‘Profiteers of Misery’: The U.S. Private Prison Industrial Complex

You mean like a Super Duper Wally World?

You can't forget about the Super Duper Fast Food Franchises that feeds us up to the point of explosion!

LOL...no seriously...I TOTALLY agree!

OMG off subject but your avitar just made me spit up my milk laughing thats an awsom avitar....only thing that would make it better would be if you could put one of thos helmets on the elephant head. lmao!

Their other eveil plan is to close public schools to keep the masses ignorant so they won't vote, either!

They have ways....that they haven't incorporated yet, too!

And what does Rick Scott have to say about that? You'd think he would feel as if an outsider is taking over his kingdom.

I'm sure Mr. Scott has his own plans!

What is it with people named Rick? Or Scott...either as a first or last name?

Like Scott Walker.

Or people with the name Walker...as either a middle or last name?

Bizarre!

Sorry, I meant Rick Scott.

It is a crime to be poor.

Because ignorant people missue the wor "inhumane"...to should not be used to describe what one human beng does to an animal, in my estimation. It ought to be reserved to human to human interaction only. How can an animal be treated either humanely, for instance?

Their animals.

There in lies the problem. Too many humans love and treat pets better than they would their own species.

I'm all for treating animals like animals, i.e., with respect towards ALL life.

Like a bear being treated like a bear! He doesn't want to be treated like a human, dancing about on his hind legs. Nor would he want to be treated like a chimpanzee, either!

I think it's absurd to dress up animals or expect them to have qualities similar to human beings.

My two cent's worth.

That was the way of my ancestors on my father's branch ot this human tree. They considered ALL life related as brothers and sisters, nut they didn't try to "tame" them until the white man came with horses.

That wasn't the ONLY bad example they learned from the "occupiers" of their Lands, nor the last.

P.S. They never had one prison, either!

Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.

Bob Dylan -Masters of War-

Not only per-capita. We have a higher actual number of prisoners than any other nation, including China. Using this measure, China is a freer country than is America aka "the land of the free".

and women of all races and ages. we now have the tyranny of the minority over the majority. de toqueville (sp?) never saw this coming.

CORPORATE INQUISTION ATTACK BANKERS CEO AND CORPORATIONS

Sad, but I fear you could be correct. In my heart of hearts, I thought if we could get a Democrat elected President, things would change.

I don't know if it's because Republicans are forcing President Obama to make decisions, which are against his better judgement? But, when I look at who he has chosen to lead in (potentially dangerous) positions, I wonder? Many are the one's I would think would be under investigation. But, instead have been chosen to lead.

He doesn't seem to be hurting the Private Prison Industry, does he? What's an American voter to do? I don't want to disparage President Obama, but I don't think we should remain silent to his wrongs either. They all must be held accountable when they make decisions, which hurt us as a country. The Constitution was written to 'protect' US, 'We the People'. We 'are' being torn apart from within!

So many people are talking at any given time, they just turn us all off and do what they want. Sad, sad, sad!

I fear that with the kind of rulings that has been handed down from the SCOTUS...with people have to right to carry a weapon to an Obama rally because it's their RIGHT...people can speak disparagingly of the President of the United States because it's their RIGHT...people can carry concealed weapons into bars, public places, churches and schools because it's their RIGHT...

All of these "rulings" seem to promote the ripping apart of the "social fabric" to the point that nothing is left but shreads of civility between us.

It's as if our government WANTS us to be at each other's throats!

Divide and conquer? Is that their plans?

Follow the money and I think it's obvious who is gaining from this crazy governing. The one's making the decisons won't be hurt if there is civil unrest. Just like the wars on foreign soils, their families will be protected.

People would no doubt profit from civil unrest, while making decisions, far removed from actual unrest. It will be us who suffer the destruction, civil unrest would cause. Blackwater (XE?) will be protecting them. They have the resources to protect themselves and their families from real danger. It will be our families, which will be left unprotected.

Yep, it could be a plan? How many Americans do you think would be 'acceptable' collateral damage?

You really can't blame the private prison problem on the President, those are state prisons not federal prisons. Why is it that anything and everything becomes Obama's problem and he isn't doing anything? The Executive Branch of the Federal Government has no authority what-so-ever to do anything about state prisons.

Society like any structure under enough pressure breaks, then shit hits the fan. I sometimes wonder if those who rule us truly understands what this means for them.

Like nazis, they can run but they can't hide....for long.

I don't blame President Obama for our prison problem. I do wish he had pursued Senator Webb to follow through on the commission he formed to look into America's prison overcrowding.

When I went to connect a link to Senator Webb's Commision, I found this: http://webb.senate.gov/issuesandlegislation/criminaljusticeandlawenforcement/Cri... (another thing our media failed to menton). Senator Webb and President Obama are still working on the prison problem.

