Posted on 10/30/2006 4:36:55 PM PST by SmithL
Two major public employee unions announced Monday they plan to file a lawsuit to block the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from transferring more than 2,000 inmates to private prisons in other states.
Representatives of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and the Service Employees International Union Local 1000 said they planned to file the suit Monday afternoon in Sacramento Superior Court. They said they would seek to stop the transfers on grounds that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger overstepped his legal authority in seeking the moves based on prison overcrowding.
Although California has used private prisons for years within its own boundaries, CCPOA Vice President Chuck Alexander said the in-state facilities received approval from the Legislature while the out-of-state plan has not.
"I think that's the fundamental difference," Alexander said at a press conference at CCPOA headquarters in West Sacramento.
Representatives of the CCPOA and SEIU were joined at the press conference by state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-East Los Angeles, and officials from other labor and community groups.
Romero said that private incarceration is "an abdication of the will of the people" and "an abdication of responsibility" on the part of the state.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
It would seem that most prison guards would be glad to be rid of these guys, However no matter what they say its about jobs and Union power and dues money.
Good for the unions.
Human beings are not a commodity. The state sentenced the criminal, the state assumes all responsibility for their care.
These private prison companies will not serve a correctional purpose.
Obviously you feel strongly about this , however I disagree. As for a correctional purpose, I dont believe any criminal gets correction. They get imprisonment. Why should it matter where they are imprisoned as long as they are kept off the streets. I could perhaps see your point if white collar criminals were involved or in situations where the family coming to see the prisoner might help in some way to keep this person from going back to prison, but in the majority of incidences these people have long records and deserve no such attention. lock them up and ship them off. If they do at some time in the future decide to act like Human beings then treat them as such.
We're supposed to get some of CA's prisoners here in IN. I don't believe these are "private" prisons.
Some cand be and are corrected. It can take a tremendous amount of effort. I have watched certain people go to jail get a wrist slap on the judge then right back out into society to commit yet another stupid crime. The they go in for a while the corrections officers get them straightened out and they become productive members of society. Imprisonment is a punishment, but for any prisoner we intend to return to society (those who do not have life w/o possibility of parole or who have a death sentence) we must at least try to make it so they will not end up in the system again.
I'm against a private entity profiting from the incarcaration of these individuals. It is always a mistake to treat a person as if he were a commodity.
POSTED: 10:17 am EDT October 5, 2006
UPDATED: 12:06 pm EDT October 5, 2006
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INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Mitch Daniels has agreed to house California prison inmates in Indiana in return for jobs and money.
Daniels and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reached a deal to transfer 1,200 offenders from California's overcrowded prison system to the underused facility in New Castle, which currently holds about 1,000 inmates but has a capacity for 2,400.
California will pay GEO, a private firm, which runs the prison, to hire and train 200 new corrections employees. Indiana will also get a $6 million a year bonus.
"We will be able to hire 200 Hoosiers in or around Henry County, staff up that facility fully, and the state of Indiana will be paid between $6 million and $7 million per year for the service we're providing," Daniels said.
Daniels said he anticipates needing that space for Indiana inmates within a few years. The governor said when that space is need, the California inmates will be sent back.
California prison officials say the transfers could start within 30 days. California has the nation's largest state prison system with about 172,000 inmates and is about 70 percent over capacity.
Copyright 2006 by TheIndyChannel.com.
So what's the diff if the 'rehab' effort (with questionable results, btw) takes place in or out-of-state????
Your not in CA, so you don't know that the state is being sued by prisoner rights groups (and others) out here due to the over crowding situation.
The legislature won't spend social program bucks for new prison facilities, so I personally thought this was a novel idea....
But this union-instigated lawsuit places Arnie in a no-win position.
The entities profiting from CA prisoner incareration are the attorneys.
~GCR~
There is no easy solution to this. Either California, the state with the burden of these prisoners, properly even to the point of building new prisons or California decides which crimes it will not incarcerate as punishment.
The union and the prisoner rights groups have a point. California can not shuffle this responsibility to someone somewhere else, it is California's burden alone.
I am certainly not pro criminal. I am neither pro or anti-union.
You must be kinding! No prison serves as correctional purpose. All that prisons do is make for better criminals upon their release. The inmates receive the best training in the criminal trades and nothing else.
The state is assuming its responsibility by reducing the load in the prisons.
they'll get layoffs and the jobs won't be so cushy at the private prisons
I doubt any of them will get layed off as the prisons are already too crowded, but I am sure thats one of their reasons for squealing. I think its a pretty clear bet their reason isnt because they feel sad for the prisoners.
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