Louisiana Private Prison Moguls in Israel?

Super. I just got off the phone with Sara Leibovich, a reporter in Tel Aviv, who had tracked me down in her internet search for information about Emerald Correctional Management, a privately-held, Louisiana-based private prison operation that runs a "detention facility" on the outskirts of my town. I have been an ardent oppenent of the project here, and I explained some of my reasons to Ms. Leibovich.

Despite the persistent mythology that private prisons--or prisons at all--generate "good jobs" and "economic development" (I can assure you that, only by the most fucked-up subjective standards can the former be claimed; the latter is just total bullshit), despite the "invisible hand" mantra that privateers can do it better and more cheaply, despite the frightening commitment among Americans that anyone in jail deserves to be punished, this is all very, very bad news for Israel. Private prison companies are a cancer, here, malignant out-of-control, nearly impervious to eradication.

I don't know whether to be surprised Israel is so late to jump on the privitization bandwagon or depressed that they have. I feel more like the latter.

Ms. Leibovich wanted to know about the jobs claim. I told her turnover rates are higher at private facilities, that wages are lower. I told her that--at last count--five people with P.O. boxes at my local post office actually worked in the facility. That number is likely lower, now. Most private prisons--largely because of high turnover and wages too low to encourage settlement--are staffed by commuters. The alleged economic development? The "hotels and restaurants" promised by project proponents? The facility itself used all but a few connections-worth of our existing water supply capacity; it uses--and fucking stinks--all of our sewer capacity. Any further development is now contingent upon our spending millions of dollars to upgrade local infrastructure.

But most, most of all: such facilities as they are currently built in South Texas and all over the United States are creating public-private partnerships that result in an actual demand for prisoners. The United States already incarcerates more of its population than any other country. On the planet. We have recently made the problem worse by allowing prison companies--this is Emerald's modus operandi--to assist local governments in issuing bonds to build speculative prisons. Prison real estate--as companies like GEO have learned--is a big liability. Better to get the contract to operate, and get some other sucker to build. The end result? Counties like Reeves, in Texas, hire guys like Randy DeLay (yep, Tom's brother) to lobby the federal government to send them more prisoners. Reeves pays DeLay $120,000 a year to insist that we don't incarcerate enough people here in the U.S. And yet our prisons are full. Why? Here's a paragraph from an analysis by Not With Our Money (notwithourmoney.org):

Finally, the expanding role of private prison companies in the legislative process and the electoral process threaten public control over the law itself. A recent report published by the Western Prison Project and the National Institute on Money in State Politics shows that private prison corporations—like many other corporations—seek to buy off politicians with political contributions. One of the most disturbing pieces of information in the report concerns the close relationship between private prison companies and the American Legislative Exchange Council—an influential right-wing lobby group launched by the founder of The Moral Majority. Corporate members of ALEC "pay to play" in the legislative arena, using the organization to craft and promote model legislation that serves their interests. In the case of the private prison industry, which helps run ALEC’s criminal justice task force, this means not only passing laws that promote prison privatization, but also passing a host of "tough-on-crime" laws (including "Three Strikes" and "Truth In Sentencing") that guarantee them a steady flow of new prisoners.

It's a beautiful system, a goddamned perpetual-motion machine of prison profiteering. Hey, I know: let's export it to Israel.