The Privatization of the US Prison System Your thoughts?

[Bimmerhead]

In another thread other members and I explored the idea of privatizing the prison system in the United States. I figured I would make a new thread dedicated to just that! What are your thoughts people?

[Sage]

I don't like the idea of having a profit incentive to imprison people.

[Bimmerhead]

I don't like the idea of having a profit incentive to imprison people.

I don't see it as an incentive to imprison people. I see it as a way for companies to use prisoners as a cheap form of labor. But I do see that potentially tying into being an incentive to imprison people... But a large benefit would be eliminating the outsourcing of a lot of major american corporations like Microsoft, apple, and GE. Instead of having their products made oversees we could instead have convicts manufacturer I pods, cell phones etc at a labor cost comparable to china. Plus it would turn the prison system from a huge loss into a potential income generator. Another neat benefit from this idea would be the fact that once said convict gets out of jail he/she now has a skill set that could help them get a decent job!

[DerBear]

I don't like the idea of having a profit incentive to imprison people.

I would have to agree with sage on this matter :)

[Black Eight]

I don't like the idea of having a profit incentive to imprison people.

Wasn't there a part in a Michael Moore movie where a judge sent kids to juvie and got money from it because his friend privately owned the prison?

I'm sure corporations would use the courts system to their advantage in order to get more prisoners if needed. Plus, if corporations switched to using cheap prison laborers, people who previously had the prisoners' job would become unemployed. And the US needs more jobs, not have them be taken away.

[Bimmerhead]

Wasn't there a part in a Michael Moore movie where a judge sent kids to juvie and got money from it because his friend privately owned the prison?

I'm sure corporations would use the courts system to their advantage in order to get more prisoners if needed. Plus, if corporations switched to using cheap prison laborers, people who previously had the prisoners' job would become unemployed. And the US needs more jobs, not have them be taken away.

Not at all. The manufacturing of electronics in the United States is virtually non existent now. There would be no jobs for the inmates to take. The US judicial system would still be controlled by the government. Just the actual prisons would be privately owned. Private corporations would have no say on who does and doesn't go to jail. In prison you do not have to pay the US minimum wage so everyone wins. You guys are just looking at the cons not the pros.

[Black Eight]

Not at all. The manufacturing of electronics in the United States is virtually non existent now. There would be no jobs for the inmates to take. The US judicial system would still be controlled by the government. Just the actual prisons would be privately owned. Private corporations would have no say on who does and doesn't go to jail. In prison you do not have to pay the US minimum wage so everyone wins. You guys are just looking at the cons not the pros.

There are more American corporations than electronics companies. Even though it may not seem like it, there is still a manufacturing industry here. So people could lose their jobs if this were to happen.

And I wasn't saying that the corporations would say who goes to jail. I meant that the companies who own prisons would pay judges to send more people to their prison.

[Bimmerhead]

Please name something that people in prison could manufactur that the US currently does too. The couldn't make firearms or anything with steel. We also export timber which convicts couldnt work with either. Other then that we don't really make anything. Your phone,Ipod,Zune,PC are all made in other countries. Who would lose their job if we instead had convicts make it? I rather them make it then Communist China.

[Black Eight]

Actually Intel, Oracle, Cisco, still have factories in America. Plus we have farms and breweries. The people working in these factories would lose their jobs if they went to prisoners.

[Bimmerhead]

That is a valid point. But think of the pros. 70 Billion dollars a year is what we the tax payers spent on the US prison system in 2007. That cost goes up about 10% a year on average. So since then we are paying 40% more! If these prisoners were to pay for their stay in prison think of what we could use that money for. The Public school system maybe? Plus The US would export more! Not only that if those companies where to instead use prisoners as a work force, pricing on products would go down! Win win for everyone but the union laborers making 20$ an hour doing the same job a person in China will do for a fraction of the cost!

[RoseyCadaver]

I see it as a way for companies to use prisoners as a cheap form of labor.

Ohh you mean slaves?


To me,this whole idea just sounds nuts.Sorry.

[Bimmerhead]

Ohh you mean slaves?


To me,this whole idea just sounds nuts.Sorry.

Ok so what is your idea of the meaning of REPAYING YOUR DEBT TO SOCIETY? Sitting in a cell and getting fat on the 3 meals a day? Yeah that's not my idea of what they can do to repay us for the crimes they committed. Cheap labor? Why not! Its not like im asking them to work 12 hours a day in a cotton field! The same workplace rules and regulations apply. Im getting the feeling your going out of my way to be negative in my threads.

[RoseyCadaver]

Ok so what is your idea of the meaning of REPAYING YOUR DEBT TO SOCIETY?
You would be surprised my friend to know that prisoners do have job,a lot prisoners do have jobs,that is the stable ones.Even if the unstable ones had a job,can you imagine what some would do to the products they are making?
None the less,a lot of them do have some jobs.They don't stay in the cell all day.

