Posted on 10/24/2009 7:26:03 PM PDT by Libloather
Arizona May Put State Prisons in Private Hands
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Published: October 23, 2009
FLORENCE, Ariz. — One of the newest residents on Arizona’s death row, a convicted serial killer named Dale Hausner, poked his head up from his television to look at several visitors strolling by, each of whom wore face masks and vests to protect against the sharp homemade objects that often are propelled from the cells of the condemned.
It is a dangerous place to patrol, and Arizona spends $4.7 million each year to house inmates like Mr. Hausner in a super-maximum-security prison. But in a first in the criminal justice world, the state’s death row inmates could become the responsibility of a private company.
State officials will soon seek bids from private companies for 9 of the state’s 10 prison complexes that house roughly 40,000 inmates, including the 127 here on death row. It is the first effort by a state to put its entire prison system under private control.
The privatization effort, both in its breadth and its financial goals, demonstrates what states around the country — broke, desperate and often overburdened with prisoners and their associated costs — are willing to do to balance the books. Arizona officials hope the effort will put a $100 million dent in the state’s roughly $2 billion budget shortfall.
“Let’s not kid ourselves,” said State Representative Andy Biggs, a Republican who supports private prisons. “If we were not in this economic environment, I don’t think we’d be talking about this with the same sense of urgency.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Send them to Pelosi and Reid’s estates.
If private companies can do the job more efficiently, why not? I never understood this irrational bias against privatizing things. Everything the government does is de facto privatized anyway, as each government employee is a de facto private contractor of one. Privatizing an entire operation, such as a prison, to a single subcontractor is just an extension of what the government already does.
My wife suggested that the US outsource its prison population to China. I bet you’d see a sharp drop in crime.
I got a better idea; fast track their appeals and then execute them> I think AZ has about 125 inmates on death row; they could empty those cells in matter of months. At the same time it would send a very strong message to other criminals
Great idea!
I like mine better:
Put heavily armed guards on the outside of the prison walls, air drop supplies to the inmates,including hand guns and ammo and wait.
Shoot the last man standing.
I can't provide documentation just anecdotal experience having been here since 1989.
Tucson has been trying extremely hard to drive away tourism and other businesses since I moved here. I think privatizing almost anything is a good idea.
Arizona is where Arpaio has them bunk outside and provides meals that cost something like 70 cents each. Why mess with one of the more efficient government agents?
Why China? Mexico is closer. Or Thailand.
Reduce the burden on the good people of Arizona:
execute ‘em!
Put heavily armed guards on the outside of the prison walls, air drop supplies to the inmates,including hand guns and ammo and wait.
Shoot the last man standing.
So a gray beard IS a sign of wisdom. I have the gray beard. When does the wisdom arrive?
I like your idea.
Because the Chinese have very "special" ways to handle prisoners. They are operated very much like the Russian Gulags or Japanese POW camps. The Mexicans are rank amateurs by comparison.
Those are the Maricopa County Jails.
Dang, that's a lot of public employee union savings. I believe we've done found a way to reduce budgets all over- contract out and save a bundle (stack of cash with two eyeballs on top).
All part of the plan. The fed government will control everything for a while then the New World Order will kick in and we’ll have one world government just like Daddy Bush wanted.
Remember, this is the state of Janet Napolitano, one of the stupidest politicos in decades. Now she is running the Dept. of Homeland Security and the terrorists and illegals haven’t stopped laughing yet.
A Fer-de-Lance in each death row cell would solve the crowding problem in 10 seconds.
Great idea!
I like mine better:
Put heavily armed guards on the outside of the prison walls, air drop supplies to the inmates,including hand guns and ammo and wait.
Shoot the last man standing. “”
Or make him a Congressman.
An export I could live with.
I know. I live there.
My apologies for exporting Janet. Phoenix is the kidnap capitol of the world. If we'd kept her here maybe things would have worked out better.
When an inmate is physically abused by some minimum wage twit with a god complex and a badge or denied constitutionally mandated medical treatment by some multinational Corp. looking to save a buck and pad their bottom line, it remains, ultimately, the responsibility of the "state" to compensate said inmate when he/she successfully sues and the private prison: either through a declaration of bankruptcy or through failing to carry adequate insurance, is finacially unable to pay any judgment awarded .
When I was hired to work in our states prison 20+ years ago it was explained to me that there are three types of folks that want to work in prisons.
1) the inmate crusaders, those folks that believe it is their job to "save" the poor inmates.
2) the "god complex" crowd, or as I like to say , the folks looking to wield some authority over the types of fellows that stole their lunch money when they were kids, and
3) the men and women that sign on for the good pay and benefits and treat the job with professionalism and the inmates with respect.
So the question I would have for those that advocate paying minimum wage and crappy benefits to those that work within a high stress and dangerous environment; do you really think you are gonna get quality employees?
And which of the two other types would you want working in your state prison? The "crusaders" that usually end up either having "relationships" with convicts or bringing in "contraband" or the"god complex" crowd that abuses their authority time and again? The internet is rife with stories of either type and believe me folks when I say they are "horror stories" I am being neither glib or histrionic. The example of a private prison that "knowingly" hired a sex offender to work in a juvenile facility comes immediately to mind
Either way taxpayers still wind up footing the bill for the lawsuits and "society" winds up paying the price for those that think they can scrimp on public safety.
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