Comment

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on July 6, 2012 at 5:44pm

John, in a way it has everything to do with rehabilitation, and those who understand they must fight, kick and earn a way into the life they really want instead of accepting the life most accept due to their circumstances. Charles Payne is an excellent example, and he is quite verbal about his modest beginnings. The man is a super star for people overcoming their circumstances and fighting really hard to do so! Thanks fo remembering Charles.........if you don't remember who this is, he is a very smart financial analyst who works for Fox News and has his own segment, and he talks about where he came from and how he got where he is. I hope others have heard him that share his meager beginnings and understand there is hope for them as well!

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on July 6, 2012 at 3:38pm

John, yes, I understand correctional institutions and understand someone has to want to have a better life and work towards it. There is much available to people in Correctional Inst., but it is up to them to use the resources.

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on July 6, 2012 at 3:35pm

And Pace is not live in; it is day school. You can't be late getting there and you can't skip school either without getting to explain why. They still live in the bad environment, but during they day, not so (and they have councilors right across from the class rooms so they get them turned around if they come in after having a bad evening or night at home........they do make sure they have bus far back and forth too if parents can't bring them). When they finish there, if you could say they ever really finish with the center, they are nice young women with a future they only have to work or study to achieve and some even get help setting up the first place of their own through donations from various people and groups.

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on July 6, 2012 at 3:30pm

Ken, what you are talking about is similiar to the program run for girls (not reform school or prison, but a second chance for girls who come from bad homes etc and some are referred by the courts). They help these girls get caught up to school level and in the cases of those in middle school, they send them back to the public schools for high school (but keep a close eye on them and yank them back if their grades start slipping or they miss a lot of school.......and they call them and talk to them as well). The point I was getting to, is that in order for any girl to enter the Pace program is they have to know they are headed in the wrong direction and have to want to make a change and have to ask to come to the school for help, so they have the right attitude before they ever go there. The place is like a family, but a strict family. They teach them all sorts of things besides helping them with their education like sewing, cooking and the works. If they get their GED there, they get help getting into college and are shown how to apply for college, how to apply for a job, what is appropriate to wear and a ton of other real life things. They totally understand effort is rewarded! There is obviously lots more to the school, but it works for those who are motivated not to be like the environment they were brought up in with drugs, abuse and alcohol (etc).

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on July 6, 2012 at 6:07am

Well put John. Good questions..............how do you think they are answered? I would think there might be a better answer. Why can't there be something where the convicted person has to work and support themselves while serving whatever is considered the punishment for the crime they committed. Why does there have to be a set confined area? Why, for non violent crimes, can't there be something that actually educates the person, gets them set on the right track, and then, puts them into a situation as "punishment" that allows them to get on the track and be forced to stay there during the "punishment" time? Wouldn't that be more apt to make it less likely they would do a repeat performance?

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on July 5, 2012 at 8:47pm

Right now, there are many people who would be grateful for $10 an hour..............who don't have jobs at all.  It isn't a huge, but it is better than being forced to be on public assistance I would think.  You guys are great by the way!  Interesting comments even if I don't agree with everything.  I am off this thing for the night.  We got the storm last night and had another almost direct hit by lighting (the neighbor across the street was power ringing the door bell at 11:45 for hubby to see if he could fix the phone and air and 3 or 4 of us lost our phones (we lost a modem and the kitchen phone got fried).  Next door has a laundry list of damaged and destroyed things................anyway, I am pooped and going to sleep early tonight!   Play nice!

Comment by Patricia M. McBride on July 5, 2012 at 8:36pm

Amanda, we do not privatize prisons because it is more expensive than having the government do it.  We privatize because it is cheaper than what the government can do it for, so it costs the taxpayers less than they might have paid if they handled it (and that is without any profit margin).  As far as underpaid inmates and workers, that is your opinion.   And we don't know how bad it is cause we aren't there, are we?  We can only take the word of some folks who did something bad enough to be sent there and another group of folks who wanted a job and agreed to the employment contract they were presented?  So, you deciding they are not paid a decent wage is a relative sort of thing, and you deciding that someone in prison shouldn't be there because the system wasn't fair to them, and this is the same system you think should still be running the prisons because they would be fairer to their employees......................you can't really have it both ways.  Either they are fair or they aren't, and I would still opt to pay less and let a private company make a profit.  This isn't a communist country yet although I am sure the ego with legs in the white house is salvitating at the thought of turning us into one where he can tell everyone what to do (after all he has done such a swell job up until now).   And I did not nor do I use the word "stupid" a lot.

Comment by amanda choate on July 5, 2012 at 8:03pm

Ken, anecdotes fair poorly in a debate. But maybe he could pick fruit and veggies. I know a melon farmer in Putnam county and his workers average about fifty bucks a day. Let me know.
Argue my points with more than fairy tales and angry rhetoric. Facts, facts rule.

Comment by amanda choate on July 5, 2012 at 7:43pm

Ken for profit prisons pay guards wages starting at just over ten dollars an hour. Four hundred a week equals about 21k a year. That qualifies this worker for food stamps amd Medicaid. So we still pay, just in a less meaningful way.

Comment by amanda choate on July 5, 2012 at 7:37pm

Here is what I see as the biggest problems facing the for profit prison system.
First, it doesn't cost less, they just pull the prisoners who present the least risk.
Second the notion that prison guards are over paid never occurred to me. How much would you expect to be paid to ensure murderers, rapists, drug dealers, thieves are safely kept away from society? Prison guards that are underpaid are likely to fail under pressure. Instead of paying our fellow Floridians a good wage to do this job we concentrate those earnings in the hands of a few out of state corporations.
Third, for profit companies benefit from incarceration, so they are less likely to be concerned about an effort to lower recidivism, rather choosing a course that leads to high occupancy.
Fourth, these companies openly lobby for laws that lead to incarceration. They, for profit prisons, were among those who wrote and lobbied for Arizona's SB 1070.
So Jay that is where I stand. Check out why our state's correction chief left last year. He wanted to leave with his reputation intact.

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