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New Hampshire House Votes To Prohibit Private Prisons

poweRob

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Major kudos to the New Hampshire House. Hopefully this will push through the rest of the state government and then go viral to other states.


House votes to prohibit prison privatization, bill moves to Senate for review

The House on Thursday voted to forbid the executive branch from privatizing the state prison system, saying that to do so would shirk the state’s constitutional responsibility to rehabilitate inmates.

The 197-136 roll call by the Democratic -controlled House sent House Bill 443 to the Senate, where Republicans hold a slim, 13-11 majority and the bill’s fate is uncertain, at best.​
 
Why can private prisons not be rehabilitative?

IDK--we ship excess prisoners all over the place. I doubt the ones who land in Texas get much rehab, but stranger things have happened.
 
New Hampshire House Votes To Prohibit Private Prisons

i'm good with that.
 
Thank god there is sense somewhere in this country. Incarceration should not be about profit. If the State wants to put so many people in jail for victimless crimes, then it can pay for it; and if it can't afford it, then it's time to review some of those unnecessary laws.

Keeping the prison system state run keeps the laws sane.
 
Why can private prisons not be rehabilitative?

They are paid per prisoner they hold. There is a major fiscal incentive for recidivism. In fact, if they are a publicly traded company, it could be said that if they don't encourage recidivism they would be not looking out for the interest of the shareholders by going against the profit motive.

A side note to anyone who thinks private prisons are the thing because it's not government running it therefore saves money... guess what entity pays the private prisions to run them?
 
Thank god there is sense somewhere in this country. Incarceration should not be about profit. If the State wants to put so many people in jail for victimless crimes, then it can pay for it; and if it can't afford it, then it's time to review some of those unnecessary laws.

Keeping the prison system state run keeps the laws sane.

What's cool is this crosses lines... far lefty's like myself are in bed with far right libertarians on this issue.
 
Thank god there is sense somewhere in this country. Incarceration should not be about profit. If the State wants to put so many people in jail for victimless crimes, then it can pay for it; and if it can't afford it, then it's time to review some of those unnecessary laws.

Keeping the prison system state run keeps the laws sane.

Prisons should be self sufficient. As much as possible, anyway. Prisons should have to grow their own food, labor provided by the prisoners, of course. They should have their own livestock, dairies, fields for crops. If they have a bad year, then it looks like the prisoners will have to miss a few meals.
 
Prisons should be self sufficient. As much as possible, anyway. Prisons should have to grow their own food, labor provided by the prisoners, of course. They should have their own livestock, dairies, fields for crops. If they have a bad year, then it looks like the prisoners will have to miss a few meals.

If the state wants to lock up people for selling weed, then it should take the responsibility of feeding them.
 
Prisons should be self sufficient. As much as possible, anyway. Prisons should have to grow their own food, labor provided by the prisoners, of course. They should have their own livestock, dairies, fields for crops. If they have a bad year, then it looks like the prisoners will have to miss a few meals.

If the State takes away your freedom then it's responsible for providing for you, unless you don't believe in the Constitution of the United States.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't create retributive laws and then not take responsibility for the number of people you lock up. You either reduce the laws or increase funding.

Unless of course you believe in Stalinism. Then prisons are pretty much gulags run by survival of the fittest. :shrug:
 
Major kudos to the New Hampshire House. Hopefully this will push through the rest of the state government and then go viral to other states.

House votes to prohibit prison privatization, bill moves to Senate for review

The House on Thursday voted to forbid the executive branch from privatizing the state prison system, saying that to do so would shirk the state’s constitutional responsibility to rehabilitate inmates.

The 197-136 roll call by the Democratic -controlled House sent House Bill 443 to the Senate, where Republicans hold a slim, 13-11 majority and the bill’s fate is uncertain, at best.​

I agree with this.Corrections and law enforcement duties should not be done by private companies. Prison should be about punishment and a little bit of rehabilitation, not profit. People should be put into prison because they deserve to be there not because they might make some company money.
 
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Why can private prisons not be rehabilitative?

Because they placate prisoners in order to keep order rather than making prison unpleasant enough that they wouldn't want to ever return.

And they cut costs by whatever means possible, which means cutting things like substance abuse treatment programs, vocational skills training programs, GED classes, etc. which are proven to reduce recidivism rates.

Private prisons are incentivized to do what they can to ensure people return to prison.
 
Tripped across this story just now.

Lake Erie Prison Plagued By Violence And Drugs After Corporate Takeover

"It was common for us to speak about who was going to die first," Paul Reynolds, a former correctional officer at Lake Erie who says he was released last year because of disagreements with CCA management, told HuffPost. "They were afraid to get sued for any little thing, so management basically tied our hands on everything. Within three months, we lost that prison to those inmates."​
 
I agree with this.Corrections and law enforcement duties should not be done by private companies. Prison should be about punishment and a little bit of rehabilitation, not profit. People should be put into prison because they deserve to be there not because they might make some company money.

