Tuesday, January 10, 2017

"Not All Psychopaths Are In Prison-Some Are In The Boardroom" Robert Hare

Remember this guy?
An Odd Bird, Most Fowl
He's kind of like this guy, they're from the same kind of folksy place, Indiana.

I really didn't know what happened to Danworth Quayle, I honestly didn't care.
Until I started reading an article about Trump and how much he likes the idea of privatizing prisons.
 I thought, hmmm, wonder who's lobbying for that?
That's when I found out about Hobart Ventures and the group that has retained them for their lobbying services, The Corrections Corp of America.
Sounds a little like the Peace Corp of Incarceration.
So who's a "strategic advisor" for Hobart (HHQ Ventures)?
 J. Danworth Quayle, shocker!
 HHQ "works in Washington D.C., but lives in the 'real world" according to the website. "The real world" of lobbying  for Corrections Corp of America, (rebranded as Core Civic) procuring  "The First and Largest Private Prison Owner" government contracts.
 I clicked and found out that they have one such government contract "to accommodate up to 500 detainees" Currently they are detaining 600 detainees in their 2,016 bed (sounds like a hospital, right?) correctional facility.
I wonder exactly, how much a government contract is worth?
 Plowing through the shareholders report, I noticed lots of bragging about shareholder value, its time consuming just trying to get to the value of the government contracts that's footing the bill for Core Civic & being able to afford to pay Dan Quayle for his lobbying efforts.
What I like best is this; "Taxpayers also benefit from government agencies partnering with CCA. Whether new bed capacity is needed or old, antiquated facilities need to be replaced, partnering with CCA means taxpayers do not incur the upfront capital investment which can often reach hundreds of millions of dollars."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't government agencies funded by tax dollars?
"Every day we remain focused on providing high-quality, safe and secure facilities that meet the needs of our government partners. By consistently doing so, we have experienced more than three decades of continued growth and contract retention rates in excess of 90 percent."
"our ability to meet and maintain qualification for taxation as a real estate investment trust, or REIT" essentially, leasing space,(See below for explanation of REIT*) "facilities owned by our government partners" and they pay no federal income tax, 92015 tax form 10k, Payments by federal correctional and detention authorities represented 51%, 44%, and 44% of our total revenue.
That's not all, not only do they lease out private correctional facilities to their "government partners"
"We currently provide transportation services to governmental agencies through our whollyowned TRS, TransCor America, LLC, or TransCor. During the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014, and 2013, TransCor generated total revenue of $4.1 million," pg. 12
"Despite our increase in federal revenue, inmate populations in federal facilities, particularly within the BOP system nationwide, have declined over the past two years." Remember, they pay no Federal taxes, because of the deficit and budget cuts, the funding has been cut. So, that's disappointing.
We provide space and services under contracts with federal, state, and local government agencies that generally have credit ratings of single-A or better. In addition, a majority of our contracts have terms between one and five years, and we have historically experienced customer retention of approximately 90%, which contributes to our relatively predictable and stable revenue base. This stream of revenue combined with our low maintenance capital expenditure requirement translates into steady predictable cash flow. We believe the REIT structure also provides us with greater access to capital and flexibility to pursue growth opportunities. pg 14, (*Real Estate Investment Trustavoid most or all tax liabilities,)
'The demand for capacity in the short-term has been affected by the budget challenges many of our government partners currently face." pg. 24 (ie; less money for government contracts)
 'we have created new business opportunities with customers that have not previously utilized the private corrections sector, expanded relationships with existing customers, including all three federal correctional and detention agencies, converted to a REIT,' pg.14
This next offering made me laugh for all the wrong reasons;
"As an alternative to providing "turn-key" correctional bed space and services to our government partners,
"we also offer our customers an attractive portfolio of prison facilities"pg.24
 Sorry, but, an attractive portfolio of prison facilities?????????
This is the best part "Any or all of our forward-looking statements in this Annual Report may turn out to be inaccurate." Ooops!
I could go on and on, but an attractive portfolio of prison facilities is sickening.
So the next place I go to in my head is; uh-oh, there has to be problems with these psychopaths who think prisoners are a for profit situation and surprise, surprise! It's the employees they are abusing;  History of wage violations, poor treatment of employees, I am sure that is just scratching the surface. If employees are having problems, what is happening to the prisoners?
The CCA passed it's thirty year anniversary, read about it here, Not much to celebrate, unless you're Dan Quayle, or you're on the Board of Directors for CCA, like Thurgood Marshall Junior, Yes, the son, of THAT Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court Justice. I'm sure his Dad would be so proud.

