Kentucky ending private prisons

[poweRob]

Kentucky ending private prisons

The state will not renew a contract with the private Marion Adjustment Center when it expires on Sunday meaning that for the first time in nearly 30 years Kentucky will soon be housing none of its inmates in privately-run prisons.

J. Michael Brown, the state Justice and Public Safety secretary, said in a news release Tuesday that the move will save the state about $2 million a year. And he credited a 2011 law and other steps taken by the General Assembly and the Beshear administration that reformed sentencing and increased drug treatment opportunities.​

Whodda thunk it? Kentucky leading the nation in smarts. Let's hope the rest of the nation follows suit.

 

[Spartacus FPV]

Kentucky ending private prisons

The state will not renew a contract with the private Marion Adjustment Center when it expires on Sunday meaning that for the first time in nearly 30 years Kentucky will soon be housing none of its inmates in privately-run prisons.

J. Michael Brown, the state Justice and Public Safety secretary, said in a news release Tuesday that the move will save the state about $2 million a year. And he credited a 2011 law and other steps taken by the General Assembly and the Beshear administration that reformed sentencing and increased drug treatment opportunities.​

Whodda thunk it? Kentucky leading the nation in smarts. Let's hope the rest of the nation follows suit.

I doubt the Prison Industrial Complex and the Prison Guards union will take kindly to that.

Great news!

 

[CriticalThought]

The prison I currently work at is slowly being privatized one department at a time. The state is shooting itself in the foot. It is going to end up costing them much, much more in the long run.

 

[Peter King]

Kentucky ending private prisons

The state will not renew a contract with the private Marion Adjustment Center when it expires on Sunday meaning that for the first time in nearly 30 years Kentucky will soon be housing none of its inmates in privately-run prisons.

J. Michael Brown, the state Justice and Public Safety secretary, said in a news release Tuesday that the move will save the state about $2 million a year. And he credited a 2011 law and other steps taken by the General Assembly and the Beshear administration that reformed sentencing and increased drug treatment opportunities.​

Whodda thunk it? Kentucky leading the nation in smarts. Let's hope the rest of the nation follows suit.

What a smart decision, locking people up should be a government task, not something you do on a commercial basis. The lives of the public can never be risked by commercial companies saving money on guards, safety or prison awareness. Most prisoners get out and if they are totally messed up by inhumane prison conditions due to money pinching, it is the society that pays for the profit of prison companies.

 

[Carjosse]

You shouldn't be investing in prisons let alone private prisons.

 

[MaggieD]

I doubt the Prison Industrial Complex and the Prison Guards union will take kindly to that.

Great news!

Why? The public sector unions will love it. More public sector employees!! Whoot!!

 

[jamesrage]

Kentucky ending private prisons

The state will not renew a contract with the private Marion Adjustment Center when it expires on Sunday meaning that for the first time in nearly 30 years Kentucky will soon be housing none of its inmates in privately-run prisons.

J. Michael Brown, the state Justice and Public Safety secretary, said in a news release Tuesday that the move will save the state about $2 million a year. And he credited a 2011 law and other steps taken by the General Assembly and the Beshear administration that reformed sentencing and increased drug treatment opportunities.​

Whodda thunk it? Kentucky leading the nation in smarts. Let's hope the rest of the nation follows suit.

I do hope other states follow suit.Law enforcement and corrections should not be done by private industries.

 

[Slyfox696]

Our prison system as a whole needs an overhaul. In fact, our entire concept of punishment for crimes needs an overhaul. I don't know if I have the answer, but from what I can tell, private prisons do not seem to have been the right reform.

 

[Spartacus FPV]

Why?

Because said complex and unions push for increased mandatory minimums, to make more "customers" requiring more and more private prisons.

The public sector unions will love it. More public sector employees!! Whoot!!

Irrelevant to my point and their bread and butter. Also said jobs you're wooting about are not guaranteed to increase at the rate that private prisons are/were being built. Especially when they're taking measures like this to SAVE money, it tells me they're less inclined to build more or make more "customers."

