How for-profit prisons have become the biggest lobby no one is talking about

The point of my reply is that you said and then we tell them they can't vote in elections, which does exactly what it complains about. Hearing that they probably can vote is going to get more people to look into it than overstatements of the disenfranchisement.

If "We", as a "nation", elected pro slavery politicians, it wouldn't justify the owners of land and capital to enslave people.

This would be the moral equivalent to a belief that some religious groups hold: that "We" are all born sinners, we all deserve to go to hell, but by the grace of god (the state), we can repent (vote) and accept the next savior (presidential candidate).

Democracy, as you call it, is a religion based on the belief that elected groups of individuals have legitimate authority to totally violate basic human rights. In this case, an individual right not to be enslaved.

But, in reality, nobody has a legitimate authority to enslave another person. Voting is participating in the delusion that the state has legitimate moral authority to imbue unrighteous people with righteousness in the first place. They don't.

It doesn't matter if "well, we voted for it": the politicians, executives, as well as the employees and shareholders of these "sanctified" corporations are still morally responsible for their actions, and should be held accountable for their actions.

On the flip side, my county's jail offers yoga and fresh fruit daily.

I firmly believe that one of big drivers of recidivism is housing discrimination based on the mere presence of a criminal record.

EDIT: cleaned up a bad sentence

Obviously much, much better than them suffering layoffs. And I'l criticize the media again with their "if it bleeds, it leads" bias, how many in the US realize crime is down so much from that old peak?

The rules they put on paroles are beyond unfair. They might have made sense in the 50's, but so much has changed. We don't have jobs. We don't have any housing. The few guys I knew who got out of San Quentin were given $180, and dropped off at the bus station in San Rafael. (The ones with caring family did a little better than the single guys, but all of them went back eventually because of parole violations.)

Whenever I hear a state administrator explain our current parole system; I know he's lying to the public.

You were either not treated according to law, there's something you're forgetting to say, or the above info is incorrect: * no "alcohol lock" for a first time "BAC DWAI" * no license suspension for a first time "BAC DWAI".

Prison unions are a big problem, as well. They bring many of the same problems to the table. California's is a great example of just how easily these groups can manipulate the system for their benefit.

The state at least can be swayed by representatives and public initiative. As an entity, it doesn't exist only to turn a profit.

It isn't perfect, but handing the entire system over to people who only care about the bottom line will accelerate the problem.

Were we to abolish gov't and it's geographic monopolies on law and policing, then truly private prisons would both be way less common and nothing at all like what's talked about in the article.

Some of the statistics on crime are outdated but Benson's The Enterprise of Law is a great book to look at understanding the problem here.

Conditions were so terrible before the move for privatization in federal prisons (sometime in the 70's). With a move back toward that system (which would never happen because more politicians' and bureaucrats' pockets are being lined) you might not have quotas and the push for continued prohibition from this one little angle, but gov't is not a business[0], so the comparison to private hospitals or electric companies is faulty.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqoBZLSm1WA

I was on an involuntary ten day hold in Reno, Nevada because I told a shrink I planned to go camping in the desert. Not being from Reno myself, I was unaware that "camping in the desert" is a local euphemism for "committing suicide". It was of no use to point out that I had gone camping in the desert just the night before, nor that I have the Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge.

I was handcuffed then taken by a deputy to a hospital emergency room, where I refused to wear a hospital gown because "As a mental hospital patient, I have the right to wear my own clothes".

In reality I don't particularly care, I only say that to determine whether the staff knows that the laws are.

Some very, very angry man shouted "YOU'RE ON A HOLD! YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS!"

When I bluntly pointed out that the United States Supreme Court disagreed, they injected me with a massive dose of Haldol. That's widely considered one of the most-powerful antipsychotics. While I was not in any way symptomatic all the time, it is also powerfully sedating.

I don't know why but for some reason Haldol is largely ineffective on me. That really freaked them all out when I continued going on about my right to wear my own clothes, so they injected me again with a far higher dose.

You didn't overall. The idea of left and right politics is a false dichotomy and false mechanistic analogy, but I get what you are saying.

I take issue with even calling these prison co's "private". Corporatist is more accurate. To be truly private there would also not be monopolies on lawmaking... police and judges should all be privatized. Government should be abolished and politician should no longer be a job option.

