Now ain't that a shame.

Good headline subby.

Hmmm, I'm betting that place would be a good place to be during a zombie apocalypse. Probably has good visibility all around, fencing to keep out the zombies. Cells to quarantine new survivors, the ability to lock down areas if any infestation does get in, its own power source, etc. It's just a matter of having enough supplies on hand to outlast the worst of the outbreak.

Hilarious. The law of unintended side effects caught up with idiot governments and the paranoid fools that elected them. You could always use them as low income housing / senior centres / libraries. Or you could turn them into seats of government and town halls to remind all of their folly.

It's the same situation in Florida. Remember former President George W. Bush's faith-based program guy, John Iulio? In the 1980s and 1990s, he told Florida to get ready for a tidal wave of youth crime by pouring tax money into youth correctional facilities.

State legislators went nuts, and gutted education for the flood of youthful predators expected to arrive in the legal system and get sentenced to long terms. The state also built lots of prisons for adults.

Now, granted, there are plenty of people who need to go away for a long time, but not as many as they thought there would be. Lots of prisons in rural areas are at risk of closing now because Florida has an inmate shortage, too. Probably what's needed is to make more things illegal, like commenting on Fark.com posts, so people can serve a prison term and keep the economy humming.

And the state also fell for the illegal immigrant detention scam. In one county I lived in, they built a whole wing of the county jail on spec, betting ICE would be storing pre-deportation immigrants there. Never happened. It's still empty and unused.

As usual, we Americans have fallen down on the job by not becoming criminals at a high enough rate.

vsafuto1: It's the same situation in Florida. Remember former President George W. Bush's faith-based program guy, John Iulio? In the 1980s and 1990s, he told Florida to get ready for a tidal wave of youth crime by pouring tax money into youth correctional facilities.

State legislators went nuts, and gutted education for the flood of youthful predators expected to arrive in the legal system and get sentenced to long terms. The state also built lots of prisons for adults.

Now, granted, there are plenty of people who need to go away for a long time, but not as many as they thought there would be. Lots of prisons in rural areas are at risk of closing now because Florida has an inmate shortage, too. Probably what's needed is to make more things illegal, like commenting on Fark.com posts, so people can serve a prison term and keep the economy humming.

And the state also fell for the illegal immigrant detention scam. In one county I lived in, they built a whole wing of the county jail on spec, betting ICE would be storing pre-deportation immigrants there. Never happened. It's still empty and unused.

As usual, we Americans have fallen down on the job by not becoming criminals at a high enough rate.

Speak for yourself, as an American I'm 100% against all these private prisons.

FTA: "Its promise of creating 195 jobs and a $5 million annual boost to the local economy..."

What do prisons produce that adds to the economy? I'm seriously interested in hearing the sales pitch offered to the tax payers.

"It'll generate five million a year. *cough*thatyou'llbepaying*cough*"

BonesJackson: FTA: "Its promise of creating 195 jobs and a $5 million annual boost to the local economy..."

What do prisons produce that adds to the economy? I'm seriously interested in hearing the sales pitch offered to the tax payers.

They add jobs to small towns that otherwise wouldn't have any. While having lots of people imprisoned is bad for the economy overall, it does help the area where the prison is.

BonesJackson: What do prisons produce that adds to the economy? I'm seriously interested in hearing the sales pitch offered to the tax payers.

Jobs, visitors, prisons also need various goods and services.

Jobs aren't a product. They can lead to production, but in the case of prisons I'm not seeing how.

Maybe Texas and Florida will tighten up their "Stand Your Ground" laws so they can get some new convictions coming in.
And what's with the drug treatment programs? There are cells needing to be filled now. That was ok during the boon times but the Inmate bubble has burst. We've all got to tighten our belts and start incarcerating again.

Good.

Let them serve as warnings to other municipalities. A for-profit justice system is scary and the swindlers involved should really be on the inside of these bars. Fark 'em.

ajgeek: I'm going to ask a really dumb question. So you can Muntz me at your leisure.

