26, September 2016 For Profit
Prisons
The shocking conditions inside for profit prisons have recently come to
light.
An investigation by the Nation magazine revealed frequent riots inside
private prisons caused by overcrowding and lack of medical facilities.
Prisoners are often denied treatment to lower cost and maximize profits.
Compounding the problems is the catastrophic decision to criminalize border
crossing which ballooned the federal inmate population triggering the quick fix
remedy: Privatization. The sordid details were uncovered after months of
dogged investigation of medical records, internal reviews, interrogation of
prison guards and inside information coaxed from whistleblowers at the Bureau
of Prisons. Relentless pressure by the Nation finally elicited tangible
results. The Justice Department directed the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to stop
using private contractors to run its prisons. The number of inmates in private
prisons will be phased out over a five year period.
Dozens of deaths followed substandard care and widespread neglect.
Despite the government’s own watchdogs sounding the alarm for many years, BOP
brass renewed contracts to ingratiate themselves with their future employers in
an all too familiar revolving door activity.
Nevertheless, superb reporting by the, The Nation, can produce desirable
results even in the age of Trump and his legion of followers.
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