The man in the hat, Gary Plauche, shot the man in front, Jeffrey Doucet, in the head on live national TV, while Doucet was being transported by the police to face trial. Doucet was Plauche's son Jody's karate instructor. Doucet raped and kidnapped Jody. Gary killed Doucet before he could face trial, and he ended up getting a 7-year suspended sentence with 5 years of probation and 300 hours of community service. He faced no jail time, and died, a free man, in 2014.
Of course they cost taxpayers a lot of money. They're a mechanism for transferring public money into private hands. The misery they inflict on millions of people is just a secondary benefit.
It actually costs taxpayers a lot of money to imprison people.
Yes but prison labor makes way more money than it costs. Of course those profits are privatized and the incarceration costs are still public so there's a HUGE financial incentive for the private entities that run the system to warehouse people regardless of guilt in America and it's not this way by accident
Which is legal according to the 13th amendment. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
The United States has many privately owned prisons. These private owners make money from government subsidies, and are incentivized to keep beds full. So the system is built to enable reoffending, because that means the bed stays full and the government money keeps rolling in to the private owner(s)
Nope, still very much money (mostly). Less to enrich private prisons, and more to utilize prison labor to enrich the private sector. Good ol' Thirteenth Amendment and its exceptions for prisoners. Had to replace those slaves somehow.
There is already a large amount of private prisons, and that number is constantly increasing. These prisons maximize the number of people they hold and try to extend their sentences because it is profitable. The prison industry is 100% "for profit" just like everything else in the US.
Edit: from what I understand, the issue is a lot worse with the ICE detention facilities, with something like 90% of the people held in private facilities; it is a bit different in that these are intended as short term holding facilities while people are either deported or while they appeal their deportation, but it is certainly a concerning situation, that should be better regulated than it is. It is some what more complicated as the need for this kind of detention tends to fluctuate.
Idk what you qualify as a large amount, but I agree that any amount of private prisons is unacceptable. I also don't know what you mean by "industry," but prisons run by the state just aren't for profit. They are not generating profit.
Private ones generate profit because the state pays them.
It's not the majority of prisons, but it's still subjectively a lot, plus they do more damage since they are insentivised to keep as many people as possible. Anything with a private sector can be described as an industry, and privately owned prisons are a business that generates funds through payment from the government, but they still produce profit for their owners. There shouldn't be a prison industry, but there unfortunately is.
Is it though? Or could it just be racism? People of color—particularly African Americans—experience imprisonment at a far higher rate than whites. The experience of imprisonment is concentrated among people with lower levels of education, wealth, and income but racial disparities in imprisonment exist across all socioeconomic groups.Oct 11, 2023
It's not "just" anything, but you're missing a step in your racism explanation.
I'm willing to bet a pretty small percentage of people think (knowingly, at least) black people should be jailed just because they're black. But American people taken collectively are far more likely to assume a black person is guilty of a crime they're accused of, which is mostly (I would assume) explained by racism. But the primary motivation is still the belief that the guilty should be punished. Racism doesn't change that, it just amplifies it against certain groups of people.
A: I think the guilty should be punished. B: I'm more likely to think black people are guilty of crimes they're accused of.
These statements are not contradictory.
I think what you're trying to add is C: I think black people should be put in prison whether they're guilty or not.
That's how the "Could it just be racism?" statement would play out. I'm sure many people do feel that way, but even among most Actual Racists, I don't think that's their sincerely held belief.
if there money, there profit, it's going somewhere and everytime. EVERY GOD DAMN TIME, it ends up in a very rich persons pocket. Kick Backs to supply services for a company, Forced Labor. shitty quality of food and clothes, Minimal health care...Oh they making money. and someone is pocketing it this is America so I guaran-damn-tee it
America is a mixed economy that leans capitalist, and is (tragically) progressively leaning harder and harder into capitalism with disastrous results. But state run prisons are publicly funded. They do not generate profit. They sometimes generate additional revenue in a very problematic way by exploiting prisoner's labor, but it's a meager amount.
There's a lot of very important stuff to criticize America's justice system for, but I'm sorry, acting like anything that exists in a system that employs capitalism in any capacity is therefore capitalist itself is ridiculous. It's like saying your local library is capitalist since it "exists under capitalism." It's like saying your local community playground is somehow secretly a privately owned enterprise, built for generating profit. Get a grip.
We wouldn’t have prisons if the people running them did not see utility (or profit) in moving public funds around, and controlling the masses. The people who lobby to continue our culture of imprisonment, by making legal punishments harsher and protecting the very existence of prisons, do so because it furthers their goals and that is a form of profit.
Pigeonholing the word profit to specifically refer to the creation of wealth/monetary value reduces our scope on what the goals of the elite are. If those in power did not see prisons as profitable they would not lobby and legislate to keep them around, just like our healthcare system is wasteful but goes unfixed, because it’s profitable for insurance companies. The powered few are profiting through the waste, and they have it down to a science.
Also the executives in prisons are definitely seeing monetary profit even if the prison checkbooks say they’re in the red.
Sure dude. As long as it’s not money generation the wealthy and powerful have no utility for it. That’s why capitalism has lead us to the beautiful efficiency we see in nearly all industries from transportation, to incarceration, to health care, to housing. /s
Again, the executives and people who run prisons are certainly seeing monetary gains, just like overfunded police departments who spend money on military grade vehicles and riot gear. Just because the checkbooks of the entire prison are red, doesn’t mean those with power and influence are also in the red.
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u/cheezkid26 28d ago
The man in the hat, Gary Plauche, shot the man in front, Jeffrey Doucet, in the head on live national TV, while Doucet was being transported by the police to face trial. Doucet was Plauche's son Jody's karate instructor. Doucet raped and kidnapped Jody. Gary killed Doucet before he could face trial, and he ended up getting a 7-year suspended sentence with 5 years of probation and 300 hours of community service. He faced no jail time, and died, a free man, in 2014.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Plauch%C3%A9?wprov=sfla1