Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane alternative to jail

Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by grivescorbett on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @02:55PM (#16631463)

There is such a thing as for profit for good. Perhaps they believe they can be both better and cheaper than prisons at the same time. That allows them to provide a compelling pitch to governments and convince them to direct funds to Promise instead of prisons. The government wins because it's cheaper, their users win because they are not incarcerated, and they win because they have cash flow. These types of businesses are not impossible to create.

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Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by criddell on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @03:19PM (#16631679)

> There is such a thing as for profit for good.

Their association with Y Combinator doesn't help with that impression. How many other venture funded start ups exist to provide a societal benefit while making only a modest return? Isn't the goal a big exit?

They might not be venture funded yet, but they aren't at Y Combinator for the coffee, right? I know this sounds super cynical, so please tell me why I'm wrong. Why is this a good thing?

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Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by ceejayoz on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @03:40PM (#16631841)

> How many other venture funded start ups exist to provide a societal benefit while making only a modest return?

YC has a non-profits program. https://www.ycombinator.com/nonprofits/

I don't see any indication that Promise is going non-profit, though.

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Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by grivescorbett on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @03:57PM (#16631977)

Who says anything about a modest return? How much does the U.S. spend on prisons? How much does the world spend on prisons? Say they operate at a 30% discount, how much revenue is that? Off the top of my head, a lot.

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Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by gt_ on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @03:20PM (#16631684)

>These types of businesses are not impossible to create.

This is amazingly uninformed. Let’s stop pretending private businesses were born yesterday and just consult history. Privatization of human rights is despicable and this is not a lesson that needs to be learned again. Do you know why we never had private prisons before? They incentivize corruption of the most vulnerable fabric of our society. No excuse.

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Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by grivescorbett on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @04:00PM (#16632000)

I agree that for-profit prisons are not good for society. But does this one (granted, massive) mistake mean that we can no longer try to innovate in this space? Does it mean that the only model is publicly funded rehabilitation? That's obviously not worked either.

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Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by Jemmeh on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @04:48PM (#16632471)

Exactly. I think there's a lot of things to consider around it all, for-profit prisons have a LOT of problems. But if we found that microwaving food for prisoners saved a lot of time cooking and thus also the amount of time we had to pay for people to cook for prisons that would be a good thing...at least it would be if that money gets funneled back to the point that a taxpayer is paying less. As it is I assume it just goes into the pocket of whoever runs the for-profit prison.

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Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by criddell on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @10:34PM (#16634839)

> does this one (granted, massive) mistake mean that we can no longer try to innovate in this space?

No, but we should learn from those mistakes, right?

When a company makes money from prisoners and more prisoners mean more money, then the incentives are a problem.

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Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by dragonwriter on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @04:08PM (#16632068)

> Do you know why we never had private prisons before?

You mean, before 1852?

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Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by dminor on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @05:46PM (#16633022)

A profit motive can lead to perverse and unforeseen incentives, even despite the best intentions of the founders, who someday will not be running the company.

The private prison industry routinely lobbies for higher fines & longer sentences because it is to their benefit to have more people go to prison. Promise appears to have a similar incentive.

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Re:Launch HN: Promise (YC W18) – Cost-effective, more humane... by smw on Tuesday March 20, 2018 @11:45PM (#16635247)

This aims to be much closer: http://benefitcorp.net/faq. Companies with the ability to operate for-profit, but without the obligation for maximizing shareholder profit.

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