Privatization is Not the Solution for Bad Government

We have heard too often that our schools would be more effective and our prisons could be run more efficiently if they were each turned over to private for-profit corporations.  Both of these solutions are fiscally and morally corrupt.  Privatization is sought as a solution when either the government has failed in its job or it is perceived that someone else could do a better job.

We are told that privatization is the answer to several problems in government.  Privatize our highway system, privatize our Veterans Administration, privatize Social Security, privatize Medicare, privatize our schools, privatize our prisons, the list goes on.  I have watched or read enough crime solving mysteries to know that the answer can most often be found by following the money.

After over 40 years of working in government at federal, state, and county levels, I have seen that government can be efficient when properly motivated.  I have also seen how inefficient government can be when there is no incentive to do better.  I have seen where, when privatization is set as a goal, the current government operation may be made to fail through insufficient funding, poor management, or just edicts from on high.

In the list above, only schools and prisons stand out where significant effort has already resulted in examples that can be studied.  Of these two, the privatization of prisons would seem to be the epitome of bad decision making.  The moral dilemma would seem to be most obvious, but it is often overlooked due to the nature of the abuse since it is directed mostly at criminals.  We inherently have little sympathy for those we have decided should be punished or kept away from society.

Prison reform is beyond the scope of this analysis.  I have previously put forth my opinions on the matter in my blog entry on Prison Reform.  Suffice it to say here that the US, with less than 5% of the world’s population, has 22% of the world prison population within its borders.  Our prison population has grown at rates exceeding 500% over the last 40 years, even as property crimes and violent crimes have dropped significantly.  The United States has the largest prison population in the world.  Even more than Russia and China.  Our “War on Drugs,” started in 1986, has increased our prison population from around 300,000 then, to over 2 million today.  If you read today’s headlines it is easy to see that this War on Drugs has not been effective and the situation is as bad, if not worse, than it has ever been.

2016 World Incarceration Rate per 100,000

We must however remember the “prime directive,” follow the money.  GEO Group (formerly a Florida based division of Wackenhut) and CoreCivic (formerly the Corrections Corporation of America or CCA), together represent 75% of the private prison operations in the US.  Both made large donations to the Trump campaign.  One conspicuous donation to Trump came a day after the Obama Justice Department decided to eliminate the use of these private prison facilities.  Now with Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and his new insistence on mandatory minimum sentences, these two corporations stand to make back the political investments (called contributions after Citizens United) many fold.  In fact, private prison stock prices spiked with Trump’s election.  CCA jumped 34% and GEO Group went up by 18%.

A New Form of Slavery

Society’s purpose in incarceration has traditionally been for public protection, rehabilitation, and punishment for a crime.  With private prisons profiting from higher head counts, any prisoner rehabilitation and reduction in recidivism that might result from that effort, is counter-intuitive.  There was even the 2011 case of Judge Mark Ciavarella being convicted of a “cash for kids” scheme where private juvenile detention operators paid him for harsh sentences to maintain their populations.  He sentenced around 3,000 children; many with no crime committed, and took in $2.2 million in bribes. 

Judge Ciavarella (front left) Confronted by Mother (pointing finger) of One of His Victims
Her Son Committed Suicide, Ciavarella is Serving 28 Years in Prison

There was a second case that involved Judge Michael T. Conahan.  Judge Conahan, after becoming the Luzerne County Pennsylvania president judge, used his power to stop funding the county-run facility and then started sending all juvenile defendants to a new private for-profit facility.  He then set up a phony receivables scheme to defraud taxpayers and generate kickbacks from the owner.  He was later connected with Judge Ciavarella in the "kids for cash" scheme.

Michael Conahan, Former Judge
Serving 17.5 Years 

The GEO Group lost several contracts in Mississippi after bribery and kickback schemes resulted in criminal prosecution of public officials.  The GEO Group had at least $1 billion in contracts in Mississippi.  The federal investigation was titled Operation Mississippi Hustle.  Charges against GEO Group have ranged from wrongful death, slavery, bribery, deplorable facility conditions, and lack of medical attention.  Follow the money.  There is little incentive to operate clean and safe facilities, dedicated to rehabilitation when appropriate, where your sole motivation is profit. 

It is true that government-run facilities have also had their failures, but much of this can be attributed to lack of funding, lack of training, and lack of oversight.  Prisons should be efficiently run by federal, state, and local governments without a profit motive.  Private prisons have but one motive, PROFIT$.  They are driven to keep beds full.  With crime rates down, prison populations should be drastically reduced through reforms in our criminal justice systems.  Prison operations should always be a cost center in a government budget and never a profit center for private individuals and corporations.

Follow the Money

Schools are another matter, but with certain similarities.  As a business major, it is simple to see that the cost of educating a student should be easy to predict.  You have the cost of facilities, materials, and staff, and a common objective in both public and private environments.  The money comes from a single source, tax dollars.  The only obvious difference in the cost of this operation is the added expense of coming up with a profit in the case of private industry.  Since the costs of facilities, materials, and staff should be nearly identical in both scenarios, the profit needed in private operations has to come from a reduction in one of the other areas.

Just Like the Great Wall

Again, we need to follow the money.  Private schools would like to take the “cream” of the student population, educate them, and make a profit.  Public schools, stuck with whatever remains, would be forced to operate with diminished resources and compete on a not-now-even playing field.  It would be costly to have the two entities compete on a level field.  Both would have to serve in poor neighborhoods with limited parental support, language barriers, and all of the disadvantages the public schools face on a daily basis.  While I can see private schools vying for the so-called “nice neighborhoods,” their incentive to invest in those other areas of our communities that might bring difficulties, I find elusive. 

Perhaps supporters of school privatization could prove their mettle by selectively taking on the lower ranked schools and improving on their current outcomes.  In Florida, they pioneered the A-F grading system for schools.  Maybe a private school could come into a D or F rated school and bring its standing up by a grade or two.  They would need to do this of course, without spending more money than that which is available in the current budget for that school.  That could turn a few heads.  I won’t hold my breath on this one because, if history is any indication, the private schools are only interested in fast/easy money.

Family Donated over $200 Million to Republican Election Pacs
Rewarded with Appointment and Narrow Confirmation

Our current president is a product of the best education his wealthy parents could buy, and look how he spells things like honored, unprecedented, and my favorite heal, in the tweets below.  The last tweet even had "decades" in its singular form before he edited it.  He still missed the word heal, twice.  Why doesn't Betsy DeVos teach him how to activate spell check on his device so his tweets don't make him look like a twit.

Our schools need drastic improvements, but privatization is not the answer.  Education should be a priority for our nation and not just for those who can afford better schools.  Teachers need a living wage.  School facilities need maintenance.  Operational budgets need to include all the books and supplies needed to provide a fair education for all.  Federal funds need to supplement local tax dollars especially where poorer communities lack the tax base to provide adequately for their citizens.   A properly educated population is a benefit for everyone in the country.   Our current under-funded education system is a national problem.  Privatization is not the solution to that problem. 

Privatization, The Grand Scheme