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Bernie Sanders Reveals Plan To Abolish Private Prisons In America

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Deirdre Fulton via TheAntiMedia.org,

With a call to “end the private prison racket in America,” a group of progressive lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bill that seeks to subvert the reigning “pro-incarceration agenda” by banning private prisons, reinstating the federal parole system, and eliminating quotas for the number of immigrants held in detention.

“It is morally repugnant and a national tragedy that we have privatized prisons all over America,” said Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of the legislation’s lead sponsors along with Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), and Rep. Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.). “We cannot fix our criminal justice system if corporations are allowed to profit from mass incarceration. Keeping human beings in jail for long periods of time must no longer be an acceptable business model in America.”

With the ultimate goal of reducing the inmate population in federal, state, and local facilities, the Justice Is Not For Sale Act (pdf) would, according to a fact sheet:

— Bar federal, state, and local governments from contracting with private companies starting two years after the bill is passed;
— Reinstate the federal parole system to allow “individualized, risk-based determinations regarding each prisoner and restore fairness in the system;”
— Increase oversight to prevent companies from overcharging inmates and their families for services like banking and telephone calls;
— End the requirement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement maintain a level of 34,000 detention beds; and
— End immigrant family detention.

“In a society dedicated to liberty and justice, for-profit prisons offend our bedrock principles,” Ellison said in a statement. “Private prison corporations spend millions of dollars lobbying government for harsher sentencing laws and immigration policy that serves their bottom line, while taxpayers foot the $80 billion dollar a year bill to incarcerate 2.3 million people. Incarceration should be about rehabilitation, not profit. Now, more than ever, we need to restore confidence in our criminal justice system. Step one is taking the profit out of the punishment.”

Grassroots Leadership, a Texas-based national organization working to end prison profiteering and reduce reliance on criminalization and detention, hailed the legislation as “a major stride toward a justice system that is obliged to put human beings over private interests.”

“As long as there are corporate financial incentives for locking people up and keeping them behind bars, reforming drug laws and other sentencing policies will produce limited results for  meaningfully decreasing the astronomical rate of incarceration in this country,” said Kymberlie Quong Charles, criminal justice programs director for Grassroots Leadership.

The bill is designed to counteract the lobbying efforts of corporations that benefit financially from mass incarceration. As Vox pointed out last week, “A 2011 report from the Justice Policy Initiative found, for example, that private prison companies lobby and support politicians that back tough-on-crime policies like ‘three strikes’ and ‘truth in sentencing’ laws, which effectively increase the length of prison sentences.”

“Our corrections system exists to uphold justice—not to house innocent refugees or feed the greed of corporate interests,” Grijalva stated. “By treating prisoners and detainees as a means to a profit margin, we’re incentivizing jailors to lobby for ever more inmates, and for inmates to be denied even the basic staples they’re entitled to. The result is a corrections system collapsing under its own weight as the prison industry gets rich and countless innocent men, women and children are ensnared in their trap.”

Vox further zeroed in on one provision of the bill, writing: “In terms of fighting mass incarceration, the best idea in Sanders’s plan might be the provision to bring back federal parole.”

Reinstating parole, which was eliminated in 1984, “could let well-behaved inmates eliminate even more time from their sentences, depending on how it’s structured,” wrote German Lopez — “and it would potentially affect many more inmates’ sentences than simply eliminating private prisons would.”

The Huffington Post interviewed at least one expert who thinks the bill’s recommendations are doable. Paul DeMuro, an expert on confinement conditions who reviewed a summary of the bill in advance (but not the full text) told HuffPo that “getting the financial incentive out of locking people up or keeping them on parole is fundamentally the right thing and the fair thing to do.”

“Would it be difficult? Would it be time-consuming?” he said. “Lots of things are and government could do this, I think, rather readily.”

Earlier this week, Common Dreams reported on new research showing how the social harms of mass incarceration in both private- and government-run facilities spread far beyond prison walls, with families enduring direct human rights abuses and women—who are disproportionately black—bearing the brunt of the poverty and trauma associated with having a loved one locked up.

 

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Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:28 | 6581067 jomama
jomama's picture

This guy trying to wind up suicided?

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:31 | 6581096 Fester
Fester's picture

Everything is going as planned.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:36 | 6581128 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

It's amazing what gets Commie panties in a knot.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:42 | 6581158 TBT or not TBT
TBT or not TBT's picture

His sort prefers government run goulags.   

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:48 | 6581192 Salsa Verde
Salsa Verde's picture

Can't let good labor go to waste:  Work em to death and bury em where they fall.  

