New York may indeed become the first state in the nation to do away with private prisons. It is not a sure bet yet, but at least it is a major issue that is on the itinerary now.
Personally, I applaud this. Indeed, there are many, many problems that the United States is dealing with and will have to face, sooner or later. Voting for Trump may appeal to those whop do not want to deal with problems, or who merely want to delay dealing with them, because he basically denies that they are problems. With this spirit continually triumphing in the modern United States for many years, even decades, now, it seems a bit of a feat when someone, especially a state, begins to try and tackle an important, even urgent issue, on it’s own, regardless of what the federal government, or the rest of the country, is doing.
There are examples of this. California in particular leads the way in trying to do something to combat climate change, although the Trump administration is actively trying to undermine these efforts. Numerous other states also tried to join California in trying to maintain at least the standards that the United States as a nation would have had to work within under the Paris Climate Accord. California also tried to work with New York to try and bring some form of affordable, universal healthcare to their citizens, although again, intervention efforts by interested parties (those who either stood to profit, or who were in the employ of those who did) undermined this effort enough that it never took off. Numerous states are looking into trying to give all of their electoral college points to whoever wins the overall popular vote, which is not exactly direct democracy, but at least is approaching it a bit more than the very flawed system that we have right now, with the electoral college and gerrymandering and big money being poured into politics clearly hurting the legitimacy of our democracy.
But now, New York is taking a step towards addressing a very different issue, but one which the nation as a whole needs to begin to take a serious look at: private prisons.
By now, we all know that the United States – the self-proclaimed “land of the free” – has more people behind bars than any other country in the world. That includes brutal dictatorships like the one in North Korea. That includes Russia, China, and India, the latter two having significantly larger populations than the United States. Indeed, one quarter of all imprisoned people in the world are behind bars right here in the United States.
Why? How did this happen?
Well, in short, private prisons would be the short answer. Like with everything else seemingly going wrong with the country right now, the root of the problem seems to be when a few people profit by the suffering of the many. That is what is wrong with our official climate change denial, where the big dollar signs of profits for a few corrupt politicians (mostly, but not exclusively, in the GOP) have prevented more sensible, tougher environmental legislation. That is what is wrong with our failing healthcare system, which stands as the only system in the developed world that is for profit, and thus, not surprisingly, costs more than any other healthcare system in the world. That is the case with our elections, where more money is poured in by private, special interests, to support candidates that will champion their cause (and their cause never seems to extend beyond fattening their wallets). And of course, that is what is wrong with our prison system, where certain private corporations have enormously profitable contracts that require a large number of prisoners. This in turn, of course, requires a justice system that is ruthless and sends large numbers of people to prison for long periods of time, even for nonviolent offenses. And since people who have served time have to carry that record around, they often find that they cannot find decent jobs or places to live once they are released, which thus almost insures that many will be returning to the already overcrowded systems.
All of these things are glaring failures and vicious cycles, but they are some of the biggest problems slowing the progress of the country down to a virtual crawl. Now, there was momentum to try and seriously work on reforming this very costly, and clearly unfair, system, prior to the 2016 election. Even conservatives were looking to reform this, because of the enormous expenses involved, and the fiscal irresponsibility that it required.
But then, Donald Trump won, and all of the progress towards reforming this system went away in a heartbeat. Like with so many other issues, Trump’s win signaled the end of progress in so many key areas – progress that, frankly, had been a bit too slow in coming under the Obama years. Many expected Obama to be a breath of fresh air, and a progressive reformist who fundamentally changed certain aspects of how the country operated and looked at things. After eight years, however, not too much had changed. Unfortunately, Obama still looks amazingly progressive when sandwiched between the neocon George W. Bush and the ultraconservative, even fringe extremist rightwing ideology of the Trump presidency.
The political climate has been shocking regressive and backwards now in the United States for entirely too long. So when a state steps up and challenges popular notions, or at least the general complacency with the excesses of a very unfair system that far too many Americans have simply come to accept, it is commendable and a rare hopeful sign.
New York is taking a step towards addressing the ridiculously overcrowded and costly prison system by eliminating the “for profit” aspect of it from the equation. One might think it obvious that the “for profit” part of it would lead to ridiculously overcrowded prisons, and one would be right. Yet for far too long – since at least the Clinton years when the present for profit prison system was effectively set up – Americans have generally turned a blind eye to this problem.
Now, New York stands poised to become the first state in the country to finally look into doing away with the “for profit” prison system. This is clearly a step in the right direction, and again, I personally applaud New York’s efforts to finally address yet another one of the problems that has been on the backburner in this nation for entirely too long.
New York Could Become First State To Be Completely Done With Private Prisons by Morgan Simon, Contributor Investing, Jun 18, 2019:
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