Montana Gov. Bullock extends private prison company's contract

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

He probably renewed the contract because the area had a relative lack of well-paying jobs. Prisons prop up the rural economy.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

He probably renewed the contract because the area had a relative lack of well-paying jobs. Prisons prop up the rural economy.

So did slavery and coal mining.

Private prisons are wrong for many of the reasons FuzzyBear rightfully cites, but it's ludicrous to compare them to slavery.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

I would also mention that Bullock cancelling the contract wouldn't necessarily close the prison; it would just mean that the prison would be staffed by state correctional staff (a better outcome) or a different privatized provider (who could possibly be worse than the privatized provider they have right now).

In most (though not all) cases, private correctional firms provide the prison staffing, but the state provides the facility.  Prisons are expensive to build, and they can't readily be converted for other uses. 

Question is, though, does the legislature give him the freedom to even consider turning this into a public prison? Have they not given him enough fiscal room for him to do such?
I don't know...I would not have done this but I easily see why he might have done this.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

He probably renewed the contract because the area had a relative lack of well-paying jobs. Prisons prop up the rural economy.

So did slavery and coal mining.

Private prisons are wrong for many of the reasons FuzzyBear rightfully cites, but it's ludicrous to compare them to slavery.

What makes the comparison ludicrous?

People who end up in prison have been dealt their fate via the legal system. Enslaved blacks in the South didn't have a choice - regardless of whatever they had done, they were stuck as slaves, unless they tried to escape. No one is plopped in a private prison as a newborn.
The comparison is moronic and diminutizes slavery as it existed in the antebellum South.
The sheer silliness of this only distracts from the real problems that exist in private prisons.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

He probably renewed the contract because the area had a relative lack of well-paying jobs. Prisons prop up the rural economy.

So did slavery and coal mining.

Private prisons are wrong for many of the reasons FuzzyBear rightfully cites, but it's ludicrous to compare them to slavery.

What makes the comparison ludicrous?

People who end up in prison have been dealt their fate via the legal system. Enslaved blacks in the South didn't have a choice - regardless of whatever they had done, they were stuck as slaves, unless they tried to escape. No one is plopped in a private prison as a newborn.
The comparison is moronic and diminutizes slavery as it existed in the antebellum South.
The sheer silliness of this only distracts from the real problems that exist in private prisons.

Slavery, like murder, doesn't because less bad because the victims were convicted of a crime.

The vast majority of people who end up in private prisons are there because they did something wrong and got punished in the court of law.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

He probably renewed the contract because the area had a relative lack of well-paying jobs. Prisons prop up the rural economy.

So did slavery and coal mining.

Private prisons are wrong for many of the reasons FuzzyBear rightfully cites, but it's ludicrous to compare them to slavery.

What makes the comparison ludicrous?

People who end up in prison have been dealt their fate via the legal system. Enslaved blacks in the South didn't have a choice - regardless of whatever they had done, they were stuck as slaves, unless they tried to escape. No one is plopped in a private prison as a newborn.
The comparison is moronic and diminutizes slavery as it existed in the antebellum South.
The sheer silliness of this only distracts from the real problems that exist in private prisons.

Slavery, like murder, doesn't because less bad because the victims were convicted of a crime.

The vast majority of people who end up in private prisons are there because they did something wrong and got punished in the court of law.

Did you actually read a single word of what I said?

Yes I did and in some cases it is borderline slavery. But not in a general sense.