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Human lives are nothing but a form of currency to the oligarchs.

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[-] takeda@lemm.ee 115 points 6 days ago

Prisons should never be for profit.

[-] cactus_head@programming.dev 37 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

On the subject of prison, how can a prison be privatized. I dont live in the U.S and never heard of private prisons. Are there other countries that do this and if so, how many

How does a prison even make many?

[-] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 49 points 6 days ago

They bill the state and use the prisoners for labor. Its a us thing that's disgusting, vile and very profitable.

[-] cactus_head@programming.dev 7 points 6 days ago

I think i am asking an obvious question how is this different from government prisons. I assume less regulations and more slave labor but what does the government get out of this deal

[-] TheDoozer@lemmy.world 24 points 6 days ago

It's (theoretically) cheaper to run, because every private company is totally more efficient than a government agency and therefore better (this idea is absolutely idiotic, but people believe it). Additionally, it often is cheaper because the quality of care is so inhumanely low, and, again, the prisoners are used as slaves.

But even if it's not, it gets politicians funds for re-election as well as other benefits, so whether or not it's good deal for the government is irrelevant.

[-] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 6 days ago

It also creates a middleman. Nobody can blame the state for treating prisoners/slaves like shit, "No no it was them doing the horrible things!" so the politicians don't take any blame.

Same deal with other government contractors. And if one fucks up too bad it just gets resolved/renamed and then it's business as usual.

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[-] AA5B@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

It’s presented as a lot more innocent than that. Just like contracting a cleaning service or a company to run passenger rail, you contract with someone to run prisons. The government doesn’t have to focus on that, it can be smaller, and “private companies can run it more efficiently”.

I don’t think my state does that

[-] theUwUhugger@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

The guards and the regulation are federally provided/mandated! The building itself is really the privately owned part! The owning corpo receives payment per housed inmate!

The idea was that the free market is going to find cheaper ways for inhabitation, but it really doesn’t! On average privately housed inmates cost just as much, or marginally more than the federally housed ones! And some pr. prisons have contracts with the state that x% of beds have to be filled or must be paid large, and I mean fuckin large fines; the pr. prisons that don’t have such contracts are blackmailing the state with such threats on a semi-regular basis! In result of private prisons non-violent well behaved criminals are rarely ever released parole!

[-] whotookkarl@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

If you replace the word prison with forced labor camp it makes more sense. Other countries with forced labor of prisoners include Russia, North Korea, and China. In the US they use the 13th amendment to prevent organization of prison labor and defense of their basic human rights.

https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/findings/spotlights/examining-state-imposed-forced-labour/

And the thousands of corporations benefiting from both slave labor costs and it's effect on reducing organized labor's bargaining position

https://corpaccountabilitylab.org/calblog/2020/8/5/private-companies-producing-with-us-prison-labor-in-2020-prison-labor-in-the-us-part-ii

[-] hungryphrog 7 points 6 days ago

Use the prisoners for slave labor. That's capitalism for you.

[-] Crikeste@lemm.ee 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

We don’t get the weapons contracts, homie.

We don’t get the cheap labor, homie.

WE ARE CHEAP LABOR HOMIE

-Immortal Technique

[-] kameecoding@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

I don't exactly have that much of an issue of it being privatized as much as I have an issue with having them be for profit. Of course it's all fickle with what you encourage with money, but I feel like the aim should be to encourage rehabilitation of the inmates, so psychological treatment, opportunity to study so they can become a productive part of society again, etc and the funding should be based on that, but that could also backfire in some ways.

[-] fallingcats@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

It can pretty much only backfire. By privatizing you're effectively saying we don't want or expect to have fewer prisoners in the future.

[-] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 65 points 6 days ago

Slaves. The private prison is demanding that the government give them 300 slaves.

[-] glowing_hans@sopuli.xyz 3 points 6 days ago

Man this is a dark interpretation …

[-] msage@programming.dev 18 points 6 days ago

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

[-] DogWater@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago

Well it's literally in the US constitution as quoted by the other commenter so it's a neutral interpretation to be truthful

[-] Cheems@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago
[-] glowing_hans@sopuli.xyz 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)
[-] Cheems@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

And yet still accurate

[-] RangerJosey@lemmy.ml 32 points 6 days ago

The US is a giant slave pen ran by half a dozen megacorps.

Thats all it's been since Reagan.

