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Comment by phaedradiana | Hacker News Reader

We agree on general concern about for profit prisons. Diana and I met working at a non profit. She founded the Ella Baker Center and I worked in the labor movement. However, we created a company with those values because we believed this put us in the best position to scale the solutions we believed in.

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> However, we created a company with those values because we believed this put us in the best position to scale the solutions we believed in.

You could just have created a non-profit and reinvest all money - way easier to scale. Values mean shit to the shareholders who invested in you :) They care about returns. I can only image what kind of monsters are born when blindly hunting for profit. Actually, I don't have to imagine, I just need to look at the current for-profit rehabilitation industry. Not saying you're the same, you're probably not but you will at some point yield decision power to the for-profit interest of the company. And let's assume this picks up and becomes immensely successful. What's stopping the company from hiring lobbyists to support legislation which keeps people 'in the system'?

Addressing some concerns here (which I don't think will go away as you become more successful), consider registering as a Public Benefit Corporation or at least announcing that that is in your game plan.

Ref: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-benefit_corporation

For background:

A Public Benefit Corporation makes it explicit legally for corporations to act morally, ethically and responsibly in regard to society, the environment, the natural world and the world at large.

The Certificate of Incorporation must list the company's altruistic goals and overall mission statement. However, in every other manner, the structure of a Public Benefit Corporation can mirror the structure of any type of Corporation.

This is a pretty weak line of reasoning IMHO. There are plenty of non-profit organizations which scale very large and address large societal problems. For instance, most hospitals.

Why couldn't the same thing be done to solve this problem, especially given your concern for eliminating perverse incentives in the justice system?

Are you offering hospitals as a good or as a bad example?

What is your general concern about for-profit prisons?

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