Re: Feb. 24 news story.
Last week’s news that the government will resume sending prisoners to private prisons is another sign of the erosion of human decency in the United States. Greed and another way to stick a thumb in Barack Obama’s eye are the only motives served. This deeply immoral plan is one that no moral and decent nation should ever accept.
The incentive structure for private prisons is all wrong. To keep investors happy, you need growth and a high rate of profitability. Growth comes from locking up more and more people and for longer and longer sentences. High profitability comes from the lowest possible standards of safety, nutrition, health care, education, rehabilitation, and staff training. Lobbyists will no doubt be dispatched to protect these investor goals.
What else will Attorney General Jeff Sessions be springing on us? Chain gangs? Rent-a-convict? An American gulag? Mental hospitals for dissidents?
John C. Flemming, Littleton
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