Why private prisons are such a terrible, terrible thing.

[Sava]

MR WORF SET MAGNIFICATION FIFTY DEGREES STARBOARD

[giblets]

1. 65 percent of the private prison contracts ITPI received and analyzed included occupancy guarantees in the form of quotas or required payments for empty prison cells (a “low-crime tax”). These quotas and low-crime taxes put taxpayers on the hook for guaranteeing profits for private prison corporations.

Not shocking. Everyone wants to reduce their exposure to risk... if an employee gets severance pay as part of their employment contract that isn't shocking either.

Occupancy guarantee clauses in private prison contracts range between 80% and 100%, with 90% as the most frequent occupancy guarantee requirement.

Not shocking either. Why would you want people building prisons that are only expected to have, say, 10% occupancy?

Arizona, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Virginia are locked in contracts with the highest occupancy guarantee requirements, with all quotas requiring between 95% and 100% occupancy.

Can't see how this is shocking. If the average is 90% some states are probably going to exceed 95%.

Though crime has dropped by a third in the past decade, an occupancy requirement covering three for-profit prisons has forced taxpayers in Colorado to pay an additional $2 million.

That's too bad.

Three Arizona for-profit prison contracts have a staggering 100% quota, even though a 2012 analysis from Tucson Citizen shows that the company’s per-day charge for each prisoner has increased an average of 13.9% over the life of the contracts.

Is this after adjusting for inflation? What is the lifespan of one of these contracts? 13.9% increase is not necesarrily unreasonable.

A 20-year deal to privately operate the Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Ohio includes a 90% quota, and has contributed to cutting corners on safety, including overcrowding, areas without secure doors and an increase in crime both inside the prison and in the surrounding community.

Private companies cutting corners in an attempt to make more money isn't really shocking either.


Wow, these sure were some shocking revelations.

[notyoueither]

Six things everyone should know about private/for-profit prisons.

The article does not explain how paying for empty bunks would not be preferable to having people in them.

[MrFun]

Wow, these sure were some shocking revelations.

You don't see anything wrong with creating a market demand for prisoners?

[SlowwHand]

If they loosened drug laws and expedited DNA positive death penalties, there would be plenty of room.

[Sava]

Well, you are half-right. That's something.