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I agree with your point about how the law drops the ball when it comes to rehabilitation. A real issue IS who owns or manages the prisons. If the profit motive

I agree with your point about how the law drops the ball when it comes to rehabilitation. A real issue IS who owns or manages the prisons. If the profit motive is what drives prison expansion, then society will experience a form of regulatory capture in hyperacceleration. Many of those programs and processes are being taken over by private entities. You are no long just paying out to your municipality, county, state or country. You're paying out to them and the private company who demands your payment or you go to back to prison for non-payment. They still profit and your debt racks up. You are paying out fees to the private company for your detention, your lodging, your processing and probation on top of what the state is paying them to hold you. If you cannot pay them back, you are free to spend a day in jail for each $10-$40 of your debt owed to your captors. They get to collect from the state as well. Then, with the money they've been collecting, the private entities go and lobby to make sure there is a steady stream of constant offenders to keep profits increasing every quarter. Sometimes it makes sense to bribe judges to send innocent children to your private juvenile detention center to collect those fat state grants, a la Cash for Kids. The profit motive perverts justice and seeks to turn everyone into customers of the private justice system.

baddox 11y ago
> A real issue IS who owns or manages the prisons. If the profit motive is what drives prison expansion, then society will experience a form of regulatory capture in hyperacceleration. The thing is, profit motive is there regardless of whether you call the prisons "private" or "public," because the people constructing, supplying, and running the prisons are (presumably) getting paid, and those people don't suddenly stop having personal incentives if you start calling them government employees.
- task_queue 11y ago
  The people constructing the prisons also construct schools, hospitals and buildings that society needs. There isn't a lobby of people solely benefiting from the construction of prisons other than the owners that the prison is built for. Prison unions are a big problem, as well. They bring many of the same problems to the table. California's is a great example of just how easily these groups can manipulate the system for their benefit. The state at least can be swayed by representatives and public initiative. As an entity, it doesn't exist only to turn a profit. It isn't perfect, but handing the entire system over to people who only care about the bottom line will accelerate the problem.

baddox 11y ago

> A real issue IS who owns or manages the prisons. If the profit motive is what drives prison expansion, then society will experience a form of regulatory capture in hyperacceleration. The thing is, profit motive is there regardless of whether you call the prisons "private" or "public," because the people constructing, supplying, and running the prisons are (presumably) getting paid, and those people don't suddenly stop having personal incentives if you start calling them government employees.

task_queue 11y ago
The people constructing the prisons also construct schools, hospitals and buildings that society needs. There isn't a lobby of people solely benefiting from the construction of prisons other than the owners that the prison is built for. Prison unions are a big problem, as well. They bring many of the same problems to the table. California's is a great example of just how easily these groups can manipulate the system for their benefit. The state at least can be swayed by representatives and public initiative. As an entity, it doesn't exist only to turn a profit. It isn't perfect, but handing the entire system over to people who only care about the bottom line will accelerate the problem.