Private Prisons Have Boomed Under Trump. Elizabeth Warren Just Vowed to Eviscerate Them.

[babylonsister]

https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2019/06/private-prisons-have-boomed-under-trump-elizabeth-warren-just-vowed-to-eviscerate-them/


46 mins ago
Private Prisons Have Boomed Under Trump. Elizabeth Warren Just Vowed to Eviscerate Them.
Other leading Democratic presidential candidates have also raised the idea.
Samantha Michaels


Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled a plan Friday to end the government’s relationship with private prisons if she’s elected to the White House. Warren would phase out federal contracts with private prisons, both under the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. She would also pressure state and local governments to stop working with private prison companies by tying the receipt of federal public safety funding to their use of public facilities. “There should be no place in America for profiting off putting more people behind bars or in detention,” Warren wrote in an essay on Medium announcing her plan.

The proposal comes days before the first Democratic debate of the 2020 presidential race, and adds to a growing chorus among Democratic candidates to curtail or stop the use of private prison companies, which have seen their revenue soar under the Trump administration.

snip//

Warren also announced a plan to reduce corporate influence in public prisons, something most other candidates haven’t talked about, according to Kara Gotsch of the Sentencing Project, a criminal justice reform group. Public prisons work with thousands of companies that provide phone, banking, health care, food, and commissary services, among other things. They “come up with extortive schemes to make millions off of the backs of incarcerated people,” Warren wrote, noting incarcerated people are sometimes forced to pay around $25 for a 15-minute call.

She pledged to stop contractors from charging service fees to inmates for health care and phone calls, and to prevent them from gouging prices for commissary or package services. (Sanders’ proposed legislation likewise called for more oversight to prevent companies from overcharging inmates for banking and phone services.) Warren also suggested creating a position within the Justice Department for a “prison conditions monitor” to audit and investigate contractors. “Washington hands billions over to corporations profiting off of inhumane detention and incarceration policies while ignoring the families that are destroyed in the process,” she wrote. “We need to call that out for what it is: corruption.”

“It’s not a small undertaking, quite frankly, given how infiltrated private corporations are in prisons,” says Gotsch of Warren’s proposal.

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

[Thomas Hurt]

2. They knew this was going to happen

https://money.cnn.com/2017/02/24/investing/private-prison-stocks-soar-trump/index.html


Our current crop of fascists don't want to commit genocide they just want to hold immigrants and refugees for as long as possible to make a buck.

Trump has no interest in adding judges and attorneys to increase the efficiency or capacity of the courts to process immigrants.

They aren't going to use these people for physical slave labor they are just going to warehouse them for profit.

Still enslavement, still a concentration camp.

[not fooled]

12. It's a twofer

line the pockets of GOPee donors while pandering to the racist base.

[crazytown]

4. K&R!

[backtoblue]

5. Kick and Rec!

[brewens]

6. My state got rid of the private prison crooks. Idaho for Christ sake! If the right-wing idiots

in this state can figure it out, what's up with all the rest of them? I suppose there is a lot more money going to the right people in the bigger states to keep their scam going.

https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/idaho-moved-away-from-private-prison-in/article_2835ba52-574e-5cfd-9d36-01cba8c85f93.html

[karynnj]

7. This is an impressive proposal

It would be great is the solution is not be just to build more public facilities to cover the gap between the capacity needed and the capacity available, but to work to reduce the number of people imprisoned - especially to find a better solution than prison for people unable to pay for bail.

[yellowdogintexas]

22. Working to release the number of imprisoned could be part

of a reparations program.

[infinite_wisdom]

8. Private prisons are rightup there in the top 5 dumbest ideas in the history of policy

I would eviscerate them, outlaw them and burn the facilities to the ground. Then I would pass laws making it punishable for a corporation to own or manage a prison - and I would make those laws retroactive so as to throw the current owners in prison - state run prison - for the remainder of their natural lives.

That's how evil I think the concept of private prisons is.

Maybe I need to calm down. But I can't stand that sh*t.

[True Blue American]

9. Kasich sold all our prisons.

[Magoo48]

10. Go, Liz!

[Ferrets are Cool]

11. Dayum, I hope I get to vote her into the office of POTUS

[democrank]

13. Thank you, Elizabeth Warren.

I used to think of my country as a leader in human rights and basic decency, but that ended quite some time ago.

[Ligyron]

14. Warren seems to have a well thought out plan for every issue.

Watch her kill it in the debates.

[IrishEyes]

17. I'm looking forward to watching Warren in the debates.

Buttigieg will be interesting to watch as well.

[bronxiteforever]

15. Kick and recommend. Thanks for posting

Senator Warren is so impressive. She is right because private prisons are an abomination.

[calimary]

16. YES!!!!!!

[Nanjeanne]

18. Glad she joined Sanders in this. He introduced legislations in 2015 along with House leaders to ban

prisons.

Sanders, House Leaders Introduce Bill to Ban Private Prisons
Thursday, September 17, 2015
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) today introduced bills to ban private prisons, reinstate the federal parole system and eliminate quotas for the number of immigrants held in detention.

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-house-leaders-introduce-bill-to-ban-private-prisons

[crazytown]

19. Elizabeth's proposal can be done by executive order.

That’s a difference.

[Nanjeanne]

21. And a good one when she is Pres. Sanders et al was legislation to be passed by Congress.

So yes there is a difference. One requires Warren to be President and she is my second choice.

The other goes back to 2015 and should have been passed by Congress.

Anyway, I’m still glad she joined Sanders in wanting to get rid of private prisons.

[gibraltar72]

20. Has a plan for everything.

That's why I made a donation yesterday.

[TeamPooka]

23. good this is vital to our democracy. legal punishment must be done by the state/government

not for-profit contractors.

[dlk]

24. When Prisons are a Growth Industry in a Country, It Speaks Volumes of that Country's Morals & Values

This is who we have become. Brava to Warren for addressing this foundational issue.

[philly_bob]

25. Once again, Warren is right! /nt

[Frustratedlady]

26. These have never been a good idea.

They are incubators of greed.

Same goes for the private containment centers for the immigrants. For all the money they demand, they can't afford soap and toothpaste...decent food?