Arnie's big plan to save Ca.? Privatize the prisons.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

Throwing people in jail for profit? What could possibly go wrong?

Here's a hint. When the jails are full, the laws are wrong.

Shouldn't we maybe be asking WHY so many people are in prison rather than trying to make incarceration profitable?

There are some things the "free market" is not designed to fix.

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. The prison lobby is strong here in CA

They were behind the "three strikes" law and other overly punitive statutes. They got tons o'money for pols who like to suck on their teats.

[waiting]

2. Bad idea

Just more money for the prison industrial complex and less rights for the people.

[tridim]

3. Aren't most prisons already privatized?

I thought that was the problem?

[the other one]

4. Use tax dollars to incarcerate tax payers?

How would this help? And why would private firms do it cheaper?

[Vinnie From Indy]

7. They'll do it cheaper by turning our already nightmarish prison system into something worse

You can be absolutely certain that profit will trump human rights, safety, health and even life if this trend continues.

Profit margin too small this quarter? Simply cut back the food and heat allowances made in the budget. Or, as an alternative, engineer infractions to keep prisoners past their release dates. There will be dozens of ways that a private company could amp up the profit in a prison business and none of them are right for a moral people.

[Vinnie From Indy]

5. Truly a national tragedy!

Putting the profit motive into depriving citizens of their freedom is a HORRIBLE idea. This is a primary function of the state. Privatizing this function is the definition of fascism in my book. Nothing good will come from this.

Why not privatize the functions of the court system? With this thinking, why shouldn't Taser International be allowed to OWN a police department or two? How about XE/BLACKWATER? What about letting Wal-Mart or Georgia Pacific run the state park system? Monsanto might be the perfect owner for the state Dept. of Agriculture.

This is a fucking stupid, dangerous idea. It lessens all of our freedoms in a DIRECT way. We formed governments to carry out these very functions for a reason.

[Orsino]

6. He did run as a Republican. n/t