Prison Industrial Complex, Why Private Prisons Might be a Bad Idea

Has anybody been thinking about how privately run prisons and jails might be distorting our judicial and legislative processes?

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,491148,00.html

Two Pa. Judges Accused of Jailing Hundreds of Kids for Bribes

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. —
For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.

The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench.

In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.

"I've never encountered, and I don't think that we will in our lifetimes, a case where literally thousands of kids' lives were just tossed aside in order for a couple of judges to make some money," said Marsha Levick, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which is representing hundreds of youths sentenced in Wilkes-Barre.

Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC. The judges were charged on Jan. 26 and removed from the bench by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shortly afterward.

No company officials have been charged, but the investigation is still going on.

The high court, meanwhile, is looking into whether hundreds or even thousands of sentences should be overturned and the juveniles' records expunged.

Among the offenders were teenagers who were locked up for months for stealing loose change from cars, writing a prank note and possessing drug paraphernalia. Many had never been in trouble before. Some were imprisoned even after probation officers recommended against it.

Many appeared without lawyers, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1967 ruling that children have a constitutional right to counsel.

The judges are scheduled to plead guilty to fraud Thursday in federal court. Their plea agreements call for sentences of more than seven years behind bars.

Ciavarella, 58, who presided over Luzerne County's juvenile court for 12 years, acknowledged last week in a letter to his former colleagues, "I have disgraced my judgeship. My actions have destroyed everything I worked to accomplish and I have only myself to blame." Ciavarella, though, has denied he got kickbacks for sending youths to prison.

Conahan, 56, has remained silent about the case.

Many Pennsylvania counties contract with privately run juvenile detention centers, paying them either a fixed overall fee or a certain amount per youth, per day.

In Luzerne County, prosecutors say, Conahan shut down the county-run juvenile prison in 2002 and helped the two companies secure rich contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, at least some of that dependent on how many juveniles were locked up.

One of the contracts — a 20-year agreement with PA Child Care worth an estimated $58 million — was later canceled by the county as exorbitant.

The judges are accused of taking payoffs between 2003 and 2006.

Robert J. Powell co-owned PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care until June. His attorney, Mark Sheppard, said his client was the victim of an extortion scheme.

"Bob Powell never solicited a nickel from these judges and really was a victim of their demands," he said. "These judges made it very plain to Mr. Powell that he was going to be required to pay certain monies."

For years, youth advocacy groups complained that Ciavarella was ridiculously harsh and ran roughshod over youngsters' constitutional rights. Ciavarella sent a quarter of his juvenile defendants to detention centers from 2002 to 2006, compared with a statewide rate of one in 10.

The criminal charges confirmed the advocacy groups' worst suspicions and have called into question all the sentences he pronounced.

Hillary Transue did not have an attorney, nor was she told of her right to one, when she appeared in Ciavarella's courtroom in 2007 for building a MySpace page that lampooned her assistant principal.

Her mother, Laurene Transue, worked for 16 years in the child services department of another county and said she was certain Hillary would get a slap on the wrist. Instead, Ciavarella sentenced her to three months; she got out after a month, with help from a lawyer.

"I felt so disgraced for a while, like, what do people think of me now?" said Hillary, now 17 and a high school senior who plans to become an English teacher.

Laurene Transue said Ciavarella "was playing God. And not only was he doing that, he was getting money for it. He was betraying the trust put in him to do what is best for children."

Kurt Kruger, now 22, had never been in trouble with the law until the day police accused him of acting as a lookout while his friend shoplifted less than $200 worth of DVDs from Wal-Mart. He said he didn't know his friend was going to steal anything.

Kruger pleaded guilty before Ciavarella and spent three days in a company-run juvenile detention center, plus four months at a youth wilderness camp run by a different operator.

"Never in a million years did I think that I would actually get sent away. I was completely destroyed," said Kruger, who later dropped out of school. He said he wants to get his record expunged, earn his high school equivalency diploma and go to college.

"I got a raw deal, and yeah, it's not fair," he said, "but now it's 100 times bigger than me."

Incarceration and real punishment are 2 different things. Compare our prisons to those of other countries and you'll see why going back is no big deal for American criminals. To most it is just graduate school for criminals, a place to learn from the masters. Prison needs to be a place where no one EVER wants to go back, for any reason. It doesn't require abuse or torture, just take away all of the fluff. Kind of like doing 25 to life at Parris Island.

But the judges in this story, they should be executed for their crimes. All politician, including judges, should be held to a higher standard than everyone else. They are put in a position where corruption is absolutely not acceptable. Zero tolerance!

