Down Under, More Humane Private Prisons

If only Australia were as concerned with the refugees it keeps on remote islands like Nauru, in inhuman conditions.

With health care guaranteed mental health might improve along with with physical health making the prisons a bit less crowded. If public schools were a priority children would get attention to mental and behavior problems and early attention might also keep a few young people out of prisons. If minimum wage increased it would give a few more precious dollars to those living close to poverty and that is a stabilizing influence. If more federal budget went to the middle and lower class trying to make ends meet and much less to corporations and the rich who don't need it and dot care, the whole society would become much more stable and much less prone to unrest, violence etc., if we had sensible gun laws bringing us more in line with the rest of the civilized world, there would be far fewer gun crimes and less people in prison. And so on.

Methinks you are being too generous to us as Australians, Lauren. The state that has a history of installing more genuinely socially-minded (Labour party) governments, i.e. Victoria has made the changes you describe. NSW with a history of corrupt Labour governments and right-wing Liberal party (conservative) governments pays lip service but acts in ways that increases recidivism. WA and the NT still have policies that brutalise and sometimes kill inmates.

I used to play a video game where I had to manage a private prison and it helped me understand a lot about the issue. Originally you got money based on the amount of prisoners you took in, nothing else. So I actively took in as many people as possible and stuffed them into tiny cells. I then actually caused the prisoners to kill each other, so I'd have more space for even more prisoners. Eventually the people who made the game started giving rewards for lowering recidivism. And they penalized me for letting prisoners die. So now that I *had* to care, I implemented large rehabilitation programs. The people who run private prisons are playing a real life video game of capitalism. Their goal is to make the number of dollars they have go as high as possible. And if rehabilitation makes them more money, they'll do it.

Judging by the comments I don’t think many of us care much about the treatment of criminals and long as they’re locked up far away from the rest of us...... Try another subject.

The for-profit prison industry in the U.S. has bribed and defrauded its way to prosperity for decades. Top executives make over a million dollars a month. Employees are paid the bare minimum to make it appear that their facilities are adequately staffed. Monitors are paid off and officials of local, state and federal government have been compromised. The executives have shoveled boatloads of campaign contributions to Trump and his ilk. Just last month, four Louisiana contractors and bagmen were indicted for paying bribes to Mississippi's ex-Director of Corrections. The main reason the industry may appear somewhat more competent in Australia and New Zealand is because their employees are unionized. It's difficult to fire them for asserting their workplace rights or for whistleblowing. They're paid far better. The privateers Down Under tend to retain more staff who by virtue of legitimate background screening, pre-employment and in-service training and experience are more professional.

Australia and New Zealand are not hindered by the American mental deficiencies that are a legacy of our Puritan heritage. That heritage includes the belief that if a person engages in antisocial behavior, the only legitimate remedy is ever harsher punishment. No matter the question, the answer is always the same: the individual hasn’t been punished enough. One need never consider mental health, education, poverty, unemployment or any other social ill. Likewise, the mind-blowing increase in suicide and drug overdose deaths can all probably be explained by the failure of government authorities to adequately punish these miscreants. If they had all been subjected to appropriate levels of punishment, they would have blossomed into obedient and docile citizens. As long as the 1% can continue to convince the Puritan sheep in America that we’re on the right track with our Punishment Narrative, the millions of dollars in profits will continue rolling in.

Recidivism in the US is a huge problem. According to a recent article in HuffPo, inmates released from state prisons have a five-year recidivism rate of 76.6%, while comparable federal prisoners released have a 44.7% re-arrest rate after five years. Over a period of 5 or 6 decades foundations and state/federal governments have spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting psychological and sociological research on how to reduce recidivism, all with little meaningful effect. It is therefore ridiculous to suggest that US private prisons, which already skimp on inmate food and services because they must make a profit for their owners/shareholders, could possibly (or would) be able to reduce recidivism. The article says that 9% of US prisoners are in private prisons, many fewer than suggested by the liberal media, which complain incessantly that private prisons and the profit motive are responsible for incarcerating so many minority lawbreakers. Providing post-release services to help prisoners transition into crime-free lives seems to make sense, but would add enormously to costs, making US prisoners even more expensive than they already are. (And why aren't existing employment and social service agencies in the US already doing this?) It's ironic that Australia, originally founded as a dumping ground for England's worst criminals, would now be among the leaders in efforts to reduce recidivism. (And there are no more empty lands to which to exile criminals.)

Culturally, when it comes to crime and punishment, there is a massive chasm between Australia and the USA. Incarceration rates, lengths of sentences, the death penalty and treatment of drug addiction as a crime are all examples of this. In these areas, and many others, the treatment of criminals in the USA seems downright primitive and dehumanizing. And it would seem enough of society in the USA are comfortable enough with the status quo that this will continue. And, with a huge level of poverty in the USA, guaranteed to continue with a minimum wage which limits education opportunities, crime and recidivism rates seem almost guaranteed . Don’t kid yourself America. Until you can deal with these fundamental social issues, which would take decades of focused leadership to achieve, stick to what you do best. Sentencing guidelines based on one of your national sports, Old Testament style punishments, super-max prisons, and guaranteed recidivism. Wash, rinse repeat.

On behalf of every single person who may have ever had their family torn apart by our nation’s wonderfully unjust system of prisons already, take your private prison peddling and choke on it. “And prison companies are charged for what the government deems as unacceptable events like riots, escapes and unnatural deaths.” The government can’t prevent prison riots, escapes, or unnatural deaths. Are those “acceptable” when they happen in government-run prisons? The answer is “yes,” because The State is God.

Prisons for profit? What could possibly go wrong? What a brutal shift of moral obligation it is, knowing that a country or state is measured by how it treats its worst civilian. America is quickly becoming a failed state. And these, apparently, are the good times. The American prison system is yet another example of how not to have an enlightened civilization. Trump is obviously the most recognized current reason that prisons will get much worse before they have any hope of improving.

A recent report on Brisbane's Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, which is operated by GEO Group, revealed that it is overcrowded, increasingly violent and unsafe, including for the staff (see Mark Willacy and Alexandra Blucher, 'Inside Australia's 'powder keg' private prison', Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 20 June 2018). The GEO Group's impact on Australian society has been negative so far.

Were inmates being "humane" when they shot, bludgeoned, carjacked, and home invaded their victims? Please answer yes or no.

In America we don't believe in spending money on prisons or prisoners to make the former more humane places to serve a sentence or the latter less likely to return. We believe in brutalizing them, denying them any opportunity to be able to be rehabilitated in order to avoid returning to prison. Ask the average American on the street what s/he thinks about prisons and criminals and they'll probably say that they don't care. It's a mistake to make people in prison as miserable as possible. It's an even bigger mistake not to treat prisoners like human beings. Most are released back into the community. If they are released and angrier than they were before they were imprisoned it's almost a forgone conclusion that they will return to prison, especially if they cannot earn a living.

How it works here: Right-wing politicians establish street cred with "zero tolerance" tough talk on crime, mixing Old Testament style vengeance with a more subtle racial message. This meets with great approval and enthusiasm from their false-information voters. But their real agenda is to develop and feed the private prison-industrial complex, which like many other right-wing efforts has turned a public function into an avenue for vast private profits flowing from tax dollars. Politicians get votes, industry gets money, some of which flows back to the politicians, etc. Same old same old.