[-] hungryphrog 44 points 6 days ago

'abolished slavery' my ass

[-] kameecoding@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago

Well they specifically didn't for inmates

[-] Crikeste@lemm.ee 5 points 6 days ago

Slavery is legal as a punishment, and America has 25% of the world’s incarcerated people.

We used to have laws requiring products made by American slaves to state such, but those have since been gutted or loopholed through 3rd parties.

[-] hungryphrog 1 points 5 days ago

That's why I said that. People always like to talk about slavery in past tense when it still exists in pretty much any corner of the world.

[-] Crikeste@lemm.ee 26 points 6 days ago

Always remember, kids: Slavery is still legal in the United States; why do you think they have 25% of the entire world’s incarcerated people there?

For cheap, slave labor.

Isn’t America great?!

[-] stevedice@sh.itjust.works 13 points 6 days ago

Despite making up only 2.4% of the world's population, Americans commit 25% of the crimes

[-] Crikeste@lemm.ee 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

That would be funny, but I actually just read how some EU countries have more “admissions” than America. They just don’t lock them away in labor camps.

It was actually on the AI Overview, so take that with a grain of salt lol

[-] frostysauce@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Oh, I love this comment!

[-] TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz 23 points 6 days ago

PLEASE put state or federal officials in the beds

[-] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 31 points 6 days ago

Why doesn’t anybody have a date somewhere in their screenshots? Is this from today? A month ago? 4 years ago?

[-] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 22 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

In developing world: our prison is so full and most are just minor, non-violent crime, we should decriminalise those offence so prison can free up spaces and use those budget for infrastructure that need the money.

Merica:

This is what happen if you have for-profit, private prison.

[-] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 14 points 6 days ago

I guess they are demanding more criminals. More CEO killers, possibly.

[-] DerArzt@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

CEOs? Cut out the middle man!

[-] HK65@sopuli.xyz 13 points 6 days ago

Don't worry, it's not a dictatorship. After all, every 4 years you get to choose between keeping this prison open and opening new ones.

[-] stringere@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago

When the prison industry is threatened by plummeting incarceration rates because we're not sending every kid with a dime bag of weed to prison for life...we'll surely see some prison system reforms, right?

Who am I kidding. If the prison industrial complex is threatened and they're not making up the shortfall by imprisoning "deportees" in private federal prisons, we're going to swiftly see marijuana back on schedule 1 with a new reefer madness bullshit propaganda. Or they'll find something new to bolster mass incarceration.

The USA just wouldn't be the same without slave labor! Who'll fight our fires in California? Fuck me, I just searched for US prison produced goods and services and found https://www.unicor.gov/

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 5 points 6 days ago

You have to realize that there are a lot of places where the local prison is the only industry they have left. Closing the prison means folks will be out of work.

[-] dellish@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

And those out of work folks will have to commit crimes in order to survive, which will then allow the prison to reopen! It's a win!

[-] stringere@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 days ago

If the prison is the only thing keeping the town alive then the town doesn't need to exist.

A community should never be beholden to a single employer, company towns taught us that lesson over 100 years ago. And especially not an employer that traffics in human suffering and misery.

GTFO with this "people need jerbs" bullshit.

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[-] kyle@lemm.ee 8 points 6 days ago

That's honestly horrifying

[-] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 2 points 6 days ago

Welcome to the Rust Belt.

Reagan let the infrastructure go to hell because he didn't want to raise taxes. That meant that there was never going to be a return for those towns that used to make things like lightbulbs or ladders. Thanks President Reagan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_Belt

. From 1979 to 1982, known as the Volcker shock,[10][11] the U.S. Federal Reserve decided to raise the base interest rate in the United States to 19%. High-interest rates attracted wealthy foreign "hot money" into U.S. banks and caused the U.S. dollar to appreciate. This made U.S. products more expensive for foreigners to buy and also made imports much cheaper for Americans to purchase. The misaligned exchange rate was not rectified until 1986, by which time Japanese imports, in particular, had made rapid inroads into U.S. markets.[12]

[-] Cheems@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Fucking good

[-] aesthelete@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

Supply side economics at its most appalling.

[-] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 3 points 6 days ago

This gets fewer and fewer pixels each year

[-] glowing_hans@sopuli.xyz 2 points 6 days ago

Economies of scale work for prisons as well.

[-] niktemadur@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

LOOMING CRISIS IN CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES THREATENS THE BALANCE OF PENITENTIARY SYSTEM

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this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
1066 points (100.0% liked)

Actually Infuriating

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