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:06 | 6581276 pods
pods's picture

Not good enough Bernie.

No victim, no crime. Period.

pods

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:14 | 6581320 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

The problem with government run prisons, is that everyone with a job there becomes a pension millionaire, at taxpayer expense,  see Calipornia, Illinois, New Joisy, etc.  One of the most overpaid of all government make work projects.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:20 | 6581346 Ignatius
Ignatius's picture

The organizing principle behind this proposal is to eliminate perverse incentives, so I support this initiative.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:36 | 6581404 TruxtonSpangler
TruxtonSpangler's picture

Bill Gates is a huge invester in Corrections Corporation of America. This wont be allowed to pass.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:44 | 6581443 MalteseFalcon
MalteseFalcon's picture

End the drug war, Bernie.  It's just that simple.  The issue of prisons will then work itself out.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:18 | 6581544 knukles
knukles's picture

Thank God and the Pope!
At first glance I though it said BAN PRIVATE PENSIONS

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:50 | 6581650 SuperRay
SuperRay's picture

Does the bill have a reverse clause? i.e., take all the investors in privatized prisons and put those motherfuckers in the prisons they're profiting from.  Just an American dream...

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 19:21 | 6581756 Cheduba
Cheduba's picture

It's easier than passing a new law - just end the Fed.  Then, the prison coporations lose their funding of money that was printed out of thin air.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:39 | 6581412 OrangeJews
OrangeJews's picture

I think he'll be great... in the fact he will get us to Anarcho Syndicalism quickly.  Should be one hell of a ride!

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:22 | 6581557 knukles
knukles's picture

The Singularity of Mankind.  As in the Nothing Prior to Existence.  These people are agonna get us all killed

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:18 | 6581545 BarkingCat
BarkingCat's picture

That someone down voted your comment is amazing.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:21 | 6581551 NihilistZero
NihilistZero's picture

No victim, no crime. Period.

Indeed. A Justice System where the words "the people versus..." or "the state versus..." are never uttered, would be a great starting point.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:02 | 6581251 Viffer
Viffer's picture

Or a considerable campaign contribution to help line his pockets.  Thats how the Russians work at least.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 19:40 | 6581797 Remington IV
Remington IV's picture

Inmate 2222 = Hillary Clinton

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:43 | 6581162 The Indelicate ...
The Indelicate Genius's picture

Actually libertarians have a problem with for profit prisons jailing people who sold a little weed and abandoning them to a rape and crime factory.

Go back to Fox News, stupid.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:46 | 6581185 Scooby Dooby Doo
Scooby Dooby Doo's picture

-10 for the personal attack. Go back to the genius bar.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:48 | 6581194 The Indelicate ...
The Indelicate Genius's picture

fuck you ya pansy faggot dog.

How'd you like them apples, Sally?

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:54 | 6581220 Scooby Dooby Doo
Scooby Dooby Doo's picture

You might meet my brother Thor. We roam in a pac. I get your calf, he gets your throat.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SqsYSJDntMA/hqdefault.jpg

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:51 | 6581653 Max Steel
Max Steel's picture

go shag in your mystery van cunt

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 22:46 | 6582480 Deathrips
Deathrips's picture

Cat.

Sometimes you want to say something as you read the thread. Then someone says it...golf clap. 

 

Bernies a salesman of odious debt from sons of mothers of central bankers.

 

RIPS

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:49 | 6581197 Freddie
Freddie's picture

I do not watch TV and Hollywood because it is for idiots.  Sounds like you still watch TV like a dope.

I oppose for profit prisons.  I also oppose illegal aliens and they should be deported and not detained.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:56 | 6581204 Normalcy Bias
Normalcy Bias's picture

Perhaps that he realizes that fewer dispersed prisons are necessary when the entire country is being transformed into one big one...

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:24 | 6581365 the grateful un...
the grateful unemployed's picture

300 million on work furlough, is it possible the unemployed are the only truly free people in america?

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:39 | 6581140 Bunghole
Bunghole's picture

Bernie, Raul, Keith and Bobby.

One of these is not like the others.

Can you say white guilt?

