Privatized Prisons a Good Idea for Brazil

The excuse that government here in Brazil has given for higher crime rates, failure to reform penal law toughen it is that there simply aren't enough prisons. Well duh, who's to blame for that guys?

A prison complex in Ribeirão das Neves - MG has completed its first year of full operation. It is a combination of private/public participation and it seems to be working a whole lot better than what's in place anywhere in the country right now.

Extremely violent riots in the Pedrinhas prison complex in Maranhão, which has seen prisoners killed and their bodies decapitated, is just one example of the extent of the neglect by government at all levels. The state has been ordered to build new prisons within 6 months, which is something even a first grader with limited math skills could tell you is simply impossible.

I love how all the civil liberterians out there love to sling mud at the private prison system in the United States, saying it's a disgrace, rife with abuses and costing the taxpayers way too much. All of this "bafflegab" on their part is simply untrue.

While they claim that prison populations are dropping in the USA, official figures show that they are in fact steadily climbing.

They state that the prisoners are treated in a cruel and inhumane manner. Well, any of the photos, video and documentary programs I've ever seen about the private prisons (and I've seen many) the only thing that I can say it that I've had far worse accommodations at some cheap hotels that I've stayed in. Also, what the heck are the prisoners in there for in the first place? Are we sending them there for a vacation in a posh resort; or are they supposed to be there serving a sentence, being punished for some crime??? Sorry guys, that one simply doesn't fly (not in my books).

These same civil liberterians claim that the taxpayer is just paying too much for the service that's being provided. Say what? What does it cost to build a prison these days? What does it cost per day to house a prisoner in a state-owned facility? No matter what they try to say the taxpayer ends up paying lots less with private prisons. They don't have to invest in the real estate in the first place as they would with state-owned facilities.

Cruel and inhumane conditions? Well that's a non-starter here in Brazil. Even if you were to take the very worst of the worst privatized prisons in the USA and plunk it down anywhere in Brazil, it would be a giant step up in terms of the conditions in which Brazilian prisoners are living. One need only look at the photo of this Brazilian prison. Currently on prisoner is slain every 2 days somewhere in Brazil and that number is growing.

Hello!!! Brasília........ anybody awake there? Time to rise and shine guys! Wake up and smell the coffee (hopefully Brazilian coffee) take a long hard look at the US private prison system and the Brazilian facility in Minas Gerais, with a serious view to immediately implementing many more here.