Privatizing the penal system offer the possibilities of corruption but no more so than the public system. It would just be different folks and different channels of money transfer.

It goes without saying that the judges spoken of here should be stripped of every personal amenity and put into forced labor incarceration. Not so much as to cause them discomfort and grief, as it surely would, but more so as an example deterrent for anyone else in the public service to not even think of doing anything similar.

Every single one of the young folks should be released, exonerated and any trace of their criminal records burned. Some guilty kids would go free but trying to protect what would appear to be a very few, would take far too long and too much expense. Let'em all loose and wait a while. The ones that were really bad will do the deed again and you can punish them when they do.

The answer for the involvement of the prison operators is to have CONSTANT and thorough oversight of the system with zero tolerance for abuse by any party. If you have a multi zillion dollar investment in a building and its staff you are unlikely to have it confiscated by the state and sold to responsible people because you became greedy and wanted another house in the country.

As far as incarceration in general is concerned, it amazes me that what is before our very eyes as a working model of "deterrent" imprisonment is not heeded. That sheriff in Texas has few return offenders for all of the obvious reasons.

Guaranteeing comforts beyond minimal subsistence and health are an open invitation to people who can see that as a viable and preferable alternative to living a productive life.

Jack

I've worked as a state prison guard for the last 15 years and I agree.

We make the same as high school teachers.
Age 50 retirement w/ full pension & full medical.

Good luck bribing me...Ain't gonna happen.

And I'm a big inmate advocate for a variety of reasons.

Ask away...I could write a book.

So David, tell us more why you are an inmate advocate, and in what way would you be more of the same.

Also, where are you located in PA and in what type of installation do you work?

Jack

,. american prisons are barbaric brutal places,.,. except for the celebrity federal camps,.

In California, they have ruined it for the prison guards and given them so much through negotiations that the prisons should now be privatized and started over. It would be cheaper and we would have no more corruption than we do with public intstitutions. The Governor can't renegotiate the contract he has to do an executive order like Obama and close it and reopen it Private.

Some of the money saved would be put towards very accountable and competent review process and quality control. If the contracts are written correctly this could be quite successful.

I believe in California the prison guards are recieving close to $100K a year average in salary not including benefits which add another $75K at least. So the direct pay is not the issue. Overtime and benefits are.

Perhaps Mike, or perhaps they aren't. I am waiting to see what Mike has to say about the "inside life" and maybe a comparison between ours and those of other "civilized" countries.

We know, or at least we think that we know, about the operations of the prisons in third and fourth world countries and in those countries governed by repressive theological regimes but what is it really like in a French prison or one in Germany or England or Italy or Greece or Scandinavia?

Jack

Staying away from the "do the crime, do the time" issue, these judges should be removed from office, tried and convicted, suffer sever financial punishment, and put into the general population.

Circumstances where one person has absolute power over another should be avoided if at all possible.

A guard can destroy an inmates life with the flick of a pen.
(And possibly cause great hardship to his family as well)

I can, however, get dismissed from my job and loose my pension for unethical behavior.
Private prison guards don't make squat...There is little deterrent.

So you may ask...Who cares about inmates?
I see them out in public when I go to larger nearby towns.
You wouldn't believe how many I've recognized.
They generally look away but, sometimes I'll get a wave.

David, I can only speak of California and I don't care that prisons are operated by the public sector as yours is. It makes no difference as long as it is reasonable.

The Prison Guard Union is the second most powerful and maybe even first ahead of the Teachers. They have gone too far and have crossed the line where it is quite possible to pay a very decent wage to the Private Contractor's guards and still save a huge amount of money to allow new prisons.

If we were to pay the private guards let's say a base salary of $60K and benefits similar to a normal medium sized business we would be paying in total compensation about $90K. When compared to the almost $200K that we pay for the Public guards it starts to make real sense. I am not even talking about the savings with the work rules that add thousand of extra people to the process.

The prisons are no different than a large private unionized business. Both Management and the Union have given too much in the way of wages, benefits, and work rules. Now a competing group can easily enter the picture and take away their income source or business. It is all graphically easy to show on a bell shaped cost curve. California prisons are about to be put on the down slope of the curve.

I am describing the other side of the coin where the Union is now starting to hurt the members. The Union will give nothing and the Governor will act and it will be the member who gets hurt. If the Governor builds a new California Prison and it is not operated by a private firm he is a fool. It is the only chance he has to build leverage to fix the problem.