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:03 | 6581262 Sanity Bear
Sanity Bear's picture

Sanders is getting creamed in the Dem primary by the black vote; it's his single biggest obstacle. For-profit-prison mercenary and mass-incarceration trailblazer Clinton has the dumb-ass nigger vote locked up, because apparently when your community has an average IQ of 80 they like getting killed by cops and locked up for years for smoking a joint.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:42 | 6581425 OrangeJews
OrangeJews's picture

Anything they have to do to stay on the tit.  They don't want to work but still want to bitch about being poor so people feel sorry for them and it seems alright.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:45 | 6581181 khnum
khnum's picture

industry is not going to give up a 2 million strong labour force that works for 30 cents an hour without a hell of fight

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:56 | 6581227 JimT
JimT's picture

Regardless of who propsoed the law, it would be a good thing. That is, if he hadn't tossed in the 'immigrant' clauses to help ensure its eventual defeat. -- Just more fluff to feign compassion for the downtrodden.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:31 | 6581093 Jumbotron
Jumbotron's picture

<I can't believe I'm saying this>  I'm beginning to like this guy.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:35 | 6581119 lehmen_sisters
lehmen_sisters's picture

I didn't junk you....Don't fall into the trap, he has voted in favor for alot of good things, but his economic and regulatory policies are anti-capitalist to the max. If he would switch his ecnonomic and regulatory polices , he would be voteable. 

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:40 | 6581149 Jumbotron
Jumbotron's picture

Ohhhh....don't you worry.  I'm out of the Matrix.  Haven't voted since 2000 and no reason to start again.  I know the guy is an actual card carrying Socialist.  But part of the appeal is he seems to be a true believer.....in something.

Unlike any and all of the whores on the Republican side.....particularly Trump.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:56 | 6581230 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

There's nothing wrong with card carrying members of Socialist International, even as Heads of State.  Most of them who have actual power also have brain power and would bust out laughing at the notion that some loon was promising to blow through USD 20 trillion in order to get elected.  The danger is the legion of Hopey Changey Lunatics who don't understand the very personal consequences of even trying to implement such a plan, or why what is promised cannot be delivered.    

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 21:36 | 6581773 Latitude25
Latitude25's picture

Yes.  Just like that scowl on Tsipras's face when faced with the reality that even though the 60% hopey changey voters said one thing, he was forced into submission.  The reality of where the true power is, is a bitch..... for now anyway.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:26 | 6581569 NihilistZero
NihilistZero's picture

Bernie + a Loathing GOP Congress might be the best combination you'll get out of this election.  No new wars and the GOP sure as hell won't finance any of Bernie's wackier ideas.  Bernie could do some damage to Wall Street and the corpritocracy through vetoes and executive orders though...

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 19:57 | 6581839 wendigo
wendigo's picture

The GOP rolls over for Obama, why not for Sanders? 

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:52 | 6581213 The Indelicate ...
The Indelicate Genius's picture

Sanders seems to scare the shit out of the Democratic establishment.

I don't get why so many people eager for change don't look at Sanders as the most outsider.... The "socialist" thing is going to get alot of stupid fucks to vote for people who are crony capitalists, or outright kleptofascists who will spend all your money on helping Israel and Kiev murder people, and letting the H1Bs and illegals continue to flood in...

But at least they won't be "commies" fucking you til you bleed, right?

Sigh - fucking labels make people stop thinking, eh?

And no - the fucking guy is NOT perfect. This is a least worst argument framed in an anti-war, andti-interventionist context.... and no apologies for it.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:56 | 6581222 McMolotov
McMolotov's picture

And I didn't junk you. But as I've said before, it's all gonna come crashing down at some point, probably in the near future. Bernie could make it happen sooner a plus in my opinion and I don't think he'd take us to war in the process, unlike most of the other assholes. Is he an economic simpleton? Yes, and so is every other candidate. He'll blow tremendous amounts of money here at home instead of overseas. That's essentially the difference.

For anyone who looks at the stream of articles everyday regarding the US and Russia and finds himself a bit queasy, Bernie is probably the least bad option. I'm still not convinced voting makes any difference at all, so I'll sit this one out (yet again). But to be completely honest, I wouldn't feel quite as worried about my oldest son being sent to some godforsaken hell hole if Bernie somehow managed to make it into the Oval Orifice. I can't say the same about anyone else.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:12 | 6581310 calltoaccount
calltoaccount's picture

 so I'll sit this one out (yet again)"

 

and enable one of the status quo scumbags to send your son to war?

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:25 | 6581373 McMolotov
McMolotov's picture

As I said: "I'm still not convinced voting makes any difference at all..."