The cost structure is really not the same. This is a great article explaining the differences is costs from public and private prisons:
Private vs. Public Facilities, Is it cost effective and safe?

private prisons are neither demonstrably more cost-effective, nor more efficient than public prisons. An evaluation of 24 different studies on cost-effectiveness revealed that, at best, results of the question are inconclusive and, at worst, there is no difference in cost-effectiveness.

A study by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found that the cost-savings promised by private prisons “have simply not materialized.” Some research has concluded that for-profit prisons cost more than public prisons. Furthermore, cost estimates from privatization advocates may be misleading, because private facilities often refuse to accept inmates that cost the most to house.

The public prisons have no choice on taking on the more costly inmates.

 

[Paschendale]

The prison I currently work at is slowly being privatized one department at a time. The state is shooting itself in the foot. It is going to end up costing them much, much more in the long run.

Which is what happens when you privatize a public system. It has to turn a profit instead of just doing its job. And greedy profiteers are really good at getting themselves more money, especially public money.

Why? The public sector unions will love it. More public sector employees!! Whoot!!

And that's a problem... why?

 

[Peter King]

Our prison system as a whole needs an overhaul. In fact, our entire concept of punishment for crimes needs an overhaul. I don't know if I have the answer, but from what I can tell, private prisons do not seem to have been the right reform.

The whole legal system needs an overhaul, way too many get jailed for far too long in non-violent crimes.

 

[RabidAlpaca]

Kentucky ending private prisons

The state will not renew a contract with the private Marion Adjustment Center when it expires on Sunday meaning that for the first time in nearly 30 years Kentucky will soon be housing none of its inmates in privately-run prisons.

J. Michael Brown, the state Justice and Public Safety secretary, said in a news release Tuesday that the move will save the state about $2 million a year. And he credited a 2011 law and other steps taken by the General Assembly and the Beshear administration that reformed sentencing and increased drug treatment opportunities.​

Whodda thunk it? Kentucky leading the nation in smarts. Let's hope the rest of the nation follows suit.

I think private prisons and a privatized justice system are the most vile things I could possibly imagine. I hope this works well and many other states do the same.

Why? The public sector unions will love it. More public sector employees!! Whoot!!

If any portion of our government should be clean, it should be the justice system. Turning locking people in cages into a business is unbelievably morally ****ed. The justice system is the single most important part of our entire government.

 

[Slyfox696]

The whole legal system needs an overhaul, way too many get jailed for far too long in non-violent crimes.

I'd even argue too many jailed for far too long for some violent crimes.

The problem is society doesn't care about those who are in prison. We're comfortable with the concept "out of sight, out of mind", not realizing by not putting resources into prisons, all we're doing is continuing to make the problem worse. There are some people who are simply evil, and no amount of assistance will ever help them. But I do not believe that to be the case with most people, even prisoners. But we throw them in jail, for years or even decades, and then act surprised when they get out of jail and are not capable of functioning in society.

The reform has to come in terms of education. Not just book learning, but learning of skills, learning of proper behavior, etc. As I said, some will never reform, but I think most people would prefer to live a better life.

 

[danarhea]

Kentucky ending private prisons

The state will not renew a contract with the private Marion Adjustment Center when it expires on Sunday meaning that for the first time in nearly 30 years Kentucky will soon be housing none of its inmates in privately-run prisons.

J. Michael Brown, the state Justice and Public Safety secretary, said in a news release Tuesday that the move will save the state about $2 million a year. And he credited a 2011 law and other steps taken by the General Assembly and the Beshear administration that reformed sentencing and increased drug treatment opportunities.​

Whodda thunk it? Kentucky leading the nation in smarts. Let's hope the rest of the nation follows suit.

Good for Kentucky. Unfortunately for Texas, the for-profit prison plantation system is still here, and a few companies are making lots of money from the work that prisoners do. Not that I feel sorry for the prisoners. I don't. They should do their time, but even they should not be slaves.

 

[CRUE CAB]

Let them all out, and let society take care of them. One at a time.

 

[Green Balls]

Kentucky should have started with Christian County jail. That is the home base for one of the largest privatized extraditing companies. That company makes $100 per day for each prisoner they transport. Average trip from one jail to another is 7 days. They charge the inmate, but most often the taxpayers eat the cost.

