The College Scene

[ginger]

Good morning. I'm creating this thread for college absurdities, starting with Harvard students protesting their president because he refuses to divest from funds that are associated with private prisons. He states he gets tons of requests to divest from a plethora of things, ie companies that use corn syrup...that it's too impractical to accommodate every request. The students say the private prisons are less humane than government run facilities. 

The only thing I could think of while reading this was the two individuals who beat a guy and his pregnant girlfriend. Then they set the house on fire for them to burn alive and sauntered down the street as if nothing happened. Less humane facilities? Perhaps the president of Harvard should ask the students weather it would be more humane to just put a bullet through their heads.

Normally I'm not a death penalty person but this case gets me every time. Maybe because it happened in our own city.

edit...Normally I'm not a proponent for the death penalty however I find this case so egregious...

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by ginger
reworded

[Bingoloid]

The main argument about private prisons isn't really about the way the prisons are run - although there are issues there. It's that they're bilking taxpayers and may actually cost more than state-run prisons, and that the incentives are lined up to guarantee corruption. In conjunction with corrections officers' unions, they spend millions buying legislators to oppose cheap, effective programs that prevent crime in favor of making sure as many people end up in prison as possible, for as long as possible. That's how they get paid.

At the extremely crazy end, operators have been caught spending millions bribing judges right in our own backyard to funnel children into prison for minor offenses against the recommendations of prosecutors and parole officers.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29142654/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/pa-judges-accused-jailing-kids-cash/#.VTgeOvnF98E

If those two got caught, who else is on the take? When we talk about "draining the swamp", this is the swamp. Billions straight out of taxpayers' pockets to imprison people everyone involved knows don't really need to be there. That kind of corruption could easily win a lethal injection in certain other countries. I doubt the students are all that informed about it, but it's a real issue.

[ginger]

I just read your article...I can't imagine how they got away with all of that for long...especially not having a lawyer represent the children. How could  that have possibly happened? I  do understand you said this was the extreme. Were they never read miranda..if you don't have a lawyer the court will APPOINTone?

added comment...I thought all minors had a court appointed attorney?

Edited September 3, 2019 by ginger
added comment

[Batman]

Incarcerating people should not be a for-profit business.  

[ginger]

^Why not?

And no, I don't think minors should be incarcerated by a private entity but adults who commit crime that is so egregious...Why not?

[Batman]

Well for one reason the private prison lobby funnels millions of dollars to candidates.  I’d say it’s pretty sketchy that the industry that makes money off of incarcerating humans can influence politicians who make the rules and appoint judges who decide who, for how long and where someone is incarcerated.  

[binghamtonian]

14 hours ago, ginger said:

^Why not?

And no, I don't think minors should be incarcerated by a private entity but adults who commit crime that is so egregious...Why not?

Because the private prison system in the US has proven to be a massive failure. There's a reason the US has some of the highest incarceration rates in the world. It's all about making $$$$.

[Bingoloid]

17 hours ago, ginger said:

^Why not?

And no, I don't think minors should be incarcerated by a private entity but adults who commit crime that is so egregious...Why not?

As I said before, it inherently causes corruption and failure by misaligning rewards with results. The economic term is "perverse incentive".

Private prisons lose money if crime goes down. They use a percentage of their profits every year lobbying politicians to make sure that doesn't happen. They don't care about you or your safety, they care about scooping up as much of your tax money as possible. If every prisoner they release turns around and commits another crime, they make more money.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-01/u-s-private-prisons-are-a-failed-government-experiment

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/the-cold-hard-facts-about-americas-private-prison-system

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/08/12/private-federal-prisons-less-safe-less-secure/

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/03/us/mississippi-private-prison-abuse.html

...and of course, private prisons tend to only contract to take "low-risk" inmates to begin with, not the hardened violent felons, yet they're so cheaply run that they have far more issues with contraband and violence against inmates and guards, even though they often aren't really much cheaper for the state. (Incidentally, that last link quotes a trial in which the warden of a private prison essentially admitted that his prison wasn't bothering to keep inmates in their cells. The story doesn't mention that just a few years earlier, Chris Epps, the Mississippi prisons commissioner had resigned because he was being indicted in federal court for taking millions of dollars in bribes from a former judge, Cecil McCrory, who had been working as a consultant for the company that ran this facility.)

That's why they're so profitable that they can afford to throw around massive bribes and still produce good returns for investors. They cut corners, falsify reports, pay off public officials to turn a blind eye, and the savings go to the shareholders rather than taxpayers. It's a scam.

[ginger]

Why wouldn't they only be allowed to accept criminals with life sentences...oh forget it, of course when the criminals became too old and expensive to care for they'd probably bump them off. (wow, look how cynical I've become...sad  )Unless there was a profit to be made combining skilled nursing with incarceration. 

[ginger]

On a different note and not related to the thread but...

I think it would behoove President Stenger to please relate to students how insidious Seasonal Affective Disorder can be in this area. I don't think it would be a waste of money to place light boxes in the dorms and other places throughout the campus..cafeterias, libraries, especially the section that houses comparative literature  I'm guessing the students will use the boxes if they are available. It would be interesting to see if SUNY experiences a decrease in the loss of students to attrition and perhaps even an increase in overall GPA.

 

added comment-I actually don't know if that section of the library is in the same place but years ago, there wasn't even enough light to read by.

Edited September 4, 2019 by ginger
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[19April1775]

On 9/3/2019 at 4:43 PM, Batman said:

Incarcerating people should not be a for-profit business.  

Write it down. We agree on one thing.

[19April1775]

On 9/4/2019 at 7:54 AM, binghamtonian said:

Because the private prison system in the US has proven to be a massive failure. There's a reason the US has some of the highest incarceration rates in the world. It's all about making $$$$.

And you too. Just imagine if the  both of you got your heads out of your asses on everything else? I won't hold my breath. 

[Bingoloid]

On 9/4/2019 at 11:42 AM, ginger said:

Why wouldn't they only be allowed to accept criminals with life sentences...oh forget it, of course when the criminals became too old and expensive to care for they'd probably bump them off. (wow, look how cynical I've become...sad  )Unless there was a profit to be made combining skilled nursing with incarceration. 

It's honestly not that cynical. You've correctly answered your own question. Privately-operated prisons don't want inmates with serious medical or violent behavioral issues because those are the expensive ones. Their marketing pitch is to pretend that it's cheap, so they stick the state with the worst inmates.

Then they underpay amateur guards who are too understaffed to actually do anything, coast by for months at a time without doctors and psychiatrists on staff, and pretend to be absolutely shocked when investigators finally find out that their prisoners went haywire, made weapons and formed gangs, and started raping and beating each other in the halls and setting their cells on fire.

[binghamtonian]

14 hours ago, 19April1775 said:

And you too. Just imagine if the  both of you got your heads out of your asses on everything else? I won't hold my breath. 

Take your meds, you're babbling.