Granted, it usually does a good job of getting a person called for jury duty. Plus I live in a state that would vote for a puppy killer as long as he had a 'D' after his name.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:10 | 6581292 Baby Eating Dingo22
Baby Eating Dingo22's picture

Capitalism is dead once you get past the landscaping business. It's already been replaced with cronyism

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:20 | 6581349 flysofree
flysofree's picture

I like your comment.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:37 | 6581129 Charles Nelson ...
Charles Nelson Reilly's picture

I mean yeah, ok Bernie, I agree with you on some things, like this.  Then I see the fucking guy wants to spend another $15 trillion on entitlements.  Where exactly is that money gonna come from?  Answer: More taxes, bigger government and more money printing.  It's like curing cancer with more smoking.

This guy, like The Pope is economically delusional. Which makes both of them clueless.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:44 | 6581178 Latitude25
Latitude25's picture

His plan is to tax the shit out of high wage earners and big corporations.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:54 | 6581216 Charles Nelson ...
Charles Nelson Reilly's picture

oh ok.... so the middle class, gotcha.

When the fuck has a stupid plan like that ever worked?  I highly doubt wealthy and big coprs will just sit back and roll out a welcoming mat and allow there money to get taken!?!  Fuck no, that money will be hidden, moved, etc.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:03 | 6581259 Latitude25
Latitude25's picture

FDR did it and the rich were happy to negotiate a reduced tax rate of 97% as opposed to 100% over a certain amount because the country was in the shitter in a depression.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 19:58 | 6581843 wendigo
wendigo's picture

No one paid those rates. And FDR was a cunt and war criminal. Primarily a cunt though. 

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:07 | 6581274 Baby Eating Dingo22
Baby Eating Dingo22's picture

as long as these megalopolies want to do business in the world's largest shopping mall known as the USA, there's plenty of ways to make sure revenues and profits are taxed before they leave the muthaland

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:58 | 6581488 juangrande
juangrande's picture

I like Ike!

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:50 | 6581203 Omen IV
Omen IV's picture

you havnt figured it out but there is corporate welfare twice the size of any individual entitlements or insurance programs

 

check out the sugar or the ethanol subsidies - add it up - how about the MIC and Pharma for no bid /  no negotiation by Medicare for drugs - how much do these add up to cumulatively ?

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:03 | 6581260 Baby Eating Dingo22
Baby Eating Dingo22's picture

Better the digital trillions go to the people than the banksters

Bring in anyone else and it's status quo for Wall Street and corporatacrocies

Cut back on bloated military and guv and budget might actually look like a budget

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:07 | 6581268 calltoaccount
calltoaccount's picture

Note your info sources.  The 15T fiigure was actually cointelpro from Rupert's bankster loving WSJ-- which didn't bother to explain that the 15T would also represent a 15T savings over current costs necessitated by USG sucking Big Pharma and Healthcare dick to the tune of 30T annually!

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 20:00 | 6581848 wendigo
wendigo's picture

Really? Pharma scams us out of 30 trillion dollars per year, in an 18 trillion dollar economy? 

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:47 | 6581187 Chuck Walla
Chuck Walla's picture

Then you'll love Venezuela. I hear the weather is fine for gathering grass to wipe yer ass with.

FORWARD YOUNG CHE!

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:47 | 6581188 The Indelicate ...
The Indelicate Genius's picture

There's something to be said about a guy who has been saying the same shit for decades.

I don't agree with him on a lot, but he doesn't seem to be full of shit, and from an anti-war perspective {and wasteful spending} he seems to be the best candidate.

Ironically, the Jewish guy running may be the least willing to wash Nutty Yahoo's balls at the drop of a kippah.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:49 | 6581195 Scooby Dooby Doo
Scooby Dooby Doo's picture

Everyone who is exposed to capitalism for too long eventually go Commie.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:18 | 6581344 Latitude25
Latitude25's picture

I was in Argentina a few months ago and capitalism has been destroyed and the people really do believe in Christina the socialist.  Everyone gets a handout.  But the capitalists are to blame for so many years of fucking up the economy to the point of no return.  I wish there was a middle ground in the bullshit like that which does exist in some other countries.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:24 | 6581367 flysofree
flysofree's picture

Very true indeed.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:08 | 6581517 Scooby Dooby Doo
Scooby Dooby Doo's picture

We have a saying: Beware of humans.

Some very fine canines are rounded up and put into cages for a few weeks as humans are freely paraded in front of them. Some humans take a dog home.

The rest of the dogs are killed because they weren't cute enough.

I sit here contemplating humans creating complex but efficient sociological systems to manage themselves.

