May 4, 2011
California and private prisons
Private prisons are making subtle advances into California–albeit via the back roads. This week, an initial group of California inmates arrived at GEO Group’s North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, Michigan–part of a larger strategy initiated by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to relieve some of the overcrowding in California’s prisons.
For decades, private prisons have been a contentious issue in California. While states like Texas and Florida have embraced privatization as a cost-effective supplement to state-run institutions, California has resisted. Not that private prisons haven’t tried to make gains into one of the country’s largest correctional markets. A foray into housing low-level offenders in Community Correctional Facilities run by private companies was discontinued in 2007 after massive lobbying by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. The Correctional Corporation of America tried building a prison in California City on speculation, hoping to take in overflow from the state system, only to sit vacant until it obtained a contract to house federal prisoners...
LINK - KALWNews.org
