Krugman: Prisons, Privatization, Patronage

[ProSense]

Prisons, Privatization, Patronage

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Over the past few days, The New York Times has published several terrifying reports about New Jersey’s system of halfway houses — privately run adjuncts to the regular system of prisons. The series is a model of investigative reporting, which everyone should read. But it should also be seen in context. The horrors described are part of a broader pattern in which essential functions of government are being both privatized and degraded.

First of all, about those halfway houses: In 2010, Chris Christie, the state’s governor — who has close personal ties to Community Education Centers, the largest operator of these facilities, and who once worked as a lobbyist for the firm — described the company’s operations as “representing the very best of the human spirit.” But The Times’s reports instead portray something closer to hell on earth — an understaffed, poorly run system, with a demoralized work force, from which the most dangerous individuals often escape to wreak havoc, while relatively mild offenders face terror and abuse at the hands of other inmates.

It’s a terrible story. But, as I said, you really need to see it in the broader context of a nationwide drive on the part of America’s right to privatize government functions, very much including the operation of prisons. What’s behind this drive?

You might be tempted to say that it reflects conservative belief in the magic of the marketplace, in the superiority of free-market competition over government planning. And that’s certainly the way right-wing politicians like to frame the issue.

But if you think about it even for a minute, you realize that the one thing the companies that make up the prison-industrial complex — companies like Community Education or the private-prison giant Corrections Corporation of America — are definitely not doing is competing in a free market. They are, instead, living off government contracts. There isn’t any market here, and there is, therefore, no reason to expect any magical gains in efficiency.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/opinion/krugman-prisons-privatization-patronage.html

Flashback...

February 2011:

Democrats fight Gov. Christie's plan to privatize N.J. government functions

By Matt Friedman/Statehouse Bureau

TRENTON — Democrats are pushing back against Gov. Chris Christie’s plan to privatize some state government functions by calling for a change in the state constitution to put a short leash on agencies that want to hire private firms.

<...>

A Christie administration task force last year recommended privatizing functions like health care for prison inmates, toll collections, state parks, highway rest stops and career centers for the unemployed. The task force estimated the state government could save $210 million through the changes.

The New Jersey Turnpike Authority recently put out a request for proposals that calls for toll collectors to make $12 per hour — less than half what experienced employees now make.

Democrats said they were trying to avoid abuse and waste that occurred in the 1990s with the privatization of vehicle inspections and the installation of the E-ZPass toll system.

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http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/democrats_fight_gov_christie_p.html

July 2012 editorial:

Privatization no panacea for government

A task force assembled by Gov. Christie recently reported that New Jersey’s government could save a bundle simply by turning over many of its core functions — from motor-vehicle services to school facilities — to the private sector. But thanks partly to another governor named Christie, New Jerseyans need not wait in suspense for the results of this government innovation. That’s because the state already has some disastrous and relatively recent experience with privatization — much of it in the areas singled out by the task force.

Christie deserves credit for cutting the state budget and looking for more ways to do so. And so far this is only a report (though one ordered up and roundly praised by the governor himself). But given the state’s history, some of the task force’s ideas weren’t even worth examining, let alone pursuing any further.

In 1998, Gov. Christie Whitman’s outsourcing of motor-vehicle inspections to a private company led to epic lines and widespread outrage. It later emerged that the sweetheart contract had gone to a company associated with avid campaign giving. Whitman’s privatization of motor-vehicle agency offices also contributed to interminable waits, as well as corruption and security breaches. That helped end the Division of Motor Vehicles’ long death spiral and bring about an overhaul that replaced it with today’s Motor Vehicle Commission.

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http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq_ed_board/Privatization_no_panacea_for_government.html

Privatizing the DMV was worse than a disaster. Using Krugman's phrase, it was "closer to hell on earth."

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t

[WillyT]

2. K & R !!!

[yurbud]

3. corporate Dems should be forced to respond to this point by point

No one should be surprised that the GOP loves this shit, but to the extent that corporate Dems push it too, and control the levers of power in the party, we are deprived of any direct democratic means to stop it.

[yurbud]

4. this also underlines that our politics isn't a clash of ideologies, but of public interests vs.

profound corruption and self-dealing.

to call the privatization agenda an ideology like putting lipstick on a pig would be an insult to the pig. It's more like putting lipstick on what the pig ate after it exited his digestive system.