We're in a recession, jobless rates are steadily higher than they have been in the previous 3 decades or so I'm told. I'm also told that recessions and depressions increase crime rates. I'm also told that gun laws increase crime rates, as criminals prefer unarmed victims (obviously). Given that this is Texas, the last point might be moot, but still...

We have a prisoner shortage? What the hell is going on here?

Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution - having to actually pay workers makes business too expensive.

ajgeek: I'm going to ask a really dumb question. So you can Muntz me at your leisure.

There are actually a lot of people trying to figure that out... and take credit for it.

What's Behind America's Falling Crime Rate? (new window)

ajgeek: We have a prisoner shortage? What the hell is going on here?

Because just as we started building lots of new prisons, the rates per 100,000 population started dropping for all major crime categories.

I hate it when we don't have enough prisoners to fill all the prisons.

/Impressive subby.

Prison industrial complex, just like the war on drugs, is a government jobs program.

Good, best news I have heard in a long time.
I hope this experiment fails and it is not soon forgotten.

Anyone else catch this?

Completed almost two years ago to house 1,100 state convicts who never arrived, the $35 million lockup sits empty at the edge of the town of about 2,300 people.

A town of 2,300 people built a jail to hold 1,100 convicts? WTF? I get that they are coming in from other parts of the state, but a 2:1 inmate to townspeople ratio is asking for trouble.

Think I will go there and pitch my monorail idea

To The Escape Zeppelin!: BonesJackson: FTA: "Its promise of creating 195 jobs and a $5 million annual boost to the local economy..."

What do prisons produce that adds to the economy? I'm seriously interested in hearing the sales pitch offered to the tax payers.

They add jobs to small towns that otherwise wouldn't have any. While having lots of people imprisoned is bad for the economy overall, it does help the area where the prison is.

It helps the economy if it doesn't have the cost burden of human predators out looting and killing the population. Lock one up and all the crimes he would have committed vanish, plus you diminish the costs that society incurs in defending against him: insurance, alarm systems, cops, courts, replacement of what he stole, medical costs for those he hurts, etc.

Cry me a farking river you farking prison-industrial parasitic assholes. Faaaaaaark you.

(ahem)

Nice headline.

Here's my question. In this era if NIMBY-responses to things like prisons, dumps, and power plants, why aren't we filling these "underpopulated" prisons with inmates from the areas of the country that have overpopulation issues?

I mean, if you have a prison in D.C. that is running at 120%* capacity, and a prison in Texas that is at 80% capacity, doesn't it make more sense to relocate the excess prisoners than to build more prisons in the already beleaguered area?

Is this too much like common sense to work?

Why not? That's how Austria was founded.

BigLuca: Why not? That's how Austria was founded.

It's a shame Schwarzenegger escaped.

/Not really.
//Odds on how long it is before 'Running Man' really is on TV?

reverendsaintjay: Here's my question. In this era if NIMBY-responses to things like prisons, dumps, and power plants, why aren't we filling these "underpopulated" prisons with inmates from the areas of the country that have overpopulation issues?

I mean, if you have a prison in D.C. that is running at 120%* capacity, and a prison in Texas that is at 80% capacity, doesn't it make more sense to relocate the excess prisoners than to build more prisons in the already beleaguered area?

Is this too much like common sense to work?

Are you serious? How cheap do you think it is to transport inmates from D.C to rural Texas? D.C. inmates may not even want to go to Texas and would file suit to stop it. Inmates may have ongoing appeals and family visitation rights It's a hell of a lot more complicated than you make it out to be. It wouldn't be practical on a large scale over large distances.

BigLuca: Why not? That's how Austria was founded.



/Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

BonesJackson: Jobs aren't a product. They can lead to production, but in the case of prisons I'm not seeing how.

My workplace used to bus them in by the dozen. Factory lines aren't picky. If they're designed right, thinking really won't be a criteria. The worker exists to do things which haven't been automated yet due to obscurity of the task (expressed as a % of takt and frequency of necessity per takt). It's dehumanizing, but so is the rest of a prisoner's "existence."

no shortage of criminals

insufficient prosecution of gangbanging trash

coupled

with wrecked economies that can't pay for locked up convicts

So all we have to do is illegalize abortion, cutting back on education and start putting lead back into everything and we'll have those prison cells filled in no time.

dang

sure,

would

you

quit

with the

pretentious

double spacing???????????????????????????????????????????