Cheap labor? Why not!


See answer above


Its not like im asking them to work 12 hours a day in a cotton field! The same workplace rules and regulations apply.
No,but I just find it scary for Walmart to have prisoners at their will.

Im getting the feeling your going out of my way to be negative in my threads.

If i seem like that,sorry.Don't mean to be that way.

I will agree with you Bimmerhead about bringing more electronic manufacturing back over here,but I don't think prisoners should be the solution.

[Bimmerhead]

You would be surprised my friend to know that prisoners do have job,a lot prisoners do have jobs,that is the stable ones.Even if the unstable ones had a job,can you imagine what some would do to the products they are making?
None the less,a lot of them do have some jobs.They don't stay in the cell all day.


See answer above


No,but I just find it scary for Walmart to have prisoners at their will.


If i seem like that,sorry.Don't mean to be that way.

I will agree with you Bimmerhead about bringing more electronic manufacturing back over here,but I don't think prisoners should be the solution.

Walmart doesn't make electronics.... Prisoners at their will? Your making it sound like they will have a private army?! Im not talking about giving the murderers and rapists jobs making I Pods. If it were me they would get the chair but apparently they could be "innocent" so we cant do that either. Only prisoners that have been deemed fit could work. They would receive incentives IE time off their sentence. In the state of Maryland only 3.8 million dollars a year are made from prisoners manufacturing items.. So what are all the rest doing? Sitting in cells or stabbing other prisoners!

[Amnesiac]

Walmart doesn't make electronics.... Prisoners at their will? Your making it sound like they will have a private army?! Im not talking about giving the murderers and rapists jobs making I Pods. If it were me they would get the chair but apparently they could be "innocent" so we cant do that either. Only prisoners that have been deemed fit could work. They would receive incentives IE time off their sentence. In the state of Maryland only 3.8 million dollars a year are made from prisoners manufacturing items.. So what are all the rest doing? Sitting in cells or stabbing other prisoners!

The problem with this idea is that no corporation would ever agree to having prisoners produce their products. Not only is that bad PR ("did you know a federal prisoner makes your iPod?"), these prisoners have absolutely no qualification to be manufacturing complicated electronic devices. In addition to their lack of experience, I'm sure the electronics corporations wouldn't be willing to spend the millions of extra dollars building factories and hiring extra security to enable these prisoners to produce their products, as well as the training they'd have to receive to know how to make it in the first place.

Corporations hire overseas companies to produce their products because, that way, they don't have to worry about training workers and providing them with expensive factories to work in. By privatizing the prison system, you're dramatically increasing the amount of money a corporation would have to spend to manufacture their products.

The risks and bad publicity hiring prisoners would create far outweigh the benefits for any corporation. It's more profitable overseas, and it'll stay that way until the United States finally starts up its manufacturing sector again.

[Bimmerhead]

The problem with this idea is that no corporation would ever agree to having prisoners produce their products. Not only is that bad PR ("did you know a federal prisoner makes your iPod?"), these prisoners have absolutely no qualification to be manufacturing complicated electronic devices. In addition to their lack of experience, I'm sure the electronics corporations wouldn't be willing to spend the millions of extra dollars building factories and hiring extra security to enable these prisoners to produce their products, as well as the training they'd have to receive to know how to make it in the first place.

Corporations hire overseas companies to produce their products because, that way, they don't have to worry about training workers and providing them with expensive factories to work in. By privatizing the prison system, you're dramatically increasing the amount of money a corporation would have to spend to manufacture their products.

The risks and bad publicity hiring prisoners would create far outweigh the benefits for any corporation. It's more profitable overseas, and it'll stay that way until the United States finally starts up its manufacturing sector again.

Huh very well put sir! Definitely some food for thought on this issue! I hadn't even thought of the initial start up costs IE new facilities. Thats a huge undertaking! Although if there were one thing I could disagree with is the PR issue. If marketed correctly it would look like a great thing. Being made in the hands of US citizens rather then communists over sees! See already sounds better lol. But as for all of the other issues, I just cant see anyone putting the money and time into something like this initially.

[Amnesiac]

Huh very well put sir! Definitely some food for thought on this issue! I hadn't even thought of the initial start up costs IE new facilities. Thats a huge undertaking! Although if there were one thing I could disagree with is the PR issue. If marketed correctly it would look like a great thing. Being made in the hands of US citizens rather then communists over sees! See already sounds better lol. But as for all of the other issues, I just cant see anyone putting the money and time into something like this initially.

Well, I don't think anybody would buy into corporate propaganda calling the Chinese "communists," since they're definitely capitalist-leaning. But anyway, they could say it was made in the USA, which is a selling point for a lot of products these days, but I still don't think people would be happy with prisoners making their products.