 President-Elect Trump is on board with the whole privatization of prisons, it's nothing new and has been going on for quite some time, When Vice President Pence is finished his term as VP, maybe fellow Hoosier, Dan Quayle can guide him in his post-VP lobbying career.
 I just hope he keeps his spelling pointers to himself.
                                           Dan Quayle helps a kid out by spelling potato WRONG.
*http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/11/117983/2015%20Annual%20Letter%20to%20Shareholders%20-%20Final.pdf
http://www.hare.org/

3 comments:

  1. Good Morning Patricia ... yes, the privatization thing been going on for long actually, I have 2 series on my blog that covers alot of this "Incarcerated American" & "How To Privatize America" series (I know fairly well, the prison system workings here), they also are hungry to privatize the Post Office and Social Security, 2 of the biggest cash grabs, that amount to several trillion combined in money to play on the markets. The way they peddle off this thought to lower classes of people, is that, they can do things cheaper than the government, therefore "savinf your taxes" (of course, it's all a scam) ... they basically market the idea as "Public/ Private Partnerships" (another scam, because the "public HAS NO input, as they would in a peoples elected and governing body). But it isnt just America, they are driving all the worlds so called democracies into austerity, bankruptcy, etc ... the reason why? ... so that we have to "depend" on them as a sort of "economic saviour", then we become in debt to them instead of ourselves more, just like these trade deals, all designed for the same goal. and to make a standard global wage, expectancies, and standard 2 levels of class, this has went on of course thought history, but never with complete global coverage as today ... but I expect them to meet a resistance much greater than they anticipate (much I cant detail or talk about here, being online ... I can get more personal, talking to people offline in other words) ... lot of scams going on though, even the wars are force fed, and terrorists are basically a result of our and neoliberalism's actions, in retaliation to OUR CORPORATE oppression. BTW, Thanx for the Times piece on Trump and this, I havent seen it. I wont shut up if I dont stop dear ... so I'm outta here {:-) ... Have a good un

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  2. Private prisons also are more violent and dangerous places, provide worse or next-to-no effective medical care for prisoners, and have no incentive to allow shorter incarcerations for any reason. (A day less on a sentence is a day less of income and profits.)

    When the owners of these monstrosities finally go to hell, they will find it is in their own prisons.

    Yours very crankily,
    The New York Crank

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    1. You're absolutely right NY Crank, they dont do a damn bit of good except make money, these SOB's dont care about rehabilitating anyone. If a Person goes into one of these private facilities (they call them "state jails" in states like Texas for instance) they probably get about $38K to $40K (?) for that year for the inmate, from state tax money, if the inmate is released before that year, like for a several month parole violation or whatever, they refill that same bunk in the same year, and get another $40K or so. On top of that, everything in there costs alot as far as prison stay costs of living, charges for medical visits (or they actually have credit accounts they will set up for you, or milk your relatives/ kin), phone calls ... things like junk food commissary, or like Ramen Noddles for a $1.50 or so, cup heating electric elements to heat them or your coffee, slippers, outside work shoes, socks underwear, phone calls at inflated costs, mostly charged to your familia ... the list is endless almost of the money they make in these joints ... I am very familiar with the incarceration gig here in America.

      Unfortunately I dont believe these folks go to Hell or anyone when they die, so I feel we should impose punishment on them here and now while they are alive, so they can savor the experience.

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