Hacker News Reader

Comment by Nate75Sanders | Hacker News Reader

I admit I've only skimmed the article and the comments on HN, but I don't think that either have mentioned the CCPOA (California Correctional Peace Officers Association). It's basically a union of prison guards who are heavily pro-incarceration. The quick version is that stricter laws produce more prisoners which leads to more money for prison guards and their organization. The story is better told here:

http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/blog/2011/06/05/the-role-of-th...

The phrase "prison-industrial complex" leads to some interesting reading, as well.

View on HN

I mentioned it a comment with a great analysis of public unions by the hoover institute - I highly recommend checking it out.

In 1998 "The Atlantic" magazine wrote a great article about the relationship of Big Business and Prisons, known as the "Prison-Industrial Complex"[1].

Its a sobering read and really brings home the fact that incarceration is indeed big business and there is a lot of entrenched interests in maintaining the status quo. And large rates of incarceration.

[1] http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/12/the-pris...

Private prison companies such as Wackenhut stand to profit in the billions from increased rates of incarceration. There is absolutely no question about who benefits the most. Please take your blatant anti-worker agenda and shove it.

How does that fact make parent's point untrue? He never said the workers stood to benefit 'more' than Wackenhut; it's not clear what that would even mean. Clearly both the unions and the contractors both are in favor of increased incarceration, that's not very surprising.

It makes his point irrelevant; those workers' interests pale in comparison to that of the owning interests of those corporations. He presents unions as the sole cause of the problem, which is not only intellectually deceitful, but quite incorrect. More importantly, it reveals an underlying agenda that needs to be challenged as strongly as possible in civic discourse.

In fact, private prisons and unionized guards aren't even on the same side, due to the former hiring largely non-union labor. And the private prison industry has been growing and lobbying faster than ever:

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/09/26/328486/us-privat...

" He presents unions as the sole cause of the problem" - When did he do that?

When he posted a comment in which he said essentially that, and in which he referenced a one-sided article that goes to extreme lengths to attack blue collar workers' retirement plans and their own collective efforts at bettering their economic self-interest.

The point should be clear as day by now; if you can't extract the basic message and argument from his comment then you have no basis for inserting yourself into the debate. Please don't waste any more of my time.

This was not my basic message at all.

I'm here telling you this right now.

They are a special interest group that promotes incarceration. There are others, as well.

People are far more aware of private prisons than they are prison guard unions. I've known nasty things about private prisons for 10+ years. I found out about CCOPA and other similar entities in the past 1-2.

As stated earlier, I was simply presenting something that I figured people here likely hadn't seen.

You're too emotional to reason with, I'm afraid.

I'm done.

From the linked article:

many of [CCPOA’s] contributions are directly pro-incarceration. It gave over $100,000 to California’s Three Strikes initiative, Proposition 184 in 1994, making it the second-largest contributor. It gave at least $75,000 to the opponents of Proposition 36, the 2000 initiative that replaced incarceration with substance abuse treatment for certain nonviolent offenders. From 1998 to 2000 it gave over $120,000 to crime victims’ groups, who present a more sympathetic face to the public in their pro-incarceration advocacy. It spent over $1 million to help defeat Proposition 66, the 2004 initiative that would have limited the crimes that triggered a life sentence under the Three Strikes law. And in 2005, it killed Gov. Schwarzenegger’s plan to “reduce the prison population by as much as 20,000, mainly through a program that diverted parole violators into rehabilitation efforts: drug programs, halfway houses and home detention.”

I do not have any sort of anti-worker agenda. I was simply pointing out a special interest group that I found out about in the past 1-2 years that I'm guessing most people here are not aware of. I believe I was correct.

Never, anywhere, do I imply (it's clearly your assumption) that CCOPA or other unions benefit the most.

Look back at the structure of what I said and then reconcile that against what you're accusing me of. You had an emotional reaction to what I said and jumped to conclusions.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com