Firedoglake:
...Judge Greg Mathis recently made that point in an article discussing a suit against GEO Group – brought by dozens of family members of inmates at the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Jackson, Miss. The families contend that the corporation forces the prisoners – two thirds of whom are non-violent offenders – to live “in sub-standard conditions, where they are subject to excessive force from staff and are sexually preyed upon by other inmates and staff.” As Judge Mathis notes, one young man, 21-year old Mike McIntosh II, was so brutally injured in one incident that he now suffers from short-term memory loss and has lost the function of his right arm and right leg.
Moreover, the politicians pushing privatization are not honest with citizens. They make false claims about savings. In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich proposed selling five of the state’s prison properties, claiming the sale would bring in revenue of $200 million, with no facts or guarantees offered to the taxpayers.
Moreover, the politicians pushing privatization are not honest with citizens. They make false claims about savings. In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich proposed selling five of the state’s prison properties, claiming the sale would bring in revenue of $200 million, with no facts or guarantees offered to the taxpayers.
In fact, the real money was made by Kasich cronies who worked in cahoots with the prison privateers. As columnist Joe Hallet noted in the Columbus Dispatch last month: “Well before Kasich’s budget proposed privatizing five state prisons, his best friend, newly minted lobbyist Donald G. Thibaut, and two of the governor’s closest policy advisers, lobbying partners Robert F. Klaffky and Douglas J. Preisse, had signed up the nation’s two largest private prison operators as clients.”
If the budget crunch is not as bad as the Kasich administration first announced, there is no need to sell off state assets. Is Kasich just doing it to help out his friends?
