August 14, 2011
Beware for-profit justice
When you march up to the front gate of a medium-security prison and find no one, you've got a problem. When you ring the alert button and no one answers, that's a problem, too. When you shine a flashlight at the security camera and no one notices, that's trouble.
This rapture-like scenario is not hypothetical. As The Post's Dara Kam reported, it's what state officials found after arriving at South Bay Correctional Institution, a private prison, for a surprise inspection in June. As Florida readies one of the largest prison privatizations in history, it's hard to ignore the implications.
Next year, Florida plans to privatize at least 13 prisons in the southern third of the state, shuttering Belle Glade's Glades Correctional Institution in the process. This overhaul supposedly will save the state at least $19 million a year. But the price of any savings could prove high. For while proof that private prisons cut long-term costs is still scant, there's ample evidence that their existence invites corporations to manipulate the criminal justice system for their own gain...
LINK - PalmBeachpost.com
