Well, not entirely. *shudders*

You’ve got the word “profit” jammed so far up your nose it’s stuck in your forebrain. This isn’t about “profit.” It’s about money. The more prisoners there are, the more money and political power devolves to the public prison system and the associated unions.

Again, it was the CCPOA, NOT the private prison companies that drove Proposition 184. This was the first response I made, with evidence, and you act like nobody said anything. Here’s yet another article with more details than any rational person should need, although it’s becoming pretty obvious you haven’t looked at any of the others either.

Not only that, but the CCPOA was instrumental in preventing any reform of Three Strikes, like Proposition 66. Don’t click that one either, but maybe somebody else will learn something.

Fact is that everything the private system is accused of doing, the public unionized systems are doing one hell of a lot harder. Any paper on general prison problems that completely ignores that – like this one – is selling an agenda.

“Some of the biggest names in the private prison industry have given $835,514 to federal candidates since 2000 and a stunning $6,092,331 to state politicians in the last five elections cycles, according to data in the report.”

That’s $6,927,845 since 2000. Call it $7 million. All of the private prison companies, across the whole country. Hold that number in your mind.

Now tally up what the CCPOA, the California prison union, has spent on political activities in that time period. One union. In one state.

I get a total of about $33.6 million. By one union, just in California.

We done here?

I had looked at the Justice Policy Institute paper before I made my first response. I do the research first, you see. No mention of union political influence anywhere, which is not surprising considering the source. There is a mention of unions, though. From that paper:

Most private prisons do not allow the formation of correctional officer unions, which helps to reduce the overall cost of running a private prison, but limits the staff’s ability to negotiate pay, benefits, and proper training. Although proponents of private prisons argue that unions drive up prison costs, they appear to offer a level of stability and training that is not present in most private prisons.

And there you have the entire foundation of this anti-private prison deal. Exact same reason the Left hates Wal-Mart – they aren’t getting that union loot. The CCPOA hauls in $22 million a year in union dues. Again, that’s just one California union.

No pesky health and labor laws, no unions, no regulations, no minimum wage, and a healthy government subsidy to help finance the whole operation.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/report_private_prisons_love_mass_incarceration_and_want_politicians_to_as_well.php

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/06/25/988397/-Report:-Private-prison-companies-boost-incarceration-rates-for-profit

Something like 8 percent of all state and federal prisoners nationwide are held in private prisons. I doubt this is a primary driver for imprisonment rates.

“The private prison industry are the ones who lobbied and got the three strikes law in place.”

Not really true. The major push for “Three Strikes” in California was the CCPOA, the prison guards union. This union is one of the largest abusers of state funds here. Private prisons typically do not employ union labor, and the CCPOA is strongly against private prisons.