I cringe.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:25 | 6581361 flysofree
flysofree's picture

+1 Very nicely said.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 21:02 | 6582099 SeekingNuNormal
SeekingNuNormal's picture

I lived in Murica for 33 years.  not a single day was I living in a capitalists, free market society.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:57 | 6581233 fishwharf
fishwharf's picture

Me too.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:33 | 6581110 Ataxic Press
Ataxic Press's picture

How dare he. Our prisons are the most profitable in the world.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:37 | 6581131 lehmen_sisters
lehmen_sisters's picture

Prisons are to teach people that drugs are bad and you shouldn't grow pot, they are not used as profit generators </s>

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:35 | 6581121 Sudden Debt
Sudden Debt's picture

Why have prisons if you have FEMA camps?

Why have prisons when you can send people to stallags?

Why not just send them to the gold and silver mines?

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:37 | 6581133 SgtShaftoe
SgtShaftoe's picture

I think a vote for Bernie is a bigger middle finger to Washington than Trump the chump.  His economic policies are completely cracked out, but hell the system is coming down anyway...

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:40 | 6581150 lehmen_sisters
lehmen_sisters's picture

Thats almost what i've been thinking, Bernie they might fear and really throw a wrench into their game...That is if our votes even really fucking matter, which im thinking they dont. 

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:45 | 6581180 Fahque Imuhnutjahb
Fahque Imuhnutjahb's picture

Diebold would take issue with that sentiment.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:41 | 6581155 NRGIsFree
NRGIsFree's picture

Ahhhh.. End the "War On Drugs" maybe?

(Otherwise know as the monopolization of drug trade and artificial elevation in price of natural substances and prison industrial complex expansion act) "George Bush Sr."  

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:43 | 6581165 Fahque Imuhnutjahb
Fahque Imuhnutjahb's picture

 

 

Hillary slams pharma, Bernie slams farma.  If these folks get their way and shut down multiple

sources of corporate welfare, we're gonna have one hell of a worse unemployment problem.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:47 | 6581166 Latitude25
Latitude25's picture

The Chinese want this since our prison labor is cheaper than their slave labor.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:44 | 6581177 TxExPat
TxExPat's picture

The old style prison "chain gangs" were largely eleminated because it gave corrupt local sherifs/judges a financial incenitive to lock people up for what was essentially slave labor.  (Pay the county X dollars on the table, and me Y dollars under the table and we'll have a prison gang out there do the work for way less than what it would cost you to hire a free crew...).

Running the prisons privately for profit keeps the sherrif/judges hands "clean", instead of accepting bribes under the table they simply can accept campaign contributions from the "law and order" advoicate who owns the prisons.  There are still very preverse incintives there, just one layer removed...

You would think that we would have remembered why chain gangs were eleminated, but attention spans run pretty limited in this country (Those who do not remember history are comdemed to repeat it, or something to that effect...). 

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:47 | 6581189 Fahque Imuhnutjahb
Fahque Imuhnutjahb's picture

Seems like there should be some middle ground, and teach some jobs skills.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:44 | 6581179 The Indelicate ...
The Indelicate Genius's picture

Sanders says a lot of good things.

Now - if he could only concede that the 1st amendment means what it says, that Congress can not "reverse" Citizens United, and assure us political agnostics that he knows the middle class is taxed enough already.

I may vote for the guy... I just can't do Trump, who is probably working for the Dems anyway.

President hillary?

Cruz?

I'll take the "commie" over those traitorous cunts.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:48 | 6581193 all-priced-in
all-priced-in's picture

Just convert our public schools over to prisons.

 

/s/

 

 

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:49 | 6581196 mastersnark
mastersnark's picture

Even broken, scum sucking, communist clocks are right twice a day

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:50 | 6581202 Not if_ But When
Not if_ But When's picture

I have been mercilessly attacked by posters when I say stuff like Sander's stating that "Wall Street's Business Model is Fraud" and make posts about him saying things which no other candidate would dare such as declaring America to be an oligarchy.

Then posters attack him as being socialist.  Well, we have socialism for the banksters and 1% - do we not?  And he does have original ideas and, most importantly, a voting record that backs his every utterance - unlike Hillary.  As icing on the cake he voted against the Iraq Invasion and TARP.  Remember, during the Iraq vote dissenters were accused as being unpatriotic?  (What a fuckjob!  And it took balls to stand up against it).

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:55 | 6581223 The Indelicate ...
The Indelicate Genius's picture

I distinguish between Fox/Drudge/Ayn Rand libertarians - who are in fact largely social conservative and war mongering, and left libertarians and classical conservatives ...

for whom there is no bigger waste or harm to human liberty than years and years of needless war for oil/gas concerns [granting energy is a legit security issue] and banks.

