"Justice Department says it will end use of private prisons"

[$tevie]

The Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective at providing correctional services than those run by the government.

Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced the decision on Thursday in a memo that instructs officials to either decline to renew the contracts for private prison operators when they expire or “substantially reduce” the contracts’ scope. The goal, Yates wrote, is “reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated prisons.”
(tu)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post...7be0fcfdc4&wpisrc=al_alert-national

[cbelt3]

Good. Some things just should NOT be privatized.

[Lux Interior]

Why do you hate capitalism?

[SteveG]

Will this affect the FEMA internment camps or will the Clinton Foundation retain that contract?



(Steve G pinch-hitting for forum members on neighborhood watch patrol.)

[SteveG]

Okay, okay, so maybe it wasn't so funny. How about this one?


Local men celebrate running down a street in Baltimore without being shot by police.

[fauch]

Maybe we should start moving away from prison as a whole and find more effective methods of behavior modification and crime deterrence.

Obviously truly dangerous people will always need to be locked up but what percentage of people in jail fit into that category?? And how many first time criminals "evolve" once they enter the system and never manage to leave it??

[RgrF]

fauch is absolutely correct. For a country like the US to have such a disproportionate percentage of its population behind bars is not just a disgrace but shows the extreme indifference of the electorate and its elected officials.

While disinterest by the general populace may be understandable, that sort of disinterest on the part of officials is inexcusable.

Most European countries have taken an entirely different approach to rehabilitation, of course, most European countries aren't awash with guns and sitting on a failing public education system.

[DeusxMac]

fauch wrote:
Maybe we should start moving away from prison as a whole and find more effective methods of behavior modification and crime deterrence.

Infinitely more easily said than done. The eternal obstacles of theory vs. application

[cbelt3]

RgrF wrote:
fauch is absolutely correct. For a country like the US to have such a disproportionate percentage of its population behind bars is not just a disgrace but shows the extreme indifference of the electorate and its elected officials......

Quite the opposite. Voters chose 'tough on crime' candidates in droves in the 80's and beyond. It can now be reasonably argued that the huge prison population has to do with the 'war on drugs'. For example- 46.3% of the population comes from 'drug offenses'. The gun offenses are often also related to the drug trade / use. That's another 16.9%.

https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/sta...fenses.jsp

That's right. Legalizing ALL drugs and retroactively pardoning all prisoners convicted of drug offenses will cut the US prison population in HALF.

[RgrF]

"extreme indifference" as used here, means lock em up, toss the key, and forget about them.