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My Four Months as a Private Prison Guard: A Mother Jones Investigation

TheGoodBits

By TheGoodBits
in The Tailgate

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TheGoodBits

TheGoodBits

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I read this today, a really long but really good investigative journalism piece that highlights a lot of the issues associated with for-profit private prisons. Highly recommended if you're looking for a thought provoking read and/or need to kill an hour of time.

Also, kudos to the writer for sticking it out on this tough assignment.

http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2016/06/cca-private-prisons-corrections-corporation-inmates-investigation-bauer

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sacase

sacase

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Long article but well worth the read. As a tax payer I would rather foot the bill and run the prison right, than have these provate prison's in charge. To much focus on profit and no rehabilitation. They are just making the problems worse. 

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TheGoodBits

TheGoodBits

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Long article but well worth the read. As a tax payer I would rather foot the bill and run the prison right, than have these provate prison's in charge. To much focus on profit and no rehabilitation. They are just making the problems worse.

Yep. They've got no incentive to rehabilitate. That would just decrease their future earnings.

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TheGoodBits

TheGoodBits

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Long article but well worth the read. As a tax payer I would rather foot the bill and run the prison right, than have these provate prison's in charge. To much focus on profit and no rehabilitation. They are just making the problems worse.

Also expanding on this more, the article touches on the idea that private prisons don't actually save taxpayers money. They are pawning the inmates with serious health problems off on the state (avg cost of inmates in state prisons goes up). Plus when you factor in things like future incarcerations due lack of investment in rehabilitation, you quickly see how the total cost to the government (and society) is a lot greater.

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Mooka

Mooka

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Pretty awesome job by this reporter. 4 months working at a prison for this story. 

 

 

Long article but well worth the read. As a tax payer I would rather foot the bill and run the prison right, than have these provate prison's in charge. To much focus on profit and no rehabilitation. They are just making the problems worse. 

 

I was very interested on hearing Gary Johnson's view on prisons as he is for small government and more privatization, thus supports private prisons. While I don't agree with him on this issue, he does highlight that public prisons aren't run any better and in many cases are much worse then a private prison. And there are plenty of large forces from the public sector, like guards unions, that have the same incentives to keep prisons full as the private one's do for profits. 

 

I'm thinking its not a solvable problem atm; no one believes we actually rehabilitate anyone or that our prison system works at all. I doubt there will be any meaningful reform while we still have the war on drugs. 

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drtdrums

drtdrums

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There's a lot of stuff in here that, if my nephew or some guy at a bar were telling me this story, I'd call BS on him. My father was a prison guard at a state prison in NC for 20+, and while I don't doubt for a second that things need to change in both state and private prisons, some of this stretches credulity to tortuous lengths.

I'm more than happy to chime in with examples of how bad prisons are and can be - often, the guards working with my dad were worse than the inmates. I just feel like every single example may have started with a truth and received the Paul Bunyan treatment.

Case in point: "So if them fools want to cut each other, well, happy cutting." Guards are told to err on the side of safety. "Happy cutting," sets off my BS radar though.

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Dont Taze Me Bro

Dont Taze Me Bro

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There's a lot of stuff in here that, if my nephew or some guy at a bar were telling me this story, I'd call BS on him. My father was a prison guard at a state prison in NC for 20+, and while I don't doubt for a second that things need to change in both state and private prisons, some of this stretches credulity to tortuous lengths.

I'm more than happy to chime in with examples of how bad prisons are and can be - often, the guards working with my dad were worse than the inmates. I just feel like every single example may have started with a truth and received the Paul Bunyan treatment.

Case in point: "So if them fools want to cut each other, well, happy cutting." Guards are told to err on the side of safety. "Happy cutting," sets off my BS radar though.

 

Why should that set off your BS radar though?  If they are severely understaffed and he points out that there are many times only two COs watching over a couple hundred inmates, why in the world would it be hard to believe that some of the COs would let them cut/kill each other?

 

Especially with the low standards/practices for hiring COs.  They didn't even check to see his previous employers and in the article it said that they would hire just about anyone that applies and while most can't take it or make it they come across a few here and there that shine/stand out.

 

Nine dollars an hour to work 12 hour shifts.  Sounds like most of the people working there are doing it because they have to cause they can't find other work.  And he said that nobody fails the final exam, so that alone would let some really shady people be employed.

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Fergasun

Fergasun

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My next step wad to check out Federal Sites for any further information on CCA - particular interest was Congressional Hearings.

Top hits were all Federal Court rulings, as in lawsuits - I did not read these.

One hearing from the House in 2007 on ICE detention centers. Couple of House members raised concerns regarding family detention of immigrants.

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Forehead

Forehead

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Also, wasn't this reporter the same "Shane Bauer" who was taken hostage by Iran a few years ago? The hikers incident

 

Yes, it is.  I'm torn here.  I don't know Shane Bauer personally, but I know of him in a professional capacity, (we've exchanged "pleasant" e-mails over his FOIA requests) and he's kind of a pain in the ass.

 

But, this is absolutely excellent reporting.  There is no questioning his journalistic capability.

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PokerPacker

PokerPacker

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Yes, it is.  I'm torn here.  I don't know Shane Bauer personally, but I know of him in a professional capacity, (we've exchanged "pleasant" e-mails over his FOIA requests) and he's kind of a pain in the ass.

 

But, this is absolutely excellent reporting.  There is no questioning his journalistic capability.

Can you be a good investigative journalist without being a pain in the ass?
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Forehead

Forehead

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Can you be a good investigative journalist without being a pain in the ass?

 

Probably not, it's just annoying being the point man on the other end. At least Bauer is pretty legitimate.  The worst is the self-important pompous kids from places like Buzzfeed and mic.com who claim to be journalists and members of the new media.  I'm sorry, but if more than half of your website is pictures with what you think are smart-ass captions, you aren't a media member.  Not one that deserves any respect anyway.

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PokerPacker

PokerPacker

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Probably not, it's just annoying being the point man on the other end. At least Bauer is pretty legitimate.  The worst is the self-important pompous kids from places like Buzzfeed and mic.com who claim to be journalists and members of the new media.  I'm sorry, but if more than half of your website is pictures with what you think are smart-ass captions, you aren't a media member.  Not one that deserves any respect anyway.

Hey, it was hard work putting $10 down on a domain name to start my blog where I mostly post pictures of silly cats; respect my credentials!
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