> 3. Our corrections system is broken. The fact that some of you so > readily accept contractors on prison staffs is unusual to me. > Outsourcing government control is a horrible idea in my view.
Just to clarify, when I first mentioned contractors I wasn't referring to contracted jail staff, I was referring to outside contractors who sometimes work inside of jails (e.g., me). Jails use contractors for a variety of purposes such as electrical, air handling, plumbing, IT, phones, commissary, etc. There is a virtual parade of "civilian contractors" in and out of the facilities on a nearly daily basis. As someone who spends some time working inside county jails, I tend to prefer more inspection and safety checks than less, so that makes me somewhat bias in my views on this topic. Having said that, there are companies (Corrections Corporation of America, for example) that are outsourced by the Federal and some State governments to run entire prisons on a contract basis. The theory is that a private company can do it more cheaply than the government can, and Florida has been debating this hotly over the last year or so. My opinion on that is that the government should be in charge of people who are incarcerated and that the core role of managing inmates shouldn't be outsourced to a for-profit corporation. > 4. We jail far to many people in this country. Non-violent drug > related charges, child support issues, come on going to jail over > a leash law or not having a bell on your bicycle? Thats insane. Agreed. > However as far as I'm concerned you shouldn't see the inside > of a jail or prison until and unless convicted. That's what holding > cells are for. I agree in principal, but in many cases a person may be waiting for months between stages of a trial and if they can't make bond or have been remanded by the court they have to be put somewhere. Holding someone in isolation that long wouldn't be practical and worse than having them in general population. Generally the county jails who hold all these people do classify those who have been convicted differently from those who are awaiting trial and usually don't place them together in housing, but that varies depending on who's running the classification department. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:349421 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
