as you put it. It wouldn't be a success with just one or the other.

There's no comparison with N Korea or Cuba, our democracy and freedom work and we have pretty much the government we want, much more so than alternative forms of government.

 

[CitizenKain]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Frank_Czolgosz

This is the most prominent example I can think of. Leon Czolgosz was electrocuted two months after he shot president McKinley, and that was after he had a fair trial where he was proven guilty. That's the way our legal system SHOULD work today, and if it did then capital punishment could save us huge amounts of money.

So what about innocent people being executed? Has this thought ever crossed your mind? Most DP supporters don't seem to be able to think about things like that, what with their crippling mental issues, but give it a go.

 

[werepossum]

Baloney. What made this country is a combination of government actions by and large in the interests of the people, and the "profit motive" as you put it. It wouldn't be a success with just one or the other.

There's no comparison with N Korea or Cuba, our democracy and freedom work and we have pretty much the government we want, much more so than alternative forms of government.

You don't think North Korean and Cuban governments make decisions they think are "by and large in the interests of the people"?

When Cambodia killed its intellectuals and its educated class, moved everyone to collective farms, and proceeded to starve a large portion of the remaining population, its leaders certainly thought what they were doing was "by and large in the interests of the people".

 

[piasabird]

The government can print money and other things that would land a CEO in jail.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

No surpise. Private companies have the same requirements as state run facilities plus they must generate a profit for the owners. Simply economics will tell you that the private model will cost more for the same level of service. And as Macamus points out the same is true for Healthcare

Otherwise known as. Private industry has to survive based on supply/demand. Governments just raise taxes and keep spending.

I feel that companies running prisons is wrong. In this case, you are giving the prisons, and prison officials and workers absolute control over a human being.
If the government is the "law" it needs to be the one in control of all aspects of the law, from upholding it, to the punishment.

 

[Patranus]

You're looking at one part of the picture (requirements) while ignoring the other: pressure to become efficient and reduce expenses. A business with competition is under constant pressure to do better, become more efficient, come up with better products. If they don't they lose money and go out of business. Government on the other hand has no such pressure. That means government will usually be much less efficient. Doesn't mean everything should be privatized, but you can't just look at one side of the picture and not the other.

How can you optimize your business if there are requirements by the state that are the primary cause of the inefficiencies?

If the private prison was not bound by those regulations, it would have the freedom to become efficient.

 

[DCal430]

Private almost ALWAYS cost more and is less efficient.

Take a look a the utility industry. People who get their electricity from private investor owned utilities are paying significantly more than those of us who get it from public (government) owned utility.

Take a look at this pdf.

http://appanet.cms-plus.com/files/PDFs/PublicPowerCostsLess.pdf

Numbers don't lie. There is around 14% difference in the rates between private and public owned electric companies, with private being higher.

 

[Jhhnn]

How can you optimize your business if there are requirements by the state that are the primary cause of the inefficiencies?

If the private prison was not bound by those regulations, it would have the freedom to become efficient.

Gawd that's lame. It's like a building contractor being rendered "inefficient" by the specifications of the job and building codes.

Epic Fail.

 

[Balt]

Eh, I'm not against privatizing some things, but I hate that we've privatized some prisons.

There should not be an economic/lobbying incentive to keep more people locked up for longer periods of time just for the sake of profits. That just ends up costing the taxpayers a lot more. In short, the government has an economic incentive to reduce things like recidivism (though they do a poor job of it). Private companies running prisons have an economic incentive to keep themselves full of customers, and they will lobby state legislators, judges, etc. to do it.

 

[Steeplerot]

Idealogical children in here falling for the reverse communist utopia are going to have to experience the living hell of private run concentration camps to see their stupidity like the Bolsheviks had to learn about the opposite. Grow up free market fundamentalist kochsuckers you are being played by big money.

Reasonable fellow Americans have been telling you this in plain language but you all are dead set on living wholly artifical corporate manufactured fantasy world of conservative bullshit media.

Squeeking little mice marching off the cliff of their own best interests for the corporate fatcats. Pathetic intellectual cowrdice is what your problems are.