When I commented yesterday, I was wrong. Things 'are' being investigated to try and change the prison problem in America. Our media only shows President Obama's negatives. They leave us in the dark about anything positive.

I apologize.

Very interesting, Bill. I heard about this a few years ago that the Bush clan was purchasing land there. I see it's still going on. I think they are looking for a place to go just in case somebody, someday wants to try Bush for war crimes.

he is creating his own country!!!! What is happening in the financial sector to allow him to do this? He is leaving! OMG makes machiavelli look like a two bit huckster...

UGTV,VR!

Oh..BTW...did you get my "rant"?

LOL

Not a problem, and you are right this is a media problem creating all this misunderstanding and divisive BS. I simply want everyone to be careful about taking talking points at face value, and to also understand what the President can and cannot do.

The Bush/Cheney Administration overstepped the bounds of the Executive Office so dramatically and outrageously; then got their errand boys in the Congress to legislate curtailing of most of our civil rights, that now many believe that the WH has powers that it just doesn't have.

I also fear that we fall into the hands of the GOP/TP propagandist mind warp, when we blame Obama for not being able to cure all the ills of this country in 3 years time. It took the GOP 50+ years to get us into this horrible shape, it truly defies reason to expect the Obama administration to patch it all in so short a time. That is magical thinking at its worst, expecting miraculous transformation.

What freedoms have I lost? I cen move from one state to another. I can quit a job if I can't stand my boss. I can walk into any store and buy wahtever thell...if I have the money OR if I don't, a credit card to use that I will have to repay - sometme- but that's ot considered a right to have a credit card or to HAVE to repay my debt, I can rany and rave about the Leader of this country wityout the threat of imprisonment because of words spoken - although I think the SCOTUS took it a little too far, I can own a gun - if I wanted to, I can take a vacation and travel the free world - so long as I get a passport, I can do a lot of things!

Could you...RESPECTFULLY SPEAKING HERE, list what I have lost of my "freedoms"?

Please?

(I did say the magic word - Please, too!)

Because I ALWAYS here those Teavangelista/Tea Hadists speak of their freedoms they feel they have lost and I want to ask them, but they get very mad at me when I try!

GREAT IMAGE I KNOW THE SOUND SCRIPT THANK YOU MADE MY DAY NOT LIKE THE KING`S STATUE MADE BY COMMUNIST CHINA SHAME.

Well, for one, there aren't that many solitary cells to put that amount of soldiers in. Two, I would like to know where 50,000 military prisoners might be held? Levenworth?

Clarify your comment....with substantial information, please.

And three, and the most important point I want to make...I do not feel it is humane to incarcerate another human being for any length of time but to figure out where they should be EXILED for life, rather than put into a cage-like cell.

Cruel and inhumane punishment is what I call it.

Gitmo, too!

Amen! Did I say Amen? Amen!

They might as well be privatized! Call for an ambulance..$1,000.00 with no guarantees of when they arrive PLUS a dollar per mile to, NOT the nearest hospital, but the one they want to take you to, or is the "on call hospital" that's the desginated "trauma unit" for that night!

And they are talking about charging for sending officers to answer you 911 call if they decide you didn't have an emergency and was wasting their time!

Seven years ago I had AT&T as my local phone service. I called when I didn't have dial-tone. I've been in telecommunications since 1975 and checked to verify that the problem was theirs. They informed me that if they came out and found no problem I would be charged $75 for the service fee if it was my problem because I declined their $2.00/month service agreement. I think they do that crap to generate money and rip off little old ladies and get people to pay that 2 bucks each month! Guess what? They didn't "find" a problem and I had dial-tone again and I would be sent the bill! I contacted the public utilities office for the state of Ohio, and AT&T was shocked I did that. Well, I no longer owed the bill and I got rid of them the next day!

Yeah Bill, we'd probably be better off calling a cab to get to the hospital. At least you could see what the meter was charging you and for five bucks you could get the cabbie to turn around and punch you in the chest every few minutes.

Good for you for calling AT&T on their BS. My son was on location working on a commercial and talking with me on his cell and it dropped the call. Guess who the commercial was for................

Yes to the cabbie! And he'd probably get on scene quicker than an ambulance, too! I have a neighbor who has had to call because of terrible attacks and I monitored how long it took the paramedics to drive ONE MILE...30 minutes....and I KNOW they were at the firehouse because I ASKED and they admitted it. They said it was thier shift change and they had to do the key swap stuff.

Yeah, right. Liars to boot! They always leave the keys in the ignition at the firehouse!

