Re:The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people
by rayiner on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @03:14PM
(#6401246)
It's not. Only a small percentage of prisons are for profit (http://www.propublica.org/article/by-the-numbers-the-u.s.s-g...), and our tendency to incarcerate people dates back to long before we had for profit prisons. Our incarceration rate is mostly a backlash against desegregation. It's mostly because of the war on drugs, which is at its base a war on black people.
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Re:The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people
by mjn on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @04:52PM
(#6401885)
In California at least the prison-guard union does have a significant role, which is a kind of profit motive. They successfully campaigned for the three-strikes law, for example, and have been a strong influence on politicians for decades.
I agree the war on drugs is a much bigger factor.
Re:The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people
by protomyth on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @05:51PM
(#6402162)
Looking at what bills the Prison Guards union gets behind or tries to stop, it is a very big amount of money. Corporations are not the only ones with a profit motive.
Re:The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people
by knieveltech on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @04:16PM
(#6401646)
"Only a tiny percentage of prisons are for profit"
Can you source that?
Re:The Norwegian prison where inmates are treated like people
by rayiner on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @04:27PM
(#6401724)
http://www.propublica.org/article/by-the-numbers-the-u.s.s-g...
128k out of 1.6m, or 8%. Graph of the incarcerated population: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_incarceration_timeline-.... The prison population started exploding in 1980 with the drug war and the war on immigration, but for-profit prisons had less than 10,000 prisoners as of 1990. It's a lagging effect--the for-profit prisons are sprouting up because we put so many people in prison, not the other way around.
