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Washington state Senate passes legislation to ban private, for-profit prisons
The Hill ^ | 31 Mar 2021 | Aris Foley

Posted on 03/31/2021 11:43:07 PM PDT by blueplum

...The upper chamber voted to pass the bill 28-21 on Tuesday. The measure, which previously passed the state House, now awaits consideration from Gov. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), who has signaled support for restricting the use of private prisons.

If passed, the bill would prohibit any person, business, state or local governmental entity from operating private detention facilities in Washington, as well as utilizing contracts with a private detention facilities in the state, according to the bill text.

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: lawenforcement; privateprisons; tribalrunprisons
caveat: exemption given for those “owned and operated by federally recognized tribes and contracting with a government.”

Which is a bit odd for a state only having one for-profit prison.

1 posted on 03/31/2021 11:43:07 PM PDT by blueplum
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Private prisons are intrinsically a bad idea. And the for-profit models are far worse incentivizing honey-traps with damning consequences.


2 posted on 04/01/2021 12:09:37 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Gene Eric

The only way that a private-prison makes sense...is a holding ‘tank’ for zero-violent prisoners who just need to serve out a year or two in minimal supervision, with some work to keep them busy. Once you get to serious full-time criminals with violent tendencies....it’s the wrong place to hold them.


3 posted on 04/01/2021 1:35:35 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: blueplum

The language surrounding this issue is systematically dishonest, which of course is home turf for the left. “Private, for profit prisons” are simply government vendors who have been contracted to run prisons because a state is so tangled up in its own inefficiencies that it can’t build and operate prisons at reasonable cost. The state turns to a private vendor to perform a service that a government bureaucracy is no longer competent to do.

The various leftist groups that turn “private, for profit prisons” into a boogeyman do not actually want states to build and operate the needed capacity themselves. Most of these groups are simply anti-incarceration. They want to shut down the prisons and turn criminals loose on the streets, on the theory that social workers can adequately monitor them.


4 posted on 04/01/2021 3:17:44 AM PDT by sphinx
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To: sphinx

Private prisons also cut down on public employee union membership. Can’t have that.


5 posted on 04/01/2021 7:39:59 AM PDT by Valpal1
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