Live data from Hacker News

California bans private prisons

theguardian.com

41–50 of 646 posts

Re: California bans private prisons

#42
post #7

The cynic and me sees this as a win... for the prison guards union. It seems to me that whether public or private, prisons should have good, independent oversight. Pretending that the "profit motive" is the biggest issue overlooks the horrific abuses committed by guards in California's public prisons.

Not that I've been to prison in California, public or private, but if you look up a guy named Wes Watson on youtube, who recently got out after >10 years in a mix of private and public California prisons, he mentions that the guards at state run prisons were actually much more effective and actually tried to do their job the right way, because they're paid well with state benefits and pensions and such, compared to the staff at private facilities, who he likened to WalMart employees.

Re: California bans private prisons

#44
This is incredible. I can't believe it's happened so soon, putting people (especially such a stigmatized group) above profits really gives hope for the future of the country. Thanks for leading us in this, California.

Re: California bans private prisons

#45

Honestly, it's a bit of a red herring.. nothing is going to change from a criminal justice perspective. Less than 10% of incarcerated people are held in private prisons. But even more importantly, there are still so many private contractors / unions in the (public/private) prison industry that this ban won't really affect policies or outcomes going forward.. private interests will almost always exist in it that have…

I don't think that's a fair assessment. Just because it's not a huge revolutionary reform that doesn't make incremental improvements a red herring. These are just steps toward a better world.

Re: California bans private prisons

#47
post #28

>Servin said that while the new law was a significant victory, there was one other thing immigrants rights groups were concerned about. When several sheriffs’ departments canceled their contracts to house Ice detainees last year, instead of freeing the detainees, Ice moved many of them to prisons in Colorado and Hawaii. Is this something that people against private prisons believe...that they just release all the pri…

> Is this something that people against private prisons believe...that they just release all the prisoners when they close the prison? There are a few different strains of thought when it comes to opposition to private prisons, but I believe the common denominator is that they create a perverse incentive. They turn prisons into businesses—the more prisoners, the better. So while there are definitely people who want t…

> There are a few different strains of thought when it comes to opposition to private prisons, but I believe the common denominator is that they create a perverse incentive. They turn prisons into businesses—the more prisoners, the better.

The same criticism can be applied towards forced prison labour, and yet, it is explicitly permitted by the thirteenth amendment. (And is commonly used in state prisons.)

Just because a profit incentive falls in the hands of the state's coffers, as opposed to some corporation, does not mean the incentive is not perverse.

Re: California bans private prisons

#48

>Two of Ice’s largest immigrant detention centers in California Can somebody explain to a legal immigrant why The Guardian keeps omitting the illegal part over twelve times throughout the article?

> battle with Trump over treatment of immigrants

> Immigrant detainees

> immigration detention facilities

> undocumented immigrants

> immigrant rights advocates

> immigration attorney

Which of those offends you and needs the illegal part?

Re: California bans private prisons

#49

Good riddance. The whole premise of private, for-profit, prisons has always seemed deeply troubling to me. The focus of a healthy prison system should be to rehabilitate people and help them turn their lives around so that they contribute positively to society. That can take years of hard work by the individual, and require assistance from professionals (therapists, teachers, ...). A for-profit company by definition…

That's charitable. The incentive isn't just to get rid of rehabilitation, it's for the private prison to do everything in their power to ensure that their inmates are trapped in a never-ending cycle of crime and recidivism.

Re: California bans private prisons

#50

>Two of Ice’s largest immigrant detention centers in California Can somebody explain to a legal immigrant why The Guardian keeps omitting the illegal part over twelve times throughout the article?

Because the detention facilities don't house exclusively illegal immigrants (in fact, given the fact that US citizens have been detained in them for extended periods despite clear proof of citizenship, even calling them immigrant detention facilities is somewhat misleading.)

A more accurate label would be “arbitrary detention facilities”.

Post reply on HN