Michael from Muckrock writes, "MuckRock's crowdfunding campaign to fund a series of FOIA requests and an investigation into America's Private Prison industry is in its last weeks, and the project's reporter, Beryl Lipton, has put together a list factchecking the industry's primary talking points, ranging from how they end up costing tax payers more than traditional prisons to how the industry actively works to build up the market by lobbying against policies that would reduce sentences — and their margins."
3. They work for the government, so even though they’re not open to public inspection, the courts and the oversight committees keep them in check.
Whenever the word “inefficient” is lobbed at the government, reasonable defenses make themselves scarce. No one would argue that Uncle Sam is the most organized, most thoughtful, best man for the job — enter private business.
But just because the government has hired someone to watch over a prison contract doesn’t mean that so much will come of any wrongdoings they find. Consider in Kingman, where an inspection of the prison noted that the facility was deficient in multiple areas.
The following month, there was a riot, and the Governor ordered an investigation into the facility, ultimately declaring that the operator, Management and Training Corporation, would be losing its contract. But the problems that it had — staffing vacancies, improper medical treatment, shoddy record keeping — were noted even before they bubbled up to the surface.
Five myths of the private prison industry
[Beryl Lipton/Muckrock]
