{"id":16578,"date":"2016-08-19T00:05:04","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T00:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=16578"},"modified":"2016-08-19T00:05:29","modified_gmt":"2016-08-19T00:05:29","slug":"feds-nix-private-prisons-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=16578","title":{"rendered":"Feds nix private prisons … good!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"prisons\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have long disliked\u00a0the idea of privatizing the prison system.<\/p>\n

Whether it’s state prisons or throughout the federal system, the notion of turning the incarceration of convicted criminals over to for-profit business simply strikes me as wrong.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Justice Department has decided to end its relationship with private prison companies … to which I offer a hearty cheer.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/us\/justice-department-says-it-will-end-use-of-private-prisons\/ar-BBvMrqX?ocid-ansmsnnews11<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey simply do not provide the same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the Department\u2019s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same level of safety and security,\u201d Deputy Attorney General\u00a0Sally Yates wrote.<\/p>\n

I am not going to challenge any of that here.<\/p>\n

I simply want to say — as I’ve noted before over many years in journalism — that my opposition to private prisons rests mainly as a matter of principle.<\/p>\n

We ask our police departments to protect us from criminals; we pay officers’ salaries with our tax money. We ask the state and county district attorneys to prosecute suspects; we pay them for that, too. We then demand justice in our courts; and we pay judges’ salaries as well.<\/p>\n

Then, when criminal defendants are convicted, we are\u00a0able to farm out their incarceration to private businesses? The way I see it — and I’m open to discussion on this — the state has an obligation to finish the job that public entities began back when the suspect is arrested and charged with committing a crime.<\/p>\n

That job ought to include keeping these individuals locked up. It also ought to include full public scrutiny of the job they are doing — on our behalf.<\/p>\n

Texas\u00a0hands over\u00a0a fair amount of its incarceration responsibilities to private firms. I don’t expect the state to follow the feds’ lead in getting rid of private prisons.<\/p>\n

However, I always can hope.<\/p>\n\n

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I have long disliked\u00a0the idea of privatizing the prison system. Whether it’s state prisons or throughout the federal system, the notion of turning the incarceration of convicted criminals over to for-profit business simply strikes me as wrong. The U.S. Justice Department has decided to end its relationship with private prison companies … to which I … Continue reading Feds nix private prisons … good!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[3745,4530,5046],"class_list":["post-16578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-news","category-national-news","tag-private-prisons","tag-tdcj","tag-us-justice-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16578"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16584,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16578\/revisions\/16584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}