But "socialist" will get get a knee jerk reaction from people who seem to think a non-socialist war mongering thief without an ounce of integrity is better.

sigh.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:54 | 6581476 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

"Socialist" / "Communist" is the US version of Israel's "anti-semite". It is used to trigger an conditioned emotional repsonse rather than looking at facts and reality.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:57 | 6581232 calltoaccount
calltoaccount's picture

+1000%

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:03 | 6581261 Fahque Imuhnutjahb
Fahque Imuhnutjahb's picture

 

 

I read one of his books that was a transcript of his filibuster.  He makes a lot a salient points, many of which are made here in the posts

and the threads.  His biggest blind spot, which was touched upon in his interview with Colbert, is 1) How will you fund your agenda

and 2) How will you be able to secure enough cooperation to implement it.  As far as his being a "Socialist", big fucking deal,

we already have socialism, like you pointed out.  We need to get the middle class out of the class vice of avarice and sloth.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:47 | 6581458 The Wedge
The Wedge's picture

I agree with Sanders estimation of most of our problems but at the end of the day the Socialist is the bankers dream. More debt, more debt. If the private prison system is more efficient why not change the sentencing laws? If the private prisons are abolished, wouldn't the crazy laws still be in place? Details, details.

This is just more "those evil corporations". Meanwhile central banks continue to rob and enslave you day after day.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:57 | 6581485 calltoaccount
calltoaccount's picture

the Socialist is the bankers dream. 

not if tbtf banks are broken up and Glass Steagle is revived as Sanders advoctes.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:09 | 6581518 calltoaccount
calltoaccount's picture

the Socialist is the bankers dream. 

not if tbtf banks are broken up and Glass Steagle is revived as Sanders advoctes.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 21:41 | 6582253 The Wedge
The Wedge's picture

Great, put glas stegal back in place. All good but the bankers I refer to are not hampered by such constraints. Maybe I should have been more specific. Central Bankers love socialism as it means a more debt.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:50 | 6581205 all-priced-in
all-priced-in's picture

Everyone has a plan until they get a nailgun to the head.

 

 

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:55 | 6581224 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Go Bernie. Stop the racket.

I'd go one farther and let them all out and require everybody to have military service and an AK-47 at home. Open carry bitchez.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:56 | 6581229 HenryHall
HenryHall's picture

In America, all monies collected from or on behalf of prisoners or criminals must go directly to the IRS. No exceptions.

Wed, 09/23/2015 - 07:54 | 6583065 Abaco
Abaco's picture

Fuck you.  Not everyone in prison is a criminal.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 16:57 | 6581234 richsob
richsob's picture

I lost a long time friend who made a comment I didn't agree with concerning the U.S. "justice" system.  He is an Assistant US Attorney.  We were arguing about the % of truly innocent people unfairly sent to Federal prison.  I said it had to be a fair amount of people because the fucking government can't do anything else consistently right; why assume federal prosecutors have a better batting average than the Department of Education, HUD or the Treasury Department?  His reply was "stop sweating it; we only indict guilty people".  I reminded him he was a stupid fuck in grade school and high school and apparently nothing had changed.

Wed, 09/23/2015 - 07:50 | 6583060 Abaco
Abaco's picture

Those assholes should be beat to death. Every AUSA doing criminal prosectutions is an absolute piece of shit.  They violate the constitution every day.  They lie. They subborn perjury. They are cold-blooded fucks.  They only way these reptiles get their 99% conviction rate is by charging non-crimes and buying testimony with plea deals and getting everyone to cave because they threaten them with 50 years in prison for farting.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:07 | 6581282 rejected
rejected's picture

Gives new meaning to "Made in USA" prisons

Read of many citizens put out of work because of these labor prisons. "InSourcing..."

Here's a little on how it works.

http://vltp.net/rape-of-americas-workers-crime-victims-now-prisoners-giv...

 

Amerika business doing what Amerika business does best..... screw ameriKans.

 

 

 

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:17 | 6581336 Not if_ But When
Not if_ But When's picture

Yep, this is the the mega-corp mindset that Sanders rails against.  He also is vociferously against the Export/Import Bank which he correctly sees as coorporate welfare.  Recall that both Boeing and GE are in the process of blackmailing the country by claiming job loss if it is not renewed.  After raping the state of Washington for example for tax breaks for having facilities there.  And GE was the largest non-bank user of FED emergency lending programs during the financial crisis.  While not paying any taxes for three successive years.  Sanders sees right through this shit.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:10 | 6581293 trader1
trader1's picture

#FeelTheBern

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:19 | 6581347 Silver Bullet
Silver Bullet's picture

Give 'em hell, Bernie!