I live in Ohio and Governor Kasich has not hidden the fact, he wants to privatize the lottery. They have changed the way the lottery broadcasts in Ohio. Threy no longer show the higher prize drawings. They changed the channel, which broadcasts the drawings from ABC to NBC and NBC cancels the broadcasts on a regular basis, supposedly due to other scheduled programs. They still have a commercial in that time slot, but they don't show the drawings.

I think it's being done with purpose. IMHO, if the lottery starts struggling, it can be used to promote privatization as a lottery savior. I have played the same two sets of numbers every day, except two, maybe three since it started. I watched the drawings every night. It was a 'dream' orgasim every night, just waiting to see if my numbers popped up. They have managed to take away my nightly thrill. They don't ever show the drawings for the Lotto, Power Ball,or Mega drawings. They don't care about the people who spend money on the lotto. They are more concerned about who makes profit from it.

If a private industry could make money running the lottery, so could the state of Ohio. We didn't vote in the lottery for corporations to profit. We did it for Education! If the State of Ohio makes profit, it comes back to us. But, if they privatize it, the profits will go into the pockets of corporate CEO's and shareholders.

That's correct, tl! Voted up!

Tell me about it, tl. Disgusting. As for me, I could not watch Cheney being interviewed. That guy makes me puke.

LOL! :)

Don't forget ole turd blossom!!!

I think I heard the interview with him (about his book) is on NBC on Sunday nite; I'll find out for sure and let you know. He said (re his book) that "heads in Washington will explode" when they read it. Bring your barf-bag.

Oh gawd, that's funny - by El Poopadore, indeed.
Ye olde turdus blossomus! Love it.

I heard enough about Cheney's book between Jeremy Scahill and John Dean on Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight. I heard about the "heads in Washington will explode" part. I love these arrogant assholes who can through everbody under the bus but accept no personal responsibility themselves. That's classic Cheney.

Cheney should hang around microwave ovens more often, say pacemaker unsafe ovens.

lol. You always paint great pictures tl. Thanx for the grin.

LOL! Cheney is a machine. He's just being kept alive by mechanical parts. He has great health insurance. Anybody else would be dead already. When I saw snippets of the interview he gave on Countdown, Cheney looked like shit!

Thanks Leen, I missed this.
Dean perfectly describes him - "authoritarian mentality" indeed!!
Sure wouldn't wanna be a "friend of " Cheney's - he's the type that would harvest the organs he wants (or take me bird hunting and shoot me in the face, take my heart and liver too).
He looks SOOO ill, YAYYYYYY, his pancake makeup was plastered on his cruel old face - he doesn't have long now - unless he gets a transplant - like EdJoy said (different thread): it's strange he hasn't had a healthy soldier "accidentally, on purpose" killed so he can the guys heart.
Alas, his time is tick-tick-ticking by; after a year with an LVAD the life expectancy plummets each day. For what he and Tenet did to Colin Powell, he'd better be wearing hid asbestos panties cuz he's on his way to hell - it's likely that the devil himself can't find a hot-enough place for this pig.

You're welcome, Hardytoo. Speaking of John Dean, get his book "Conservatives Without Conscience." Excellent. That's why Keith always plugs it. In fact, I read the John Dean Trilogy--"Worse Than Watergate," "Conservatives Without Conscience" and "Broken Government." I loved the rest of your comment as well!

I actually remember John Dean testifying at the Watergate hearings (yes, that old). I've always respected him so much for standing by his morals (in the end).
Have read the first two books you mention and the 3rd is on my Fall/Wintere "must-reads."
Thanks Leen, (and hope you've semi-recovered from last Saturday nite's follies.. - haven't rec'd the cake yet, but am sure it'll arrive one day, shriveled but still edible!!)

I remember John Dean testifying at the Watergate hearings as well. When I got home from school, that's what my mother had the TV tuned into at the time. This is back in the day when criminal activity in DC meant something and it was that important....talk about reality TV! Yes, I have recovered from last Saturday's follies and and I wish I really could've sent you some cake. :)

You're very, very correct.

It has been calculated that it costs $49,000.00 to imprison a human being for one year. And that's if they are healthy!

And if they are not the price is only marginally more. After all 2 aspirin don't cost much and Dr. Bubba doesn't need any certification to administer them.

There's been a hush-hush agenda to get rid of older inmates that need medical care like blood pressure meds, etc., or if they need an operation that the ex-inmate has to have, they find a way to get them out the door to apply for Medicaid or if old enough, MediCare, so long as they were serving time for a nonviolent crime.

When prisons release people...they open the front door and put them out. That's it. They're on their own.

But when they tried to release some who were on powerful psychiatric drugs, those ex-inmates tried to climb back into or wandered around the parameters of the prisons, they were so out of it.

In the jail near one CO where I worked nights,they used release them late at night. There were cases where a prisoner was released, assaulted someone on the street, and wound up back in the steel hotel....on the same night.