Prison Spending Outpaces All but Medicaid

By SOLOMON MOOREPublished: March 2, 2009

“One in every 31 adults, or 7.3 million Americans, is in prison, on parole or probation, at a cost to the states of $47 billion in 2008, according to a new study.MultimediaGraphicPrison Boom

Criminal correction spending is outpacing budget growth in education, transportation and public assistance, based on state and federal data. Only Medicaid spending grew faster than state corrections spending, which quadrupled in the past two decades, according to the report Monday by the Pew Center on the States, the first breakdown of spending in confinement and supervision in the past seven years.”

Who profits? google ALEC / Coughlin / High Ground / CCA / Senseman / SB1070 / KS Kris Koblach / brewer / russell pearce…?

Who loses? The taxpayers, the people, families and children.

It’s quite obvious to those who study the history of 4 decades of failed public policy that has decimated America that the same rich people that own the prisons, fund illegal drug running into the US and then lobby congress for tougher drug laws, perfect business cycle for them.

If this wasn’t true then why do the county attorneys and prosecutors association fight any meaningful sentencing reform that would save taxpayers millions of $$’s as other conservative state are doing, like Texas, Mississippi, etc.

Why is Chuck Coughlin / Paul Senseman, High Ground lobbyists (CCA) driving the state’s public policy for the Governor?

“By the numbers: The U.S.’s growing for-profit detention industry” | The Raw Story

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/20/by-the-numbers-the-u-s-’s-growing-for-profit-detention-industry/

The war on our people …. the U.S. #1 Jailer in the world. Unconscionable in the “land of the free”.

“The House I Live” Award winning documentary at Sundance. The war on our people. In Official Trailer #1 (2012) – YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0atL1HSwi8

‘War on Drugs’ Fueled by Private Prison Industry Video: Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki Says

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/crime/video-filmmaker-eugene-jarecki-says-war-drugs-fueled-private-prison-industry

excerpt: “On Tuesday night’s ‘Daily Show,’ filmmaker Eugene Jarecki explained how the so-called ‘war on drugs’ was fueled by private prisons, which are owned by corporations (video below).
Jarecki’s new documentary, ‘The House I Live In,’ shows how America’s war on drugs results in mass imprisonment, financial gain for prison owners and big money for police officers who clock mountains of overtime with drug arrests, reports RawStory.com.
Jarecki told host Jon Stewart: “We are seeing places where the extraordinary power of corporations in this country, and the unholy alliance they have with those in Congress, is destroying everything… There are private prisons all over this country that rely for their own survival on the incarceration of our fellow human beings.”

“I went to prison-industrial trade shows where I saw people who literally make their entire life’s work out of selling you the better stun gun.”

Jarecki added: “This has been such a disaster. Forty-years, a trillion dollars spent, 45 million arrests, and yet drugs are cheaper, purer, more available today than ever before.”

The private prisons that operate in Arizona under contract with the state, including the one in Kingman, generally operate safely and efficiently. If they cost a little more, it is because they are safer for prisoners, and I am happy to pay a little more for that service. They have no control over how long a prisoner is sentenced to prison; the courts have that power. The state monitors (working for DOC who were supposed to monitor contract compliance) utterly failed in their jobs which ultimately resulted in the Kingman tragedy. Much of the blame for that incident must be placed on the Arizona Department of Corrections for not doing their job, as required, to monitor their own contracts.

Issacs is naive and uninformed.