Those companies who lobbied along with politicians for unjust laws, like punishment for putting any substance in my body so long as I harm none, all ought to be branded criminal and punished themselves. This is the position[0] of consistent, anarchist libertarianism, and those such as myself who hold these positions are not fans of Ayn Rand BTW[1].

[0] http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/b...

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIk5C2qsRH8

I suggested that he learn to write code then hang out his shingle as a self-employed consultant.

It turned out that he was already quite a good computer programmer as he was taught how while in prison. But even so he refused to consider self-employment because he was so down on himself.

While there are many reasons to pursue self-employment, among them is that one cannot find paying work any other way.

The reason prisons are commonly called "Penitentiaries" or "Correctional Institutes" is that they are not intended for punishment but to set their inmates onto a righteous path.

At least that was the stated intention at one time.

Because cutting off family support for these prisoners would make a bad situation worse?

There are many ways. Among the most popular these days are web and mobile analytics.

I did some consulting on a data visualization tool that was employed by one of the world's largest corporations to determine what the public had to say about its products. In that individual, specific case while I felt uncomfortable accepting the work I don't regard it as outright evil.

However I do regard it as evil for a political party to do the exact same thing.

What I learned about the way analytics are used led to my ardent effort to convince others to blackhole analytics servers. It's also the reason I don't list any of my favorite books or movies in my Facebook profile.

As far as I can tell, the most coherent philosophy of anarchy is "participatory democracy." Basically, if you want to be part of a society, you can take part. If you don't like it, you can leave.

The problem with this is that people are selfish. If I think that plunder and rape is okay, and the other people in my area don't want me plundering, then all I have to do is say, "Well, I'm not participating in your democracy! I can do as I please!"

In response, they have two options - let me be, (which is undesirable, as they're right next to me, and I'm going to attack them) or stop me by force. If they do the latter, guess what - they're a government! A crude, ad hoc, mob-driven, vigilante justice-condoning government, but a government nonetheless. And now we're right back to where we started, with the typical abuse of power, injustice, and so on. Probably with a lot more than what we started with, as infant governments tend to be messy when dealing with problems.

So, the only way that anarchy can work is if everyone is benevolent. If that existed, then the government would be awesome and we wouldn't be trying to get rid of it.

This has the result that lots of mentally ill inmates - including myself - land in Western State Hospital at a cost to the taxpayer of $550.00 per day.

I've been taking psychiatric medicine since 1985; the very most I have ever paid for my happy pills was $1000.00 per month.

Because the contractor wants to save perhaps ten dollars per month, every mentally ill inmate goes cold turkey on their medicine when they are detained. Every prescriber I have ever met adamantly urged me never to stop my medicine suddenly. There are all kinds of ways that could lead to death but in my particular case I find myself in a very expensive nuthouse rather than an inexpensive slammer.

I don't know that a degree is specifically regard to get a job as a police officer but I do know that most cops have degrees.

It's a pretty shitty job, mostly due to the work-life balance, but it pays pretty well for a job that doesn't require a college degree. A guard who puts in enough overtime can make 100k+ pretty easily, and that's in areas that aren't very expensive. After all, many prisons are in the middle of nowhere. For every San Quentin, there are a lot more Vacavilles.

Source: Girlfriend worked as a corrections nurse for a few years at the state prison and county jail levels. That's another shitty but well-paying job.

That is, one cannot simply request that a law be struck down as unconstitutional. Loosely speaking one must actually violate the law then face all the consequences in hopes that one's appeal will be heard in the Supreme Court.

It happens all the time that one loses over really petty things, such as that one's case could have been settled by a state court. While SCOTUS regards its job as deciding Constitutional issues it is also reluctant to make any decision that it does not really have to make.

The state/counties already tax the hell out of the plant (roughly 23% in my county). The state always finds ways to make money off their citizenry. This created a market for a less expensive product that's also conveniently illegal.

The dispensaries can't open bank accounts and are forced to maintain multi-million dollar cash stockpiles. They are so afraid of being robbed, they hire ex-military to travel around town with them armed with semi-automatic rifles [1]. Isn't this asking for more violent crime?

[0] http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/06/26/col...

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/business/marijuana-industr...