 

[Ikari]

Kentucky ending private prisons

The state will not renew a contract with the private Marion Adjustment Center when it expires on Sunday meaning that for the first time in nearly 30 years Kentucky will soon be housing none of its inmates in privately-run prisons.

J. Michael Brown, the state Justice and Public Safety secretary, said in a news release Tuesday that the move will save the state about $2 million a year. And he credited a 2011 law and other steps taken by the General Assembly and the Beshear administration that reformed sentencing and increased drug treatment opportunities.​

Whodda thunk it? Kentucky leading the nation in smarts. Let's hope the rest of the nation follows suit.

I wouldn't hold my breath, there's a lot of money to be made there and a lot of politicians friends wealth at stake. The corporate Prison system is no different than any other branch of our Corporate State.

Though I don't really see why we have private prisons in the first place.

 

[poweRob]

The prison I currently work at is slowly being privatized one department at a time. The state is shooting itself in the foot. It is going to end up costing them much, much more in the long run.

I know... People hear the word "privatized" and all the sudden get so dumb that they can't see that the money paying for it is STILL taxpayer funded. Now there is a middle man working a profit margin on top of it.

 

[poweRob]

I'd even argue too many jailed for far too long for some violent crimes.

The problem is society doesn't care about those who are in prison. We're comfortable with the concept "out of sight, out of mind", not realizing by not putting resources into prisons, all we're doing is continuing to make the problem worse. There are some people who are simply evil, and no amount of assistance will ever help them. But I do not believe that to be the case with most people, even prisoners. But we throw them in jail, for years or even decades, and then act surprised when they get out of jail and are not capable of functioning in society.

The reform has to come in terms of education. Not just book learning, but learning of skills, learning of proper behavior, etc. As I said, some will never reform, but I think most people would prefer to live a better life.

What's sad about our system is far too often it is based off of electoral clout. So to win an election you run by saying how ****ty you will treat "criminals". The whole "he's tough on crime!" schtick. So instead of trying or envisioning several different angles to try and break recidivism we elect those who promise to crap on everyone behind bars as hard as possible becuase of the "they deserve it" thought process.

What they deserve is the sentence they got. That isn't the question. What you do with them while they are in there is what creates the kind of person that comes out of there. And when we elect the "tough on crime" person, what happens to those in prison pretty much always creates a worse criminal that comes out. We are waaayyyy backwards in our prison system.

 

[SheWolf]

Why does it end up costing more?

The prison I currently work at is slowly being privatized one department at a time. The state is shooting itself in the foot. It is going to end up costing them much, much more in the long run.

 

[CriticalThought]

Why does it end up costing more?

The administrative costs of oversight and the training costs due to the high turnover of personnel who are underpaid.

 

[paddymcdougall]

I'd even argue too many jailed for far too long for some violent crimes.

The problem is society doesn't care about those who are in prison. We're comfortable with the concept "out of sight, out of mind", not realizing by not putting resources into prisons, all we're doing is continuing to make the problem worse. There are some people who are simply evil, and no amount of assistance will ever help them. But I do not believe that to be the case with most people, even prisoners. But we throw them in jail, for years or even decades, and then act surprised when they get out of jail and are not capable of functioning in society.

The reform has to come in terms of education. Not just book learning, but learning of skills, learning of proper behavior, etc. As I said, some will never reform, but I think most people would prefer to live a better life.

I haven't been able to find the link again, but about a year ago I read about California's prisons - how they started removing all the training programs and taking away the chance of early parole. The prison environment went to heck in a handbasket (due to no hope) and those prisoners that did get out had a higher recidivism than when the programs were in place.

Inmates behave better if they think that will get them out earlier. And having programs in place will help them cope better when they do get out.

With the realignment thing going on, there is more interest in local programs to help with rehab. They are meeting with inmates before and after release. I think that's good.

Re KY - yea for getting out of the private prison business! I totally agree - while prisons are sadly needed, it should be a govt. responsibility, not a profit making center for a commercial enterprise.