4 Disturbing Reasons the Private Prison Industry Is So Powerful

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/4-disturbing-reasons-private-prison-industry-so-powerful



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1. Bankrolling Small Towns

Eloy, Arizona is a town of 10,500 whose financial health and civic culture basically revolve around the private prison system. It’s home to four CCA facilities, all migrant detention centers, and was paid a total $9 million in construction fees by CCA to build them. That revenue went to updating the city’s waterlines, purchasing more police cars and building a new playground, according to the Huffington Post.

***SNIP

2. Installing Friends in High Places

It takes some effort to wend through Ohio Governor John Kasich’s sinuous ties to the prison industry, but once you do, it makes sense why he wanted to sell five of Ohio’s 26 prisons to private corporations—a completely unprecedented move.


***SNIP

3. Receiving Secret Subsidies

In the construction and maintenance of their facilities, private prison firms have shrewdly secured the spoils of public money normally put aside for civic development projects.

***SNIP

4. Using Loopholes to Avoid Taxes

Last year, both the GEO Group and CCA were granted permission by the IRS to restructure themselves into REITs (real estate investment trusts), a designation that lets them escape corporate income taxes. Companies qualify as REITs when most of their assets are in the form of real estate holdings.

[Scuba]

1. A large and ugly stain on America.

[Heidi]

2. Kick, kick, kick!!!!

And mornin', sunshine!

[xchrom]

4. HEIDI!!! DEE=GORGEOUS!

if i move my Tiara will fall off



J'adore, my dear!

[liberal N proud]

3. Prisons for Profit

Makes prosecution necessary to keep the quotas up.

[intaglio]

5. Makes you wonder what would have happened to the Warden in the Shawshank Redemption

if it was set after 2001?

[myrna minx]

6. K&R n/t

[Eleanors38]

7. Good summation. The PPI is the equivalent of Pentagon spending...

Vast amounts of $$ are doled out to many areas to shore up RW GOPers (am I redundant?) in office. PPI is only part of the RW's plan to dismantle government functions, leaving behind crappy services, no services, and a unitary presidency with a unitary policeguardmilitary command for ALL domestic crime and disruption.

This is quite clear.