re: #687 kirkspencer

yeah, it was a pretty obvious trainwreck. (grin)

Private prisons are one of my hot buttons. They are one of the excellent examples of why some missions are better done by the state, not by private industry.

Their base cost per inmate is less for the state than for the state doing it. Their TCO, of which recidivism is only part, is greater. There’s a larger rate of in-facility violence, more escapes, and higher recidivism rates. These (among other things) lead to a larger number of lawsuits in which the government is still a defendant — and private prisons lose more often that state run facilities due to shortcuts taken to increase the profits.

State and federal run prisons aren’t great - in fact, some are cesspools that need major cleaning. But on average they are better than private prisons.

The concept has to be altered —from prison to perhaps a clinical/academic setting. Forced rehab and high school with a concentration on Special Ed for adults and psych counselling.

How that is done while a) not becoming a “reducation camp” and b) still fulfilling one’s debt to society (which still think is important), I don’t know.

I think it can be done more efficiently in a for-profit setting, but the goal should be results in human resources, not monetary resources.

In my perfect world … . .