The Pun's on US

http://www.counterpunch.com/moses06282006.html


Down in Pinal County

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Today, however, the jobs picture is much improved. Not only did CCA manage to save the jobs at the Eloy Detention Center by picking up a contract to detain 1,500 male "noncitizens" for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but the giant prison contractor has also broken ground on two new projects in Eloy that will together import about 3,500 new prisoners from Alaska and Hawaii.

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In addition to Eloy's three prisons, CCA already manages two prisons in the nearby town of Florence that together import nearly 4,000 prisoners from ICE, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), US Air Force, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. When all five prisons of Pinal County are up and running, they will bring a total of 2,000 jobs.

"Our contracts create predictable revenue streams," brags the CCA investor report for Q1 2006. And the news does look good for investors. The prison industry is not much affected by economic downturns; 93.3 percent of the market share is yet to be privatized; overcrowding is pervasive; and demographic trends "point to higher prison populations."

In addition to these favorable trends for investors, CCA points to "strong federal demand substantially driven by an increasing emphasis on border security" (CCA Q1 investor report 2006, pdf page 10.)

By "increasing emphasis," CCA means increasing funds. To hold more prisoners, Congress has given USMS a 38 percent increase in detention funding, good for about 5,000 new beds. ICE is getting another $90 million for new cells, too.
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so now we have neo con Prison Barons stuffing their pockets

america, the land of the Barons

:sarcasm:

need a map showing how many jails, prisons are in each state. (city, county, state, Fed.)

the number would probably cause all of us to faint

we've lost our industry, guess the new moneymaker is finding ways to put people in jails. drugs anyone

"Land of the free" my ass!