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    MeagorTargaryenHamilton Nolan
    5/21/15 2:47pm

    More private prisons and jails would help. NYC prison guards make an average of 75K plus generous medical plans per year and you can’t fire them when the prison population declines. By contrast private prisons pay guards $10 an hour without benefits, and when you reduce the number of prisoners you can reduce the number of guards as well.

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      weirwoodtreehugger3MeagorTargaryen
      5/21/15 3:03pm

      Since the widespread privatisation of prisons and jails, we've started spending more money, not less. Politicians get donations from the industry, they write up contracts that do things like fine the state heavily if a minimum quota of prisoners isn't reached, we jail more and more people to keep the industry happy. Plus, private prisons are more likely to abuse prisoners. So, more lawsuits. Just because they pay their employees terribly, doesn't mean they're more cost effective. There's a reason the term prison industrial complex exists.

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      festivusaziliMeagorTargaryen
      5/21/15 3:06pm

      I don’t think you are going to get very far with HamNo by arguing that we need more people making $10/hr without benefits.

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    cancanstanHamilton Nolan
    5/21/15 3:35pm

    How is it that San Quentin sits on some of the most beautiful and valuable land in Northern California? The state could make a ton of money by moving these prisoners to the Valley and selling off that land.

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      astudyinmoppishnesscancanstan
      5/21/15 5:06pm

      This argument is going on big time in Utah now regarding a prison that is currently in one of the most sought after suburbs of Salt Lake. It has become a huge battle. It makes so much sense financially to move it to a remote and far cheaper part of Utah. The biggest push-back, which is coming close to winning the battle, is from the employees and unions. They don’t want to lose their jobs or be forced to move or travel longer to work. Another hurdle is that most other reasonable locations don’t want it in their town.

      My guess is that with San Quentin, it’s similar to that. I could very easily be wrong because I haven’t researched much about it. It seems that if they could fetch up to $2 billion for the land then it would be a no-brainer.

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      RachelCoburnastudyinmoppishness
      5/21/15 8:18pm

      And in some states the prisons get counted as part of the local population. Rural areas love this - the urban poor are being held in cages in a town where they and theirs receive no local government benefits, while the local towns gets a boost in their population count, which gets them extra seats in the state assembly, and more government grants for schools and roads.

      It’s a modern version of the three-fifths person clause in the Constitution - and just as perverse.

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    festivusaziliHamilton Nolan
    5/21/15 3:09pm

    Hmmmm.... we spend too much on our jails...and we jail too many people for non-violent offenses...and most of those offenses are drug related....and a lot of our problems with militarized police are the result of policing drug crimes....

    If only there were some magic bullet that would address all of those problems. I can’t think of one though.

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      ScottRaphaelHamilton Nolan
      5/21/15 4:12pm

      Things will get better when we all accept our fate and voluntarily submit to our betters in the jailer-class and their all-powerful business overlords.

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        TinyMontgomery2Hamilton Nolan
        5/21/15 2:45pm

        I have an idea. Only arrest people when you really really really need to.

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