And the truly important bits become trade secrets. We have a lot of private prisons now as well and my experience with inmates rights lawsuits is pretty dismal. Then again, we have a constitution that can compel or punish "state actors" but not private individuals working for private for-profit companies. Not that state prisons are such wonderful places regardless of what is popular wisdom here.
In any event, you have a public that is really sold on lockng people up and throwing away the key, including pre-teens. So it's hard to gain any sympathy for victimized inmates (or their advocates for that matter). Thus we should not have been surprised at Abu Ghraib. They were our prison guards on a relocation bonus, after all.
One ex-inmate client of mine said that back in the 1960's, there was a belief in rehabilitation, when the institutions were called penitentiaries. He graduated from San Quentin High School and learned a trade there. Then, he said, it all turned into punishment only. We are even emptying the prison libraries so inmates cannot even teach themselves.
And once again, our Guvernator seeks to cut funding for schooling so he can pay for more private prisons, because we'd rather punish crime rather than prevent it.
Yes; it's wonderful when penal policy has an ethical dimension.
Commenting by HaloScan
