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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Crime / Economy "Prisons Are Like Nursing Homes—You Need Occupancy to Be High"

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 2:31 PM

This month's Prison Legal News has a very good profile of a for-profit prison firm in Louisiana—how it came to be, who runs it (a money-minded preacher is part of the story), and how raking in the money interferes with criminal justice. (The link is a pdf, FYI.)

Unique circumstances have combined to make northern Louisiana a prime location for private prisons, as Louisiana sheriffs can profit by letting a private company build and operate facilities that house both local prisoners and prisoners from other jurisdictions. Meanwhile, other parish prisons – especially those in the densely-populated southern part of the state – and Louisiana’s state prisons are severely overcrowded and provide a steady stream of prisoners to fill the for-profit facilities in the north.

Currently, over half of the state's approximately 40,000 prisoners are incarcerated in local parish prisons, which are operated by sheriffs or a private company. It costs the state an average of $55 per day to house a prisoner in a state facility. Yet the state pays sheriffs a mere $24.39 per diem to house state prisoners in parish prisons...

Warden Alan Cupp of the Richland Parish Detention Center (RPDC) in Mangham, Louisiana, a town with a non-prisoner population of 672, calls the approximately 800 beds in his jail his "honey holes." When they are full the honey flows nicely—in a good year, the facility generates $700,000 in revenue.

It's not like that $55 a day the state spends on prisoners is for deluxe accommodations with all the frills. So how do sheriffs/businessmen make so much money on housing prisoners for less than half that—so much money that they call the jail beds "honey holes"?

Read it and find out.

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@5 there's a fine line between exploiting prisoners and rehabilitation.

We want prisoners to learn a trade that will lead to employment on the outside. We want them to develop a work ethic. Above all, we want prisoners doing something productive with their time behind bars rather than simply rotting. Otherwise we end up dealing with recidivism problems.

Education is all fine and dandy, but there's only so much you can do with a GED and a felony on your record. A shot at a second chance requires real work experience.

That being said, if the labor of prisoners is being used by private corporations, then they ought to be paid the prevailing wages they'd make on the open market. From that, in addition to taxes, I think it would be fair to deduct an appropriate amount for room and board and restitution. Child support (if any) should also be paid. Of the rest, some should be set aside as savings for when the prisoner is released and a small amount can be spent while behind bars.

In other words, pay them what their work is worth and teach them how to make an honest living.

Posted by Corydon on February 14, 2013 at 11:53 PM

It's the Mangham style (hey sexy inmate)

Posted by Sych on February 14, 2013 at 9:29 PM

I believe that down south, folks are not at all ignorant of their own history, in fact, they're well aware of slavery, enslavement, rebellions, put downs, violence, jim crow, the liberty place battle that overthrew the legit reconstruction era government thru force of arms, creating the same gumming that's in place today, the armed battles of huey long's men versus the municipal police in the thirties (thousands of armed men fighting it out at election time), the corruption of it all, the prison labor system (Angola prison...notice the name? used to be a plantation, not too hard to make a connection...) and the fact that today most government functions are run to enrich someone by explointing someone else.

None of that is "news" to anyone in Louisiana.

In contrast, up here, you get fired for marking down a TV at a school bake sale or stuff like that. A few expense reports with errors. DOwn there, they KNOW who's ripping off who, they know why, and most folks know exactly how much it is and who's getting a cut.

Posted by it's not even past on February 14, 2013 at 4:30 PM

Here in Washington where prison labor isn't supposed to compete with private labor. The State graciously built an aluminum fabrication shop on the prison grounds out near Spokane, I can't recall the name of the prison. Where the prisoners did fabrication work which mostly supplied the brewery industry.

Over here in the civilized part of the state, prisoners have done software packaging.

Posted by skidmark on February 14, 2013 at 3:53 PM

@3 me too!

"....huh, makes sense i guess"

Posted by geoff teardrop

on February 14, 2013 at 3:50 PM

I added this to the reading list, but I was fascinated for a moment with all the adverts for porn. I guess there is no wifi in jail.

Posted by wisepunk on February 14, 2013 at 3:24 PM

Americans hate history, which is why we are condemned to repeat the inhumanity of our errors. Most states have constitutional provisions which prohibit the hiring out of convict labor; in some states those provisions are under attack. Being ignorant of their own history, legislators examine the money-making possibilities. After the Civil War several Southern states chose to contract out convict labor with the contractor being responsible for the care of the convicts. Conditions were so bad that of about 5,000 men given sentences of ten years or more between 1880 and 1900, not a single one in Alabama survived to complete his sentence. The Alabama prison system was studied by several German penologists and became the model for labor camps like Dachau. It seems that we are on our way back there.

Posted by Ballard Pimp on February 14, 2013 at 2:59 PM

Hey Brendan. Let me also direct you to the eye-opening (and award-winning) 8-part series from the Times-Pic last year, Louisiana Incarcerated.

http://www.nola.com/prisons

Posted by Nabokov's Nose on February 14, 2013 at 2:46 PM