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Prisoners placed in private prisons are suffering deprivation on a massive scale. This story about a private prison in Texas shows what happened to one prisoner from Idaho who was sent there. One para from the article shows why: "The complaints have not hurt the company's balance sheet. It reported profits of $30 million in 2006, four times the amount reported in 2005."
Read the whole sad tale here: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_Private_Prisons.html
At least the guy didn't die in vain. Apparently some of the conditions have improved after his testimony from the grave.
"It also raised questions about a company hired to operate prisons in 15 states, despite reports of abusive guards and terrible sanitation.
"Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The Associated Press through an open-records request show Idaho did little monitoring of out-of-state inmates, despite repeated complaints from prisoners, their families and a prison inspector.
"More than 140,000 U.S. prison beds are in private hands, and inmates' rights groups allege many such penitentiaries tolerate deplorable conditions and skimp on services to increase profits.
"'They cut corners because the bottom line is making money," said Caylor Rolling, prison program director at Partnership for Safety and Justice in Portland, Ore., a group that promotes prison alternatives.
"Payne, 43, was placed in solitary confinement because he escaped from the prison in December by scaling a fence and eluding capture for a week.
"He was among Idaho inmates sent to the prison in Spur, Texas, run by a Florida-based company called the GEO Group. The business operates more than 50 prisons across the United States as well as in Australia and South Africa.
"Soon after Payne's suicide, the Idaho Department of Correction's health care director inspected the prison and declared it the worst facility he had ever seen. Don Stockman called Payne's cell unacceptable and the rest of the Dickens County Correctional Center "beyond repair."
SIRATYST (Stuff I Read and Thought You Should Too) -- “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.” (Calgacus, as quoted by Tacitus, Agricola 30-31)"
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