Private Prisons Booming

[Kaitzilla]

If you are looking to invest in a new industry in 2012 with massive growth potential in the USA, then nothing beats private prisons!

With 25% of the world's prison population and tough new immigration laws, there are more prisoners than ever in the US. Three companies have cashed in on this trend and are listed on the U.S. stock exchange as CCA and G4S and GEO.

How do they make their money? Easy! Slave labor baby. All you have to do is sub-contract out prisoner labor at $1-$4 an hour to Chevron, IBM, Boeing, Microsoft, etc etc.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175...freeman,_creating_a_prison-corporate_complex/

This business has become so lucrative that CCA offered to take over states' prison systems if the states guaranteed a quota of prisoners. However, the states have refused so far to commit to having a guaranteed amount of convicts.
http://govtslaves.info/govt-guarantees-90-occupancy-rate-in-private-prisons/


So if you like the idea of putting American prisoners to work for $1 an hour for Fortune 500 companies, then you should definitely invest in this booming business!
With one million prisoners already at work, its a win-win situation for everyone.

As one person has commented:

As stated by many opponents, the Federal Prison Complex produces one hundred percent of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet proof vests, Identification tags, shirts, pants tents, bags and even canteens.

Not only are prisoners used to manufacture military equipment, prison workers provide ninety eight percent of the total market for equipment assembly services. They produce ninety three percent of paints and paintbrushes, ninety two percent of stove assemblies, forty six percent of body armor, thirty six percent of all home appliances, thirty percent of all microphones, headphones, and speakers, and they even manufacture twenty one percent of all office furniture.

Everything from parts for airplanes to medical supplies, prisoners produce even more than this, they are even used to train seeing eye dogs for the blind.

With that kind of penetration in mind, here is CCA's investment pitch. Some people have toured their prisons virtually to see just how great of investment it is.
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-private-prison-business-2012-3?op=1

 

[cardgame]

Keeping jobs in America woo

 

[Camikaze]

Yeah, this is pretty outrageous. You'd think organised labour would be more vocal in opposition to it (i.e. rioting in the streets at such an egregious undercutting of their supply).

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Three companies ? That means competition, right ? I'm sure the states are saving a lot of money because efficiency and stuff.

 

[Tee Kay]

Yeah, this is pretty outrageous. You'd think organised labour would be more vocal in opposition to it (i.e. rioting in the streets at such an egregious undercutting of their supply).

What organised labour?

 

[El_Machinae]

I always get really torn on this issue. I think giving prisoners the opportunity to work is a great idea, in principle. It's cheap labour, after-all. The problem is if the state shoulders extra expense in order to make the prisoners available, that's effectively a corporate subsidy. Private prisons are a horrid idea.

 

[Tee Kay]

I can accept private prisons if prisoners are paid a fair wage.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I can accept private prisons if prisoners are paid a fair wage.

You've still created a new industry with every incentive to cut corners and and lobby for laws that put as many people as possible in prison.

 

[El_Machinae]

I can accept private prisons if prisoners are paid a fair wage.

That makes a lot of sense to me. I'd be okay with some type of mandatory savings plan, though, so only a portion of the money trickles into the prison. It's mostly going to go to gang bullies or bribed guards at that point.

 

[squadbroken]

I always get really torn on this issue. I think giving prisoners the opportunity to work is a great idea, in principle. It's cheap labour, after-all. The problem is if the state shoulders extra expense in order to make the prisoners available, that's effectively a corporate subsidy. Private prisons are a horrid idea.

Why is cheap labour a good thing?

 

[Cutlass]

Why is cheap labour a good thing?

It's not.

 

[woody60707]

I guess you want pedophiles walking around in your town then?

 

[King Kalmah]

I guess you want pedophiles walking around in your town then?

Your attitude is both ignorant and oversimplified....

This will only create the need/quota for prisoners and thus increase arrests of innocent people...

sure pedophiles are evil,but only if they strike...if they just sit there and do nothing you would never know there was a problem with them....

 

[amadeus]

I guess you want pedophiles walking around in your town then?

Of the 1.55 million people in prison in the U.S. in 2010, 340,000 were in prison for drug offenses. Do you think they ought to rot in prison because they were in possession of a plant or a pill or a powder?

 

[Crezth]

I guess you want pedophiles walking around in your town then?

Certainly not. Lock everyone up.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Prison CEO: "Arrest 50 pedophiles until next thursday. If you only find 49 you'll be the fiftieth."

Some things you should not mix with market incentives.

 

[Zelig]

Why is cheap labour a good thing?

Because cheap stuff is good.

Cheap robot labour is the best labour.

Post scarcity ftw!

 

[ace99]

Once privatized prisons started being a thing, the union between the prison-industrial complex and the military-industrial complex became inevitable.

Privatized prisons are one of the greatest abominations to ever exist. Institutions that act in the pursuit of profit in the endeavor of locking up large amounts of humans. In essence it is a continuation of slavery. In the post-Civil war south, various ideas were sought to keep emancipated blacks in their old positions, Jim Crow laws were one idea, bonded labor where the slave now had to pay you rent to live in your old quarters and tight restrictions on their activities because you were their "employer", and of course imprisoning large numbers of black prisoners and using them as labor. Angola Prison for instance in Louisiana is one of the largest prisons in the US, and to this day the majority black prison population picks cotton from the field by hand. Some things never change.

Now these privatized prisons donate to candidates that promise to keep drugs illegal, that promise to be "hard on crime", that promise to create and increase mandatory minimums, and so forth.

SB1070 the Arizona immigration law found some of its strongest supporters among the privatized prison and privatized detention industry because as it turned out, the immigrants who were detained under that law would be sent to these institutions so you can login to the FEC website and OpenSecrets and you can track donations from these prisons to the politicians in charge of writing the law.

It's a sickening system that should nauseate any civilized person.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Of the 1.55 million people in prison in the U.S. in 2010, 340,000 were in prison for drug offenses. Do you think they ought to rot in prison because they were in possession of a plant or a pill or a powder?

That sounds so insane that I can hardly believe it.

 

[El_Machinae]

Why is cheap labour a good thing?

It's not.

Cheap labour is good because it reduces the total cost of inputs required to make a good or service. This makes the good or service cheaper as well. This is a good thing, if the good or service is a net good as well. Cheaper cigarettes might not be a good thing. Cheaper DNA sequencing would be.

Cutlass has conflated the concept of cheap labour with low wages. They're not the same thing, though they're often tied together. Low wages are not a good thing; I cannot see a benefit to them, anyway.

The big thing is that wages are necessary to maintain one's quality of life, some of which are essentials (the poorer you are, the more these essentials take up the budget). For example, about 30% of my income is spent on 'cost-of-living', and my employer absolutely needs to pay me that money or else the job completely suck. Prisoners, I'd hope, have no cost-of-living expenses. Ostensibly, if I had no cost of living costs, I could be paid 70% of what I'm paid now, and I'd be just as 'fine' as before. I don't see a good moral reason why a prisoner's take-home income should be significantly greater than another person's 'post-essentials' take-home income.

This means that the good/services can be provided more cheaply, because labour costs are lower. The discount is generated because the essentials are being provided by the State.