Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pledged Thursday to ban the use of private prison companies if elected president, and in the meantime will stop accepting campaign contributions from those corporations and the lobbyists who work for them.
All previous donations will be given to charity, the former secretary of state's campaign said.
"Hillary Clinton has said we must end the era of mass incarceration, and as president, she will end private prisons and private immigrant detention centers," campaign spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement Thursday night. "She believes that we should not contract out this core responsibility of the federal government, and when we’re dealing with a mass incarceration crisis, we don’t need private industry incentives that may contribute -- or have the appearance of contributing -- to over-incarceration."
Hinojosa said the policy against accepting contributions tied to private prison companies "is only one of many ways that she believes we need to rebalance our criminal justice and immigration systems."
Okay well this is huge!
These for profit private prisons are part of the reason that we put so many people behind bars in this country, and yes it is well past time that we do away with them.
I think this along with Hillary's courageous stand on gun control, and her performance during that Benghazi hearing, are solidifying her lead in this campaign season in a way that will make her very difficult to stop in both the primary and the general.
At this point if you are still convinced that Hillary cannot win in 2016 then I would like a sip of whatever you are drinking. Because it must be mind blowing.
She is incredibly impressive!
ReplyDeleteFor this country and the world-
ReplyDeleteHillary must win or it's over...
She will take on any of them on any issue and stick it to them where the sun don't shine, rightfully so!
YOU GO GIRL!
Had no idea the U.S. had such a thing as private prison companies. WTF! Does any other first world country have these? Perhaps they do but I've never heard of them, has anyone else?
ReplyDeleteAlaska is considering this. One of the issues with private prisons is that Corrections Officers are paid so poorly that there is a great temptation to supplement that income by bringing in contraband for prisoners. It's a very bad idea.
DeleteAlaska has a crappy prison system! The guy that runs it was a boyfriend of Sarah Palin if I remember correctly and she appointed him to the position when quitter gov!
DeleteSome type folks (should I name them?) keep killing inmates within the Anchorage system especially! What is up with that?
Not only that, but here in Kochigan, they fired the food service folks, and the private contractors were serving maggots to the prisoners. After that, Herr Snyder's emergency manager decided to poison Flint by ending their water contract with Detroit and connecting to the Flint River, releasing the lead in the aging pipes. I guess if a city doesn't meet Koch demands, they will be gone.
Delete12:28pm
DeleteBoth the UK and Australia have private prisons as well.
Anon 2:00, Joe Schmidt was canned when Walkef became gov. Other than that you are correct, because the admin doesn't listen to people on the front lines.
DeleteI have nothing but respect for this woman. Can hardly wait to cast my vote for her! She's going to make an outstanding POTUS as has President Obama!
ReplyDeleteI gotta admit Hillary's starting to win me over. I hope she chooses Bernie as her VP. I saw a lot of mutual respect during the debate. And not just the "damn emails" thing.
ReplyDeleteClinton/Castro THAT IS THE TICKET TO WIN BIG!
DeleteSanders and Warren are much more powerful right where they are period. Time to kick ASS.
I agree about Castro on the ticket with Clinton. The Democratic party needs to start taking advantage of the younger leaders like Castro.
DeleteShe will walk the talk in all kinds of ways that don't have to do with legislation and Congress. This is just the beginning of what she's been aiming for her entire life.
ReplyDeleteOne of my husbands was in a federal prison for 3 years. (Is 269 lbs of weed a lot?) One of his prison jobs was to dump reams of good copy paper and working computers in the prison landfill. He explained to me that George Bush, Sr. was a major stockholder in the company that owned the prison and if they didn't get rid of the copy paper and computers, Bush would lose federal money.
ReplyDeleteThe food, however, was a different story.
She might be able to ban the Federal Bureau of Prisons from contracting with any more private prisons that federal prisoners are sent to.
ReplyDeleteThe ones that only have state prisoners I doubt she could anything about.
Madam President has a really nice ring to it. Go Hillary!
ReplyDeleteWait a minute! I recall reading a while ago that Dick, The Shooter, Cheney has a lot of stock in these. He and his thugs will not be happy.
ReplyDeleteYOU GOT THAT RIGHT...
Delete1:26 PM:
ReplyDeleteMy heart goes out to them. NOT!!
PS, the comments on Washington Post are so silly.
ReplyDeleteOpps, I meant HuffPo !
ReplyDeleteThis pisses me off.
DeleteTo people who have double standards and a stupid media,
beer pong is not bad.
people who attend parties are not immoral.
There is no logic in expressing ridiculous outrage when pretty much everyone who is famous has been sold out, and sadly lied about by their jealous peers. Not just ones with the last name Palin, though they've probably been slandered the most - and exaggerated.
Malia will hopefully attend more parties because she is normal and everyone needs that.
Chill out people.
Your double standard is showing bad.
http://www.refinery29.com/2015/10/96323/malia-obama-brown-university-student-paper-apology?ref=yfp
2:33, what does this have to do with our atrocious prison system?
DeleteFinally, someone speaking out about this. The private prison companies and their lobbyists were a big force behind SB1070 in Arizona. Jan Brewer had ties to these companies.
ReplyDeletePhyllis (1:21) I was going to make the same observation. I'm pretty sure that Hillary would not be able to control the state and county prisons. The local governments would have a fit that she might kick out all their cronies. We'd need a much bigger Democratic majority across all levels to try and change the states too. I like the fact that she is committing to this course, but this, too, is a new position, which Bernie has held all through his career. I am committed to work for her if she's the nominee, but I still don't trust her. Her record doesn't reveal a populist history, so how can we be sure that she will follow through on these promises?
ReplyDeleteI believe that a lot of us (including me) projected our liberal views onto Obama when he was running. And it turned out that he wasn't as liberal as we imagined. I'm afraid we're doing the same thing with Hillary.
For all those people who were worried because Hillary was so quiet for months while the idiots in the GOP clown car were beating each other up, she's now looking like the only adult in the room.
ReplyDeleteThey're arguing about who's got better hair and how to build a giant fence between the US and Mexico and how George Bush kept everyone safe (except for the hundreds of thousands of people killed on 9/11 and in the subsequent wars). Meanwhile, she's not only surviving an 11-hour marathon grilling, but she's making the interrogators look like the hateful partisan idiots we all know they are. The GOP candidates are competing to see which one can insult the most voting blocks while Hillary is making important policy statements about the economy, the environment and gun control.
It's beginning to look like Abraham Lincoln running against the Three Stooges.
well I am glad to hear this and frankly it's the least she can do. an easy campaign issue really, a no brainer to help her shore up her base - and provide some competition to Bernie, who is the REAL public servant in favor of the people.
ReplyDeleteThis is a Lisa Murkowski move. Sort of like where Lisa returned the property she got the sweetheart deal on from Bob Penny.
ReplyDeleteShe's only doing it because it would cost her votes, not because she thins it's wrong.
Hillary Clinton has said we must end the era of mass incarceration at private prisons. Does this mean when we finally imprison Todd for human sex trafficking and Sarah for her SarahPac crimes they will go to a federal prison?
ReplyDeleteAnother grandiose campaign promise that cannot and will not be kept.
ReplyDelete