Private Prisons and Lack of Information On Conduct

This is an interesting story (click on the title above) about Charles Overby who is the CEO of the "Freedom Forum" in Washington DC whose mission is to promote freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the freedom of the spirit. However Mr. Overby is a board member of a private prison corporation that is fighting a bill that would require them to give access to their operations at the prisons in the same manner as the public prisons. Currently the private owned or operated prisons do not have to provide the press access to the inmates or records to oversee the conditions and operations of the prison; if they are violating any civil rights or laws or if they are profiteering by sub standard operations.

I know most of us just don't care about what happens to inmates that are incarcerated, but recently it has been determined that as much as 20% of the inmates are actually wrongfully imprisoned and are actually innocent of the crime. What if you become one of the 20%, would you want your access to the press or anyone else to hear your pleas of your innocents denied?  What if you're forced to live with rats and sub par food? America has the highest percentage of its population incarcerated than any other western model democratic country. So you should be concerned, it might be you some day.

More about prisons in general:

Prisons are horrible! America has not done a very good job isolating the gangs and violent inmates from the non-violent inmates who are there to do their limited time and get out; usually incarcerated for just a few years. Most of us think ALL inmates are the violent tattooed and shaved head gang-banger ready to fight anyone and incarcerated for life. But there are many who are there for non-violent crimes, but are subjected to the violence of the gangs and other violent inmates. Without the press and other organization being watchdogs over the prisons, conditions can become intolerable thereby constituting excessive and unreasonable punishment of the non-violent inmate by placing that inmate in a cell block full of violent inmates or allowing the facility conditions to deteriorate to a point that it is dangerous to both inmates and employees, just for the sake of profit.

This story also demonstrates how corrupt our elected representative are, regardless of party. How corporate money buys influence that can kill a bill that is needed for good and transparent government.

It also raises the question of privatizing government services when profit is the bottom line motive and not meeting the need of society. Can we trust corporations to be morally upright operators of imprisoned citizens by placing the health and well being of the inmate ahead of profit? I think not. So far I have not seen a corporation forsake profit for the betterment of their customers, products, or services. Wall Street would kill their rating as a company and stock value would die. That is why certain public services are best performed by government that is answerable to the people and open to the press for scrutiny. It is also scary when corporations are given police power over citizens, as they do for guards at the private prisons. This police force is only answerable to the corporate management, not you a member of society that locked up the inmate. When we incarcerate a person, we the society that removed their freedom takes responsibility for their basic well being until they are released. We can't lock them up then forget about them, especially those in for lessor offenses that many of us could find ourselves offending.

My point is that a prisoner should only pay the appropriate punishment for the crime committed, not more, not less. So if a person is in for two years for smoking weed, why should he fear for his life that he will be assaulted or killed by a gang member if he doesn't do something against the rules for them. Violent prisoners should be housed together so they can fight it out without harming the non-violent prisoners. An example: My wife told me about a patient that went to prison for two years on a minor offense. While in prison, he was raped by several violent inmates. He contracted HPV and HIV from those assaults. So his sentence went from 24 months to a death sentence.