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:20 | 6581350 Oldrepublic
Oldrepublic's picture

Three years ago a newspaper in New Orleans published a series entitled:  Louisiana Incarerated

 

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/05/louisiana_is_the_worlds_pris...

"The hidden engine behind the state's well-oiled prison machine is cold, hard cash. A majority of Louisiana inmates are housed in for-profit facilities, which must be supplied with a constant influx of human beings or a $182 million industry will go bankrupt."

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:22 | 6581358 Imminent Collapse
Imminent Collapse's picture

Bernie Sanders is the only candidate that is telling you what he thinks, not what he thinks you want to hear.  And I like what he is saying.  Can he change things?  Not by himself, but he is right on the issues that I care most about.  #feelthebern

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:56 | 6581481 geekz_rule
geekz_rule's picture

damn straight! #feelthebern 

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:25 | 6581370 the grateful un...
the grateful unemployed's picture

okay mr dimon and mr blankenfein, that's going to be twenty years each, what's that you say? parole? oh noooo!

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:34 | 6581395 Latitude25
Latitude25's picture

Even if Sanders does win what are the odds that he will be any better than the castrated Tsiparis or Hollande.  Don't underestimate the ability of oligarchs.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:52 | 6581472 Herdee
Herdee's picture

Who's going to make all the trinkets and furniture for corporate America.The prisoners work cheaper than labour in China.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:28 | 6581578 Savyindallas
Savyindallas's picture

They may work cheaper, but costs and profits are still insane. hat are the costs for incarcerating an American? If you look at everything  -prisons, costs of Courts and judicial system, lost productivity -it must be over 75k a year per prisoner.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 19:41 | 6581800 countryboy42
countryboy42's picture

I remember hearing, years ago, that it was around $80k per inmate per year.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:55 | 6581478 geekz_rule
geekz_rule's picture

regardless of what you think  about Sanders.. is there actually ANYONE that honestly believes there are "efficiencies" in privatization anymore? in this crony - nepotistic capitalism?

is there are oine so deluded on faux / lush rimbaugh vomit that believes private prisons are a good idea ( other than stock holding investor class douche nozzles? )

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 17:57 | 6581486 Bemused Observer
Bemused Observer's picture

The people must be told that if they WANT more "law and order", and they WANT to criminalize everything they don't approve of, then it is going to cost them, plenty.

If it costs too much to incarcerate, then stop incarcerating so many. The right to judge and punish is an awesome power of the State best used sparingly, simply because the price becomes too high, both in money and in loss of freedoms. There is also a more insidious cost to the character of a people, in how they are seen and how they see themselves...Strict law and order societies are never happy places, as physically safe as they may be. They also aren't very free.

Also, if you reserve the right to imprison or even kill me you have a great responsibility to all aspects of the process, to insure there is no stain, no taint, of impurity of motive of all parties involved in the decision-making process. If the State is just selling off its responsibilities than it never had any moral or legal claim to them in the first place. The State is nothing but a dirty pimp, selling what isn't his by threats and force.

The idea of the State "outsourcing" such a sacred responsibility to people whose only obligation is to return profits to shareholders is so beyond repulsive it seems like the plot of a dystopian novel...

Folks gotta wake up to this shit.

Wed, 09/23/2015 - 07:42 | 6583053 Abaco
Abaco's picture

While for profit prisons are repugnant the public/private issue is a distraction.  Prosecutors with immunity. Gross over-charging to force a plea deal. Denial of bail. Political crimes such as having the wrong plant or spending money in a way unapproved by government.  These are the more serious issues that result in the US having 25% of the world's prison population.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:02 | 6581492 Bastiat
Bastiat's picture

Why can't we just "emigrate" all the prisoners to Europe and close the prisons?  Hell, prisons suck, they would be legitimate refugees. Some are even muslims and would be right at home.

 

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:24 | 6581565 Savyindallas
Savyindallas's picture

Nice try -but Europe and the US are one and the same. The Banksters control both.

Wed, 09/23/2015 - 07:40 | 6583049 Abaco
Abaco's picture

Idiot.  A very large percentage of people in prison in the US have harmed no one. Why not just release them and replace them with the cocksuckers who have been caging and harvesting prisoners for profit. People like DA's, bailiffs, guards, cops, etc.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:05 | 6581493 Winston Smith 2009
Winston Smith 2009's picture

Yawn... Bernie won't be allowed to be chosen as the Dem candidate. Too potentially disruptive of the status quo, ya' know.