Best thing, forever?

LemonYellowSun: reverendsaintjay: Here's my question. In this era if NIMBY-responses to things like prisons, dumps, and power plants, why aren't we filling these "underpopulated" prisons with inmates from the areas of the country that have overpopulation issues?

I mean, if you have a prison in D.C. that is running at 120%* capacity, and a prison in Texas that is at 80% capacity, doesn't it make more sense to relocate the excess prisoners than to build more prisons in the already beleaguered area?

Is this too much like common sense to work?

Are you serious? How cheap do you think it is to transport inmates from D.C to rural Texas? D.C. inmates may not even want to go to Texas and would file suit to stop it. Inmates may have ongoing appeals and family visitation rights It's a hell of a lot more complicated than you make it out to be. It wouldn't be practical on a large scale over large distances.

I think that transporting prisoners from any point A in the country to any point B would be a heck of a lot cheaper than building a new prison in any point C in the country. Especially when point C is in an area where the population density is high enough that the prison overcrowding is a problem.

It is my opinion that once you are convicted you lose the right to have what you 'want' mean a damn thing, but it's a good point about the family visitation, I didn't think about that. Now that I have, it doesn't change my stance, going to jail is supposed to be a bad thing, a deterrent. I have a brother-in-law that doesn't mind going to jail right now because he knows which facility he'll wind up in, and he's got friends in there. If the possibility existed that he might wind up in Bumfark, Egypt the next time he screwed up, he might think twice about his available options.

reverendsaintjay: I think that transporting prisoners from any point A in the country to any point B would be a heck of a lot cheaper than building a new prison in any point C in the country. Especially when point C is in an area where the population density is high enough that the prison overcrowding is a problem.

It is my opinion that once you are convicted you lose the right to have what you 'want' mean a damn thing, but it's a good point about the family visitation, I didn't think about that. Now that I have, it doesn't change my stance, going to jail is supposed to be a bad thing, a deterrent. I have a brother-in-law that doesn't mind going to jail right now because he knows which facility he'll wind up in, and he's got friends in there. If the possibility existed that he might wind up in Bumfark, Egypt the next time he screwed up, he might think twice about his available options.

It makes some sense that California's hideously overcrowded prisons could be relieved by ones in rural Texas, but they'd have to send enough prisoners that the entire thing could be put into operation.

Really, a lot of rural Texas is simply decaying and losing population, and they're trying to stop it with boneheaded schemes instead of dissolving a county or two that don't have that many people anymore. (Even though Texas has a lot of very large cities, it has a lot of counties with barely anybody in them, but money is still spent on administration.)

YixilTesiphon: It makes some sense that California's hideously overcrowded prisons could be relieved by ones in rural Texas, but they'd have to send enough prisoners that the entire thing could be put into operation.

Really, a lot of rural Texas is simply decaying and losing population, and they're trying to stop it with boneheaded schemes instead of dissolving a county or two that don't have that many people anymore. (Even though Texas has a lot of very large cities, it has a lot of counties with barely anybody in them, but money is still spent on administration.)

As I understand it, California's prisons are overcrowded partly because there is so much legal resistance to sending prisoners out of state. Basically, the prisoner has to agree to being sent out of state for it to happen. Otherwise it's too expensive to fight each battle in court. We've had a huge shiat-fight going on here for more than a decade about our prison population, and the issue is not going to go away until judges stop sending people to jail for every little offense. Our three-strikes law need to go away, too. What a cluster-fark that has turned out to be.

You're correct about rural West Texas losing population, though that's not unique to Texas. Practically every rural county on the Great Plains from the Mexican border to the Canadian is losing population. I read one study a while back that claimed that as a whole they are losing about 2% of their population a year. Basically, most of the kids leave town for the city when they graduate high school and never move back. There are plenty of exceptions, of course, but driving around those areas on the back roads is like driving through an endless series of semi-ghost towns. Eerie.

Headline is trolly, but cute. +1 Internets.