Prisons, Privatization, Patronage

[unlockingsky 94]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/opinion/krugman-prisons-privatization-patronage.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

Over the past few days, The New York Times has published several terrifying reports about New Jersey’s system of halfway houses — privately run adjuncts to the regular system of prisons. The series is a model of investigative reporting, which everyone should read. But it should also be seen in context. The horrors described are part of a broader pattern in which essential functions of government are being both privatized and degraded.

First of all, about those halfway houses: In 2010, Chris Christie, the state’s governor — who has close personal ties to Community Education Centers, the largest operator of these facilities, and who once worked as a lobbyist for the firm — described the company’s operations as “representing the very best of the human spirit.” But The Times’s reports instead portray something closer to hell on earth — an understaffed, poorly run system, with a demoralized work force, from which the most dangerous individuals often escape to wreak havoc, while relatively mild offenders face terror and abuse at the hands of other inmates.

It’s a terrible story. But, as I said, you really need to see it in the broader context of a nationwide drive on the part of America’s right to privatize government functions, very much including the operation of prisons. What’s behind this drive?

You might be tempted to say that it reflects conservative belief in the magic of the marketplace, in the superiority of free-market competition over government planning. And that’s certainly the way right-wing politicians like to frame the issue.

But if you think about it even for a minute, you realize that the one thing the companies that make up the prison-industrial complex — companies like Community Education or the private-prison giant Corrections Corporation of America — are definitely not doing is competing in a free market. They are, instead, living off government contracts. There isn’t any market here, and there is, therefore, no reason to expect any magical gains in efficiency.

And, sure enough, despite many promises that prison privatization will lead to big cost savings, such savings — as a comprehensive study by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, part of the U.S. Department of Justice, concluded — “have simply not materialized.” To the extent that private prison operators do manage to save money, they do so through “reductions in staffing patterns, fringe benefits, and other labor-related costs.”

So let’s see: Privatized prisons save money by employing fewer guards and other workers, and by paying them badly. And then we get horror stories about how these prisons are run. What a surprise!

So what’s really behind the drive to privatize prisons, and just about everything else?

One answer is that privatization can serve as a stealth form of government borrowing, in which governments avoid recording upfront expenses (or even raise money by selling existing facilities) while raising their long-run costs in ways taxpayers can’t see. We hear a lot about the hidden debts that states have incurred in the form of pension liabilities; we don’t hear much about the hidden debts now being accumulated in the form of long-term contracts with private companies hired to operate prisons, schools and more.

Another answer is that privatization is a way of getting rid of public employees, who do have a habit of unionizing and tend to lean Democratic in any case.

But the main answer, surely, is to follow the money. Never mind what privatization does or doesn’t do to state budgets; think instead of what it does for both the campaign coffers and the personal finances of politicians and their friends. As more and more government functions get privatized, states become pay-to-play paradises, in which both political contributions and contracts for friends and relatives become a quid pro quo for getting government business. Are the corporations capturing the politicians, or the politicians capturing the corporations? Does it matter?

Now, someone will surely point out that nonprivatized government has its own problems of undue influence, that prison guards and teachers’ unions also have political clout, and this clout sometimes distorts public policy. Fair enough. But such influence tends to be relatively transparent. Everyone knows about those arguably excessive public pensions; it took an investigation by The Times over several months to bring the account of New Jersey’s halfway-house-hell to light.

The point, then, is that you shouldn’t imagine that what The Times discovered about prison privatization in New Jersey is an isolated instance of bad behavior. It is, instead, almost surely a glimpse of a pervasive and growing reality, of a corrupt nexus of privatization and patronage that is undermining government across much of our nation.

[slim 1,530]

We're getting to the point where we'll no longer be able to sustain our prison population in prison. We're going to have to find alternate means of detention and/or control.

... it won't be long until the "happy camps" are set up.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

We're getting to the point where we'll no longer be able to sustain our prison population in prison.

That's correct. However, the more we privatize prisons, the more pressure there will be from the prison industry to increase populations. That's how they grow their business and their profits. So watch them to continue lobbying lawmakers for stiffer sentences and more incarcerations for longer terms. Their viability depends on growing prison populations and they'll see to it that they get them.

[slim 1,530]

That's correct. However, the more we privatize prisons, the more pressure there will be from the prison industry to increase populations. That's how they grow their business and their profits. So watch them to continue lobbying lawmakers for stiffer sentences and more incarcerations for longer terms. Their viability depends on growing prison populations and they'll see to it that they get them.

But it makes us all safer!

I mean, come on. There are people out there driving on suspended licenses and smoking marijuana. Hell, some people are even stealing stuff out of abandoned buildings to sell for scrap. This has to stop. Lock 'em up!

[Dan J 277]

Does anyone thing that privatizing government services in which it creates a conflict of interest for the private provider is a good idea?

Prison operators want more people in prison for a longer period of time, defense contractors want more wars and larger DoD budgets, Etc.

I think the argument could be made that more privatization = bigger government because the private companies want to make more money.

Edited June 22, 2012 by Dan J

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

But it makes us all safer!

I mean, come on. There are people out there driving on suspended licenses and smoking marijuana. Hell, some people are even stealing stuff out of abandoned buildings to sell for scrap. This has to stop. Lock 'em up!

I hear you. We're locking people up for shite that they shouldn't be locked up for. But the prison industry will insist that we lock up more people for lesser offenses. They'll spend tons of money to lobby lawmakers all over the country for this. And yes, they will spread this paranoid propaganda on how locking ever more people up makes this country a better, safer place. None of that is true, of course, but they owe it to their shareholders to get more people locked up.

[james&olya 1,121]

I hear you. We're locking people up for shite that they shouldn't be locked up for. But the prison industry will insist that we lock up more people for lesser offenses. They'll spend tons of money to lobby lawmakers all over the country for this. And yes, they will spread this paranoid propaganda on how locking ever more people up makes this country a better, safer place. None of that is true, of course, but they owe it to their shareholders to get more people locked up.

And thanks to the repugs on the SCOTUS that gave us the Citizens United ruling allowing unlimited amounts of corporate money in politics they will be helping elect the politicians who are willing to vote their way! It is a success for the basic principals of capitalism, I suppose!

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

I think the argument could be made that more privatization = bigger government because the private companies want to make more money.

[unlockingsky 94]

That's correct. However, the more we privatize prisons, the more pressure there will be from the prison industry to increase populations. That's how they grow their business and their profits. So watch them to continue lobbying lawmakers for stiffer sentences and more incarcerations for longer terms. Their viability depends on growing prison populations and they'll see to it that they get them.

dont forget prosecutors getting freebies from the industry. and look over there is a prosecutor that jailed over 10,000 people a year! record streak!