Private Prisons DON'T Cause Overcrowded Prisons

On this episode of Common Sense Soapbox, the crew visits Ron in prison. Ron blabbers about the profit motive of private prisons and their runaway exploitation. Seamus calmly explains that private prisons are hardly the main cause of America’s mass incarceration issues.
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CREDITS:
Written by Sean W. Malone, Seamus Coughlin, and Lou Perez
Animated by Seamus Coughlin
Produced & Edited by Sean W. Malone
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LINKS:

[khukri_wielderxxx]

"mostly peaceful prison riot"

The best sentence I've heard all day :)

[bbkr]

Even FDR had enough common sense to know that public sector unions would lead to bad things. Police unions are not immune from this fact.

[thefanwithoutaface]

Really love how Seamus manages to present a lot of information but unlike a lot of other people, mainly news media, he doesn't act like a smug asshole about it. He speaks without any arrogance and just matter of factly but makes it clear he's willing to listen to another perspective. I wish more presenters did that

[TheAstyanii]

To be fair, most police are sick of seeing "man arrested 400 times in the last ten years murders woman." Turning our courts into a revolving door is what allows these things to happen, so it's fairly easy for the police to agree on wanting sentences to stick.

If that causes overpopulation of prisons, then clearly prison time isn't enough of a deterrent.

[Monsuco]

My biggest problem with the criminal justice system is the plea bargaining process & the so-called trial penalty. A lot of our laws give the option for ridiculously harsh sentences but prosecutors will usually offer a much lighter sentence if you agree to not even contest what you're accused of & plead guilty to a lesser charge. A suspect will often be told they can either plead guilty & get 3 years or contest the charges in a trial & potentially face 15 years if they lose. This was NEVER what our founders envisioned when they set up our nation's court system. This system coerces people into confessing to crimes they didn't commit out of fear of getting a far harsher sentence. At the same time it also sometimes allows for prosecutors to let people off far too easily for crimes that shouldn't be pled down.

Our nation's founders envisioned a criminal justice system in which the accused & the prosecutor would both present their evidence & a jury of fellow citizens would decide if there was proof beyond reasonable doubt to convict.

[Fractured_Unity]

Glad to see both sides can agree that public sector unions don’t have a place in our society, especially in the criminal justice system.

[corruptuser]

I don't care if private prisons are the cause of mass incarceration, I just believe that the CORE duties of government (military and police) should not be outsourced, even if the rest of the government should be cut back.

[grovercleavland]

I just realized something.

Ron’s imprisonment presents a unique opportunity to address a serious issue that often gets ignored: Absent fathers.

You guys should definitely do a video on the negative impact that absent fathers have on society.

[ChronoSquare]

I find it hilarious and wholesome how Florida Man is basically a part of the family/cast by now.

[MrXrt]

These cartoons are always such a delight. I can’t wait for the next one!

[IchNachtLiebe]

The system does suck but its usually for the opposite reasons that the people who run the system tell you on TV

[sqocks]

I'm don't know much about this subject in particular, but it's nice to see the story continue.

[clarkside]

Me, a DND player: I just can't escape hearing about the Pinkertons!

[VanDaRifleman]

We can eliminate prisons by reintroducing judicial corporal punishment & capital punishment.

[ChuckleDuck]

Goodness! A conservative with a MODERATE and reasonable take on American incarceration? Willing to admit there might actually be a problem or two and that, like other systems of government that conservatives are quick to criticize, there actually just MIGHT be a flaw or two (but it's not necessarily every flaw the Left tries to latch on to)? I'd never thought I'd see the day. Excellent video.

[kerwinbrown]

The issue with private prisons is corporatism where "private" organizations serve as agents for the government while both cronies make money of the situation. The courts would have to be either deceived or complicit as would law enforcement and others. It was said to have occurred in some segregated states a number of decades ago.

[thatasmaniandevil]

After working at one of the privately owned government run prisons in Louisiana and knowing the contract details between the owning company and local law enforcement covering how many inmates must be admitted each month or they aren't allowed to make use of the facility.

[travisowens]

a thing that most prisoners have in common, especially males, is fatherless upbringing. if you remove the earliest form of authority chances are you won’t respect other harsher ones later.

[fearthehoneybadger]

Minority Report and Demolition Man give a great idea for a prison system.

[segevstormlord]

The issue of "over"incarceration is always a sticky one. We have way too many laws, making everyone (probably) a criminal many times over. Most of us just don't know what we're guilty of, but give a determined prosecutor enough investigators, and he'll find something.

Personally, I think the war on drugs is better than the legalization that is being pushed for. I am unsure if there truly is this problem of "totally innocent kids" being thrown into prison for decades and becoming hardened criminals by necessity because they "smoked a joint once, " or whatever the narrative is. I am sure I'm over-exaggerating it to one side or another, too. But we do have major problems with UNDER-prosecution of serious crimes, particularly from Soros-funded DAs doing things like de facto legalizing shoplifting and selectively enforcing assault and battery cases only against people who defend themselves against Antifa and the like. (Antifa et al get no prosecution, while those who defend themselves do.)

There's also the problem of police who, for some reason, get rewarded either directly or through indirect social clout for numbers of arrests, and will thus do things like plant evidence, or change their charges during traffic stops if somebody isn't showing themselves to be "drunk enough" to be charged. Traffic stops seem to be a major problem for this kind of thing, but I'm sure there are other cases and instances. Police who pull people over often seem _determined_ to find something to charge the person with, even if there's nothing. This isn't always the case, mind; I've had police pull me over and go so far as to cover up the expiration date on my insurance card and point to the issue date in order to claim I was driving with expired insurance, but I've also had police pull me over for legitimately having a tail light out, and let me go with a warning, even when it was the second time that night (I told the officer that I had already been informed, and was going to take care of it when I got home, but hadn't had a chance to get home to do it yet; this was the truth and in no way me trying to finagle anything, I just got pulled over twice on the same night for it, while on my way home!). So sometimes they're perfectly reasonable even when they had a legitimate reason to pull you over (but you weren't posing a danger or being reckless), and other times they're just fishing for anything, no matter how spurious.

I don't know how to recommend changing incentive structures to make that second problem better, either. But I do know that we have a skewed justice problem where there is both over- and under-prosecution, and we need to figure out how to fix both.