|
Feedback ForumNOW wants to hear from you! Send us your opinions, reactions and ideas about "Prisons for Profit"Submissions for this question are no longer being accepted. Previously submitted comments appear below. Comments may have been edited for content or space. Poster: Jamie Miller Comment: I live in a financially struggling rural community in Stroud, Oklahoma. Unfortunately, Geo-Group has approached our city leaders with a proposition to build a private prison here. They have convinced our city manager and council members that it will be a significant boost to our economy and will bring in hundreds of jobs to this small town. Several private citizens, including myself, began doing their own research and found that these claims often go unrealized and seldom live up to the expectations of economic growth. I would love to see a follow-up story addressing the economic hook that these private prison executives dangle in front of the leaders of financially stressed communities. I have seen University Studies that indicate economic growth never depends on and seldom follows where these private prisons settle. I also wish there were ways to educate the average person in these rural communities about the moral, ethical and very real social issues involved with these private prison corporations. Poster: Rita Whyte Comment: Thank you so much for your editorial on Private Prison Companies. I had no clue of this. I never had a reason to know until your show because I thought all prisons were run by the government. I was totally in the dark. I am sure I am not the only one. I am just glad that pbs viewed this so that those of us who are not aware of what our government cannot handle and where our taxes are really going regarding prisons, can look further into this. I wonder what else our government is keeping from us. I hope you can dig deeper into why these private facilities don't have to open their books to the public. Especially if we are paying them. They should have to give account in all areas. I believe they owe us that if our tax dollars are paying their wages. Again thank you and keep up the great work of informing us of what is really going on. I hope you can dig deeper into this issue. I love pbs because they are so informative. Poster: Nancy Comment: Thank you so much for doing this story. My fiance` is currently incarcerated in one of CCA's facilities in Georgia and I whole heartedly agree that the facilities have very little, if no, care or concern for the inmates they house. The horror stories that come out of these prisons are unspeakable. Inmates are being under fed, denied food all together for petty issues, denied correspondence with family in the form of mail and not given proper medical attention. They have very few, if any, programs that help them to better themselves or that teach them how to live a crime free life once they are released. The sentences that some of these inmates receive for non-violent crimes are outrageous when compared to the sentences received for violent crimes. This is a business to them and like most businesses they are going to do what ever it takes to make a buck. Even if its at the expense of human beings lives. And why would they want to rehabilitate them? If they go out and commit another crime then they go right back to them so they can make another buck. Our system is in need of some major changes! Poster: K. Dupuis Comment: F.Y.I. I just saw a new movie at the theatres called The Visitor, Directed by Tom McCarthy, that hints at the private prison corporation issue. The movie touches on the emotional/drama aspect of illegal immigrants in private prisons. However, this NOW program really put the spot-light on the underlying issue -- corporate profits. When did We let the corporations take over our country, and how far are We going to let them go? Poster: van w.cass Comment: It was very unsettling to watch this program (not the program itself; rather the implications). This may sound like conspitorial reasoning, but the steps that have been put in place by the government (State & Federal) appear to be following a sequence used succesfully by others Past and present. 'Socialization', 'Displacement', 'Internment', 'Attrition', 'Absorption', and finally 'domination'. This is the altimate consequences that could be expected once the judicial system goes commercial. The citizens as of 9-11 have already given up most of their rights---this is ultimataly going to be what will follow. Poster: Selene C. Cavazos Comment: I normally don't watch PBS but after hearing what the program was about I couldn't take my eyes off of the television. See my husband is in at the Mineral Wells Pre-Parole Transfer Facility (Texas) run by CCA. You would think that with a name like that, that inmates are going home on a regular basis, well that is not the case! Just like my husband, thousands of inmates there are frustrated and doing what they can to get transfered back to a regular TDCJ facility. Mineral Wells PPT is setting these high expectations with making inmates believe that there going home and yet these same inmates have been denied parole more than 3 times. Alot of the inmates have joined lawsuits against the parole system. After watching this program i'm convinced that its CCA and not the parole board deciding when these inmates can go! It's disgusting how CCA profits from the lives of our husbands, sons, brothers, fathers and really makes me angry!! Poster: henry Comment: i agree we should not have prisons for profitmost are only interested in the money they can get out the state or government. and denighing propper health care to prisioners. the other topic covered secred prisions in or out of the country. (Christian) (?) phyicle or psycological torture should be out of the question. Poster: cm Comment: In regards to the privatization of prisons, it has been my observation when government and big corporations collaborate together, it will be the American taxpayer and the inmates who 'pay the price'. I believe these big corporations form alliances or agreements with the government legislatures in order to support their 'bottom line' which is bigger profits and benefits for investors. However, that is not the only problem that part of our correctional system. Many federal and state laws discriminate against the hiring of ex-felons even though they have been rehabilitated and free of crime for 'X' amount of years. Yet these laws do not reward the good behavior of these ex-felons, but instead continue to punish for them for the rest of their life. As anyone with a criminal record knows, if the employer does a criminal background check, you chances of being hired are very rare, irregardless of your education, skills or qualifications. These discriminating laws and policies are not allowing ex-felons to become good taxpaying citizens who want to provide for themselves