As many of you may not know private prisons, i.e. ones that are not run by the State, but run by corporations on behalf of the State, for profit, are an up and coming industry. Their insidious growth in the United States is staggering, and as more and more States look for ways to cut their budgets by paying corporations to run their State Penns for them, their growth is going to continue.
If that doesn't make you nervous, the fact that a judge in Pennslyvannia has just been sentenced to 28 years behind bars because he was taking kick-backs from the developer of one of these for-profit detention centres to send kids his way, should chill you to the bone.
This miserable, greedy, evil bastard ruined the lives of thousands of kids over the years by sending them to jail, rather than giving them more appropriate sentences, and in the process pocketed over a million dollars. I can think of nothing more despicable, and nothing more terrifying, than a system that allows a judge to have a financial interest in the outcome of criminal proceedings.
This country has already re-started de facto debtors prisons, and with the teabag terrorists rush to stem the flow of money going to the States from Washington, more and more States are going to have to cut ever-deeper in their own budgets. This in turn, will encourage the growth of more Corporate Prisons, and thereby increase the risk that life-ruining scams like this one, may happen again.
Thankfully, this particular corrupt bastard was caught, prosecuted and jailed, but one has to wonder if there are more of his kind out there right now, ruining countless lives whilst lining their own pockets...
Land of the free? Sure, if you have enough $$$$$$$$
Have a great weekend folks!
Fight the good fight Ben.
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