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.
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| 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%.
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| 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.
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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.
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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.
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| 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.
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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.
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| Privatization, The Grand Scheme |