A little bit? They should be entirely about rehabilitation. That's the entire point. We don't want people becoming better criminals in jails. We want them to get out and become productive citizens.
 
A little bit?

Yes.The last several months of their sentence can focus on rehabilitation. Its main focus should be punishment. Prisons are not hospitals.

They should be entirely about rehabilitation.

No they shouldn't. A guy in prison for 10 or twenty years or on his 2nd, or 3rd offence does not need to spend 10-20 years being rehabilitated.The last several months of their sentence can be dedicated to that.

That's the entire point. We don't want people becoming better criminals in jails. We want them to get out and become productive citizens.

You seem to have prisons confused with dormitories and schools.
 
Yes.The last several months of their sentence can focus on rehabilitation. Its main focus should be punishment. Prisons are not hospitals.



No they shouldn't. A guy in prison for 10 or twenty years or on his 2nd, or 3rd offence does not need to spend 10-20 years being rehabilitated.The last several months of their sentence can be dedicated to that.



You seem to have prisons confused with dormitories and schools.

If you have it centered around rehabilitation, those in for those 10 to 20 years put on that path are then evangelizing to the newbs these methods rather than teaching the ingredients and methods of creating the best meth batch. Prisons are not supposed to be for punishment. The "cell" was designed around monk quarters where you go to reflect.
 
If you have it centered around rehabilitation, those in for those 10 to 20 years put on that path are then evangelizing to the newbs these methods rather than teaching the ingredients and methods of creating the best meth batch. Prisons are not supposed to be for punishment.

Yes they are. Prison is supposed to be about punishment.Much like fines, community service, and probation are punishments. That punishment is what is supposed to deter people from doing the crime and from repeating that crime.


The "cell" was designed around monk quarters where you go to reflect.

The cell was designed to lock inmates up and keep them from running around at night.
 
Yes they are. Prison is supposed to be about punishment.Much like fines, community service, and probation are punishments. That punishment is what is supposed to deter people from doing the crime and from repeating that crime.





The cell was designed to lock inmates up and keep them from running around at night.

Consider the origin of the of the word penitentiary. It means " a place to do penance"
 
Yes they are. Prison is supposed to be about punishment.Much like fines, community service, and probation are punishments. That punishment is what is supposed to deter people from doing the crime and from repeating that crime.




The cell was designed to lock inmates up and keep them from running around at night.


If you want the results of "deter people from doing the crime and from repeating that crime" the punishment angle is the failure way to acheive those results.
 
If the State takes away your freedom then it's responsible for providing for you, unless you don't believe in the Constitution of the United States.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't create retributive laws and then not take responsibility for the number of people you lock up. You either reduce the laws or increase funding.

Unless of course you believe in Stalinism. Then prisons are pretty much gulags run by survival of the fittest. :shrug:

Criminals relinquish their own freedom when they commit a crime.
 
If the state wants to lock up people for selling weed, then it should take the responsibility of feeding them.

If selling weed is illegal, then it's the fault of the people breaking the law that they are locked up.

Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time.

It's funny to hear "It's the law of the land", Libbos cry about criminals getting locked up.
 
If the state wants to lock up people for selling weed, then it should take the responsibility of feeding them.

Because they have the munchies?
 
Why can private prisons not be rehabilitative?

IDK--we ship excess prisoners all over the place. I doubt the ones who land in Texas get much rehab, but stranger things have happened.

Profit motive.

Rehabilitated inmates don't become repeat customers.

Good behavior usually results in reduced time behind bars, which is ALSO bad for the bottom line.

Stockholders want their dividends and rehabilitation doesn't serve that end.
 
Prisons should be self sufficient. As much as possible, anyway. Prisons should have to grow their own food, labor provided by the prisoners, of course. They should have their own livestock, dairies, fields for crops. If they have a bad year, then it looks like the prisoners will have to miss a few meals.

Are you aware that all inmates in the federal system work full time and ALL non-security work is performed by inmates?

And it still isn't anywhere near self sufficient.

Loss of freedom IS the punishment, making doing so "free" to the society that does so removes all consequence from that decision and therefore encourages abuse.

What would keep them from simply locking up anybody who does anything anybody doesn't like?
 
Yes they are. Prison is supposed to be about punishment.Much like fines, community service, and probation are punishments. That punishment is what is supposed to deter people from doing the crime and from repeating that crime.




The cell was designed to lock inmates up and keep them from running around at night.

Loss of freedom is punishment enough.

Prison should be as much like life in the outside world as possible without the liberty and luxuries.

Putting people in a wholly unnatural environment for years ruins most of them. Spending five consecutive hears in prison results in an 85% recidivism rate, regardless of the original offense. People simply adapt to the unnatural system and can't reassimilate.

And a couple months won't fix it.
 
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