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| Doghouse_Reilly |
on Thu 12 Feb 09, 12:27 AM to Doghouse_Reilly's blog.
There was a blog on this kind of subject a while back, and I replied on it that there are inherent problems with any justice system where you end up effectively having an industry based around crime as, for want of a better term, a cash crop. Where you have a system where people are legally getting rich from the proceeds of crime, either by it's pursuit or in it's punishment, then you've got a problem.
And just a few days after I make that post here comes a beautiful little example of why the criminal justice industry needs to be scrutinised and, ideally, dismantled before it takes off...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090211/ap_on_re_us/...
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WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses. The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench. In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers. |
Guys taking bribes to jail kids, because privately run prisons where profit is based on intake got greedy. How fucked up is that? People actually getting rich by locking up young offenders. How fucked does a society have to be when justice is a business.
| 12 Feb 09, 12:15 PM mq1965 UK(DA), 8 yrs |
Believe me, there is no one in this country getting rich out of the day to day ordinary criminal justice system. Making a living, just about, but not getting rich. The vast majority of them, me included, would happily look for new jobs if it meant an end to crime. Sadly the reality is that we all have more than enough work, without having to try and create more for ourselves. Not to say there aren't flaws in the system, but if anyone is creating a greater crime 'industry' it is the politicians and the press, not the people working in the system.
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| 12 Feb 09, 4:26 PM Doghouse_Reilly UK(MK), 6 yrs |
I think you're right in this country, but I think we're sniffing around similar issues as the US. The private sector has already moved in on the fringes of the criminal justice system in the UK (I could be wrong, but I believe we do have some privately run for profit young offenders detention centres). The case in the USA is one that knocked me sideways frankly, as it rates as one of the most despicable abuses of power I have ever heard of. There are some parts of a societies infrastructure I think where the private sector and with it the profit motive simply is simply not compatible with meeting the needs of the people. Anybody who says truth is stranger than fiction has never seen tentacle porn. | ||
| 12 Feb 09, 11:30 PM mq1965 UK(DA), 8 yrs |
Almost all of it I'd say. The worship of privatisation over the ethos of public service is one of the saddest trends of recent years.
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| 13 Feb 09, 7:58 AM exoticarose UK(WD), 4 yrs |
In fact we have pivate prisons, private YOI private prison escort, private security guards How is this as incompatable as private healthcare? Anything is open to abuse A diva a day keeps the boredom away |