and their families. Some ex-felons will return to a life of crime out of desperation, degradation, and hopelessness. We need legislation that rewards good behavior (just as we have taught our children)and allows these ex-felons to take pride in being a part of our legitimate economy, paying taxes and being a productive asset in our communities once again. It would benefit all taxpaying citizens. Poster: Rick J Comment: NOW tips their hand when they make reference to the 'undocumented population.' The legal, correct and proper term is 'illegal alien.' NOW has a history of spinning the illegal alien issue. At this point they have no credibility on any issue. Poster: thank you! Comment: i got my 2nd felony dwi in 97 and plea bargained a 5 year sentence in TDC. let me say right now there is no excuse for my actions and that i accept responsibility for the crime(s) i committed. however, once i got to TDC it became obvious that many non violent type people who may or may not have needed to be locked up were doing long stretches of their sentences. was it a matter of texas being tough on crime? or was it simply a matter of the system keeping the beds full so that a lot of these private prisons could make a buck? well, i did 3.5 on that 5 even though i was a model inmate and worked the programs and such that were mede available to me. what ever the case may be, your program brought this very important subject to light. THANK YOU! by the way, i am now off paper and have had no issues since that last bust in 97. so, i suppose one could say, they got my attention. however, i do not believe that was the systems motives at all! jk Poster: Rick Comment: Thank you for your program on the prison industrial complex. It is frightening to see what is happening in this country. Disappearances, detentions, torture...I feel like I'm living in some military state in Latin America. I guess after all those years of propping up such governments, we have finally become what we were always so quick to create. My question is what we can do about this before we all find ourselves in prison. Poster: Amy Odean Comment: Thank you for the story on corporate prisons & the funneling of taxpayers dollars. Both the penal system and the health care system are unacceptable in the united states. Bill Moyers covered the topic on opb before last nights' NOW. What do industrialized nations, countries of the first world have in health care for their citizens, in other words, what are the models? For both penal system and health care system. For all the exposure, what is already known as an effective way to take care of people who get sick and get into trouble with the law ? Poster: Donald Sexton Comment: I've been considering this issue for some time. It is about time that private prison enterprises and their influence on public legislation were explored. I enjoyed the show though I found it too short. Please continue investigating this topic. The documentary 'American Drug Wars' had touched on the subject. Another connection I've wondered about is the type of shareholder in those corporations. Should law enforcement, any member of the justice system, legislators, non-elected public officials or public pension funds be investors? I don't think so because I can believe that conflicts of interest would certainly taint the objectiveness of the law. Plus, in my opinion, should an enterprise agree to receive public funds and contracts then the disclosure of their operations should also be public information. It is similar to the lack of oversight, regulation, and public scrutiny that Blackwater and other security firms have taken advantage of since 9/11. Such opportunists are not patriots they are merely capitalists. It would be interesting to know the names of people in the above mentioned groups that have shares in penal, incarceration, prison and security firms. Thank you. Poster: PD Comment: Thanks for this important report. The topic of privatization of Corrections does not get the attention it should from mainstream media outlets. If, as your report suggests, the bottom line trumps all other concerns in the prison industry, justice cannot be served. However, that does not mean private companies are inherently incapable of playing a role in the prison system. Rather, it suggests that the government needs to more justly oversee and regulate the companies it contracts. Perhaps, for example, mandatory training for any private prison employee should be the same as it would be for state prison employees. Perhaps lobbying should be reigned in, since there is a conflict of interests. Perhaps environmental standards in private prisons should be standardized in a way consistent with state run prisons. But I would bet that state prisons are pretty shabby, have plenty of delinquent employees, and are plagued with all manner of problems too. Somehow I think the growing prison population, and the negligence and mistreatment of that population in state and private settings, is a manifestation of deeper problems. Race relations, overly harsh drug laws, a prevalent philosophy of punishment rather than rehabilitation, and a host of other variables are the engines of demand for ever more prisons. The private prison problem (as newsworthy as it is) presupposes that federal and state government WANT to incarcerate and warehouse so many people. No other wealthy, industrialized country has such high prison rates. Poster: gary wegener Comment: on the prison stats, why don't you show the numbers per capita? what does the one per hundred 'new to prison/jail' mean? can you explain the vast variance in per capita spending relative to education, why are some under 25% others equal? does that reflect variances in spending on education or on prisons? you epitimise the feeling that you can show anything with figures;stats. doesn't leave me a good feeling about this site. gary wegener gwegener4098@charter.net Poster: Karen Maley Comment: As a Colorado resident, I really wish Buffie McFadyen would work on ensuring that *law-abiding* residents have access to health insurance rather than worrying about contract prisons. After my COBRA ran out I was turned down for health insurance. Today I have no coverage, even though I could pay for it. That's wrong. Do people in my situation need to commit a crime to get the attention of our lawmakers? Poster: Nancy R. Crafton Comment: regarding Prisons in Colorado and America. One must ask the question; If the inmate population is on such a rapid increase WHO ARE WE IMPRISONING? what sentences are being meted out? How many addicted and mentally ill men and women are incarcerated? We are warehousing our brothers and sisters with significant problems that require treatment instead of inprisonment. |
Who's Helping Our Wounded Vets?
Elizabeth Warren on the Economy
Nurses Needed
Electric Car Dreams
PBS Special Report: Health Care Reform
