5 prisons in Ohio to be put on block by state

[upstatecajun]

While Gov. John Kasich's plan to sell four prisons promises to raise much-needed cash for the state, the news isn't so good for affected employees who could see their pay cut by one-third and lose paid health-care benefits.

Kasich is expected to propose selling the prisons, plus the closed Marion Juvenile Correctional Facility, in his two-year budget plan to be unveiled today.

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/03/15/copy/5-prisons-to-be-put-on-block-by-state.html?sid=101









http://www.liberalohioan.com/index.html

[liberal N proud]

1. Who are the cronies who are lining up to make a million or two off this

The people build, the GOP gives it away so the corporation can keep charging the people to maintain it.

The United Corporations of America.

[mod mom]

14. Why look who Kasich hired to run prison systems:

NOTE WHO KASICH CHOSE TO HEAD THE OHIO DEPT OF REHABILITATION & CORRECTIONS:



Kasich announced Gary Mohr as his pick to head the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

-snip

Mohr is a managing director at the Corrections Corporation of America, which designs, builds, manages and operates federal, state and local prisons across the country.

http://www.vindy.com/news/2011/jan/04/kasich-picks-new-ohio-prison-chief/




No wonder Kasich is so gungho on selling off prisons: $.23 per hour! Are these the jobs Kasich is planning for Ohio?



U.S. Prisoners Build Missile Parts for Raytheon and Lockheed to Sell Abroad
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Inmates in American prisons have come a long way from the days of making license plates. Nowadays, prisoners are helping build missiles and other sophisticated weapons, and providing dirt-cheap labor in the process.

While earning as little as 23 cents an hour—and no more than $1.15—inmates assemble electronic components for the Patriot missile, which has been used by the U.S. military and sold to allies like Israel, Egypt, Kuwait and Taiwan . The use of prisoners employed by Unicor, a government-owned corporation formerly known as the Federal Prison Industries, saves the makers of the Patriot, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, a lot of money on labor costs.

Unicor inmates also have contributed work to the building of the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing F-15 fighter, the General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin F-16, Bell/Textron’s Cobra helicopter and BAE Systems’ Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

Prisoners used to make helmets for the military, until 44,000 of them had to be recalled for shoddy quality.

Although Unicor is pitched as a job training program for prisoners, it has some observers worried. William Hartung, author of Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex, told Justin Rohrlich of Minyanville, “It’s really on the cutting-edge of questionable practices. The fact that it does an end-run around organized labor is a problem. There’s no greater restriction on a worker’s rights than being stuck in prison.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
http://www.allgov.com/Top_Stories/ViewNews/US_Prisoners_Build_Missile_Parts_for_Raytheon_and_Lockheed_to_Sell_Abroad_110310





Prisoners Help Build Patriot Missiles
By Noah Shachtman March 8, 2011 | 12:24 pm |

This spring, the United Arab Emirates is expected to close a deal for $7 billion dollars’ worth of American arms. Nearly half of the cash will be spent on Patriot missiles, which cost as much as $5.9 million apiece.

But what makes those eye-popping sums even more shocking is that some of the workers manufacturing parts for those Patriot missiles are prisoners, earning as little as 23 cents an hour. (CreditJustin Rohrlich with the catch.)

The work is done by Unicor, previously known as Federal Prison Industries. It’s a government-owned corporation, established during the Depression, that employs about 20,000 inmates in 70 prisons to make everything from clothing to office furniture to solar panels to military electronics.

-snip
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/prisoners-help-build-patriot-missiles/

repeat posting but more people have to be made aware of this!

[liberal N proud]

15. Thanks for that info

Repeat or not, every Ohioan needs to know this

[jschurchin]

2. What a brilliant idea

cut workers pay by a 1/3, it lowers the tax they pay by a 1/3, the state receives less revenue. BRILLIANT!!!:sarcasm: (like I needed this)

[atreides1]

11. Doesn't work that way

Workers get paid 1/3 less...but wait, Kasich and his cronies will figure out a way to raise taxes on those workers while lowering taxes on the rich.

Bet on it!

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Not promising for potential inmates.

Private prisons don't make profits with vacancies.

Remember the two judges in Pennsylvania who acted as a pipeline to a private juvenile "detention facility". They convicted children for innocuous acts as spitting on the sidewalk, being home late, etc. and just rubberstamped their incarcerations. One young man committed suicide as a result of his conviction and confinement.

There is more of an incentive to arrest and convict in order to sustain profitability of private prisons.

[iwishiwas]

12. Yes. I recall that.

[Botany]

4. And this will cost the state more money in the long run

Private for profit prisons have a higher recidivism rate then public ones.

[studmoose]

5. Does Ohio Privatize Their Prisons? If Not, It's Coming!

If Ohio has state run prisons, this looks to be the first phase in privatizing them.

After all, they are special needs facilities that cannot be used except for one thing, holding inmates.

New Jersey just razed one of it's 20-year-old prisons as it was not needed and is reclaiming the land.

[lonestarnot]

6. mmmhmmm. That private prison stank is permeating the air.

Coming to a state near you. That's a promise.

[valerief]

7. Prisons. Where slave labor lives today. nt

[Enthusiast]

8. This will amount to a gift

windfall to the new prison owners (Kascish supporters). Profits will siphon off and offset any reduction in prison staff wages and benefits. And Kasich plans to privatize more state services. This worked so well in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just another example of RepubliCON family values.

[Vinnie From Indy]

9. It is hard to understate just how dangerous this idea of private prisons is

Depriving citizens of liberty should never be left to private business.

[HereSince1628]

10. And THEN the state will rent back the facility...

The US is looking more and more third-worldish.

[slay]

13. What is REALLY going on here is an attempt by the rich and powerful to privatize EVERYTHING.

and as far as prisons go - it's going to just keep getting worse as these for-profit-prisons (they shouldn't be called private, they should be called For Profit) will always want to increase their profits so that means poorly paid guards, and a monetary incentive to keep people locked up as most of these for-profit prisons get paid by the prisoner. And of course you can expect more prison/slave labor - cheap cost, big rewards to the owners of these for-profit prisons. If memory serves DICK CHENEY has money in for-profit prisons. We MUST make for-profit prisons illegal no matter how bad a state CLAIMS their financial situation to be.

What is REALLY going on here is an attempt to privatize EVERYTHING. Capitalism is in its death-throws here in the USA. All our jobs are gone. The money is gone. So where will the rich and powerful go to get money now? PRIVATIZATION - they will buy the precious few public jobs we have left. They have been coming for the prisons for years - now they are coming for the schools and teachers.

This is beyond not good. We could easily just TAX THE RICH like 81% of Americans think we should. But our government has been bought - especially the republicans. :(

People best stand up soon - before it's too late.

[liberal N proud]

16. BINGO

All the cuts to the budgets from federal on down are aimed at privatizing everything from the roads we use to the sewers under them and the schools. All private and for profit.