Box #1 of my W-2 says $56,789.67
(Coincidentally...I'm doing my taxes now also)

Still quite a bit for "high price babysitting", although the benefits are what is really important to us.
(Here in Pa)

So I was pretty close in my model.

bleteaches6 Wrote:

,.,, these are to be the future industries of the USA

,.,, prisons,war,police,lawyers, a society in decline,.

this is what young people have to look forward to,.
jump on the gravy train,.
put people in prison for growing a plant, by the thousands,.




http://lonestartimes.com/2009/02/11/militarizing-police-depts-with-your-bailout-money/

Private prisons are NOT the cause of the US inmate explosion....clearly, its CO2. Any fool can see that the increase in inmate population exactly matches Mann's famous Hockey Stick Graph of CO2 and global temperatures. If we do nothing to curb CO2, by 2050, everyone in the US will be in prison. Why isn't the IPCC investigating this?

And CO2 is inversely proportional to the number of pirates.

http://www.dailytech.com/Temperature%2BMonitors%2BReport%2BWorldwide%2BGlobal%2BCooling/article10866.htm

global cooling,. not global warming,.,.,.

twigworker Wrote:

Richard, correct me if Im wrong but over crowding exists because the 9th circuit is against the death penalty. I heard you have over a 1000 cons waiting for the needle or the gas. They need to hurry up.

By the way, the gitmo book is pretty interesting.

Pirates are coming back though so we should be ok.

Chuck, the answer is yes they have been able to block virtually all death sentences in California. Most die of old age. The Courts are now telling the State to release a large number of inmates due to overcrowding.

The book give enough detail to be interesting and really does a good job showing why Obama has stepped in it by announcing he was going to close it before he thought out what he was going to do. There are times when he writes like a liberal and uses the words should have could have and may have but generally he stays focused on the facts at hand.

2 cents worth...
I heard a BBC documentary on the private business system in California. Their conclusion was that the funding for the majority of the three strikes law came from the private prison industry, via differing fronts, such as the local do good organizations. They funded the campaigns, got the bill passed, and have been crying to the bank ever since.
again, just two cents.

I feel there are some things that shouldn't be privatized, and this is one of them.

Eric.

more 2 cents,.,,.
I read a story of a man , venice california,. whom was convicted of stealing a piece of pizza,. and it was his 3rd strike,. he is now doing 25 years,.
there is much money involved in all this,. and they must keep this system going,.
I understand, all to well, as I am from los angeles , the crime,. as I went thru the rodney king riots,. big time,. in an intense way I was there all over los angeles,. those days and nights,.and have bullet wounds from that,.
but,. this insanity must stop,
and the god awful corruption,.
from these same people that claim to be christian,. and want the 10 commandments in the courthouse,.
whom support and profit from this ugly system,.
I work for an internet newservice,. and have credentials for this,.
and have had an impact on mohave county arizona,.
at some point and time,. we must make the big decision,.
what type of society are we?
we have serious times ahead, even those that are profiting from this
ugly system, will be affected,.
Our constitution is the supreme law of this land,.
are we becoming a third world nation?
or maybe I should go,.,. back asleep,. and wave the american flag,.

Eric, can you list a few reasons why you think prisons should not be privatized.

As a general premise I would agree that the intent was for the State to imprison citizens. I thought that was just fine for most of my life.

Then the Governors and Assemblies gave away the store in compensation and benefits to the Guards union. Then they gave as reason for not building prisons and not providing sufficient guards, the cost of operation.

Now there is no alternative but to change direction to lower the costs. The Union will allow no reductions in benefits or changes in work rules to reduce overtime.

What is the choice for the taxpayer. He has only one. Go Private contractors.

I had met a lady from kingman arizona,. about as year ago,.took her out boating,.
she was / is a prison guard at a private owned prison,
east of kingman?
she did not give me all details,. as location,./
the pay is around,. 12 to 15$ per hour,. no union,.and she said they
are treated very bad by this private empoyer,.
if they complain , they are told, to go to wal mart,.for A job,.,.
she also, said they are to report any contact they have with LE,. good or bad,.
but,. I never saw her again,.
maybe I forgot to wear deodorant?
but,. she struck me, as being very professional in her occupation,.
and I had respect for her ,.for this,.

I have known several prison gaurds through the years. It takes a special type of person to do this job, just like a cop or a fireman. All of the PGs I have known were ex-military and lived the rank system like the army. Anyone below then in the chain was dirt and they enjoyed treating them as such. They were treated the same by their superiors. Interestingly, all owned either rots or pits, too. None of them got rich, though, and left the prison system looking for more money. They claimed to be making less than $40K ten years ago. I don't think I'd want that kind of work. Glad there are those that do.

Yep...Right on...Except for this...