At a time when states are struggling to reduce bloated prison populations and tight budgets, a private prison management company is offering to buy prisons in exchange for various considerations, including a controversial guarantee that the governments maintain a 90% occupancy rate for at least 20 years.
The $250 million proposal, circulated by the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America to prison officials in 48 states, has been blasted by some state officials who suggest such a program could pressure criminal justice officials to seek harsher sentences to maintain the contractually required occupancy rates.
“You don’t want a prison system operating with the goal of maximizing profits,” says Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and advocate for reducing prison populations through less costly diversion programs. “The only thing worse is that this seeks to take advantage of some states’ troubled financial position.”
A neuropathologist has examined the brains of 111 N.F.L. players — and 110 were found to...
A federal judge ruled that the state of Kentucky is required to pay legal fees to...
An apparent smuggling operation involving undocumented immigrants came to a tragic conclusion early Sunday morning when...
John Heard, best known as Peter McAllister in the "Home Alone" movies and who appeared in...