From "Post-Soviet Lessons for a Post-America Century" by Dmitry Orlov, someone who experienced the collapse of the Soviet Union and the various effects of that collapse on life there:

People in the United States have a broadly similar attitude toward politics with people of the Soviet Union. In the U.S., this is often referred to as "voter apathy", but it might be more accurately described as non-voter indifference. The Soviet Union had a single, entrenched, systemically corrupt political party, which held a monopoly on power. The U.S. has two entrenched, systemically corrupt political parties, whose positions are often indistinguishable, and which together hold a monopoly on power. In either case, there is, or was, a single governing elite, but in the United States it organized itself into opposing teams to make its stranglehold on power seem more sportsmanlike.

Although people often bemoan political apathy as if it were a grave social ill, it seems to me that this is just as it should be. Why should essentially powerless people want to engage in a humiliating farce designed to demonstrate the legitimacy of those who wield the power? In Soviet-era Russia, intelligent people did their best to ignore the Communists: paying attention to them, whether through criticism or praise, would only serve to give them comfort and encouragement, making them feel as if they mattered. Why should Americans want to act any differently with regard to the Republicans and the Democrats? For love of donkeys and elephants?

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:28 | 6581559 brushhog
brushhog's picture

He makes some good points but as a good socialist, he completely absolves government and hangs all the blame on "corporate greed". You want less people in jail for nonviolent crimes? CHANGE THE LAWS ASSHOLE!

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:44 | 6581628 MeelionDollerBogus
MeelionDollerBogus's picture

War is Peace

Hate is Love

Prison is Freedom!

Murrikkka! Fuck, yeah!!

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 18:58 | 6581656 Not if_ But When
Not if_ But When's picture

I'm up here in NH and have been supporting Bernie since day one.  I have been to his Concord NH campaign headquarters talking to the staff head there (Sue).  He also advocates the Financial Transaction Tax to tax High Frequency Traders.  These monies would then be used to fund fixing our infrastructure and to address educational costs. He advocates this as he recognizes that they add nothing to the economy and reap big rewards for themselves.

The FTT has been bouncing around in Congress for almost a decade.  It never gets anywhere because it is always attached to other bills that get nowhere.  I asked Bernie Sanders about this at a town hall meeting in Henniker NH.  If interested, it is on YouTube as "Bernie Sanders Henniker NH Town Hall Q&A".  I asked question #2.

My name is also Birney (different spelling) and I asked why such important legislation as the FTT can't be forwarded on its own merits as singular legislation for a "yes or no vote" so we'd know who voted for it and who against.  I have asked this of many politicians since they are all over the place in NH due to our first-in-the-nation-primary.  His was by far the most thoughtful response.

( hey man, if I'm in the mood and see a microphone, sometimes I feel compelled to get my bad self right up there)

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

He also says we should leave responsibility for Middle East military-type stuff to Saudi Arabia since they have the freakin' third largest military in the world.  (at least I think it was Saudi Arabia, but you get the point.  We are expending too much in that area when others should be).

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 19:52 | 6581830 Ghostmaker
Ghostmaker's picture

Didn't privite prisons occur because of the cost of using union government employed guards with nice fat 20 year retirement plans?

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 19:53 | 6581831 Ghostmaker
Ghostmaker's picture

Didn't privite prisons occur because of the cost of using union government employed guards with nice fat 20 year retirement plans?

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 21:08 | 6582133 averros
averros's picture

Ask GULAG survivors if government prisons are any better.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 21:39 | 6582241 Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer's picture

Please watch this short interview with Houston Lawyer Howard Nations regarding this issue (for profit prisons) I think you'll be quite surprised at what you hear.

A man once said -- "It isn't what we don't know that gives us troubleit's what we know that ain't so."

https://youtu.be/0JMCx2yi-WA?t=9m57s

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 22:46 | 6582483 AKrandy
AKrandy's picture

I thought prisons were for criminals to get masters degrees, he's the guy that wants "free" education.

Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:47 | 6582618 teslaberry
teslaberry's picture

any liberal harping on 'private prisons' is playing divide and conquer distraction. the problem is STALINESQUE PUBLIC INDUSTRIAL PRISON COMPLEX AND THE PRIVATE COMPANIES THAT PROVIDE RESOURCES TO IT FOR PUBLIC TAX DOLLARS. 

 

NOT PRIVATE PRISONS. 

 

this is a lie. it's not private prisons and it never will be. you CANNOT CLAIM THAT 2% OF THE PROBLEM IS THE REAL PROBLEM AND GET AWAY WITH PRETENDING NOT TO BE A LIAR.

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