3 more articles on CA

Just some quick hits to other great editorials and articles on how the budget crisis is ruining California, and schwarzy's short-sighted plan to privatize prisons will only make everything worse. this is what happens when you elect a man who played both a pregnant man and danny devito's twin in films to be your governor.

Here are the articles:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jan/16/california-budget-schwarzenegger-crisis

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/16/EDJN1BH489.DTL

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-prisons17-2010jan17,0,6935367.story?track=rss

privatization is never the answer

A wonderful article by the deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance Network in SoCal, explaining why the governator's plan to privatize prisons will only serve to exacerbate the already egregious problems of his state's corrections system.

Deaths and Cover-ups

Through Freedom of Information Act requests to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the NY Times and the ACLU uncovered information on hundreds of deaths of detained immigrants in private facilities that had not been properly reported over the course of about a decade. These were people detained by the Dept of Homeland Security under booshy's ramped-up immigration detention policy, which has been supported in large part by an explosion in private detention (of course, ole dick owns a huge share in the parent company of the second-biggest private prison company, and the one that has more contracts to house federal immigration detainees, but that's a different story).

Essentially, this is a prime example of why private companies should not be permitted to perform basic governmental functions, especially when they aren't subject to open records laws, making them able to easily conceal things like deaths.

a great column you should read

Just a quick hit to a column by David Warren detailing some of the hidden problems that arise in privatized corrections, and how they can be avoided (spoiler alert: DON'T PRIVATIZE YOUR PRISONS)

more on CA's mess

A nice little piece about the highly inefficient and dysfunctional CA Dept of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the governator that can't seem to find his way out of the mire he helped create. I hope Mr. Simon is correct that arnie's bid to privatize all of California's prisons will fail

calling out the governator

A group called CURB (Californians United for a Responsible Budget) have called on Schwarzenegger to quit paying lip service to reforming prisons and actually do something about the billions of dollars the state wastes by incarcerating way too may people. They have some pretty strong words for Mr. Predator. Also, you should check out CURB's website for some great information and ideas on how to reduce prison spending without just privatizing everything: http://www.CURBprisonspending.org

You made this mess

A great editorial on how the governator's budget decisions over the past 7 or so years put his state in its current predicament, by throwing billions of dollars away funding an overpopulated, run-so-poorly-it's-unconstitutional prison system while stymieing the public higher education system, all to the great detriment of the people he's supposed to be serving. Who would have thought Conan the Barbarian wouldn't make the best financial decisions?

Why I Hate the Governator Today

In his state of the state address earlier this week, schwarzenegger proposed a ballot to make a constitutional amendment requiring the state to spend more on public universities than prisons. Sure, that sounds all well and good, until he basically said he wants to dramatically increase the use of private prisons to save money. I wonder if that has anything to do with the hundreds of thousands of dollars CCA, which holds the very large majority of California's private prison market (at a cost of over $625 million per year), has donated to his campaign and committees?

Why I Hate GEO today

the GEO group just reached a settlement in the case of a beating death of one of its inmates (actually, the inamte was killed while guards and the warden looked on, then GEO tried to cover up the incident by destroying evidence). I know this isn't exactly a new reason to hate them, but I hate them for their track record and inability to manage a prison humanely, while they reap tens of millions of dollars in profits. I just can't fathom why a company that repeatedly pays out millions upon millions of dollars in lawsuits for their actions/inaction can still be in business. Oh, that's right; dick**** cheney owns a large stake of their parent company. I hate you too dick, because your influence over bushy in immigration policy pretty much single-handedly resurrected the private prison industry. You should be in prison, preferably a GEO one where the guards and administration turn a blind eye to assaults.

You Hypocritical Jerk (Why I Hate Charles Overby Today)

Charles Overby, renown journalist and newspaper executive and CEO of the Freedom Forum, a group which espouses freedom of the press, also sits on the board of directors for CCA. Why is this bad? CCA lobbied heavily against a bill in the last Congress that would have required private prison operators to be subject to public records / FOIA requests (Introduced by Tim Holden, D-PA, it was called the Private Prison Information Act, if you want to look it up). In fact, CCA spent more than half a million dollars lobbying against the reintroduced (by Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-MO) bill in a little over 5 months. Way to promote free speech, CEO of the FRIGGING FREEDOM FORUM! I hate you, Charles Overby

For-profit incarceration is just plain wrong

A wonderful Op-Ed by a Corrections Officer and union leader in NJ opposing a private prisons, in response to a new facility in Essex and a proposed facility in Camden. Mr. Amato does a great job of explaining the moral depravity inherent in profit-driven incarceration.

community organizing

Community organizers in Prescott Valley, NV have launched a website to help stir up opposition to a proposed private prison in their town (CCA has proposed the facility). Click on the link to check it out. And if you happen to be from the area, call your local elected officials and tell them you don't want a private prison in your town.