Walker tries to spin this as proof that his Act 10, the law that abolished workers' rights, is working. What Walker didn't admit to is that the same Act 10 caused overtime rates to skyrocket last year when many workers got out when the getting was good, leaving hundreds of vacancies unfilled.
And yes, subtracting the "savings" from last year still leaves it higher than before Walker usurped his office.
Walker was forced to admit that the vacancies were a problem, but still tried to spin that as well:
The Walker administration has said that increased vacancies were a factor but also said that increased sick leave by employees played a role.Unfortunately, what the reporter, Jason Stein, failed to mention was that the increased sick leave is stemming from the fact that more and more corrections officers are being seriously injured due to the excessive staff shortages that Walker refuses to fill. Exacerbating the issue is also Walker's Act 38, which removes any chances of early release meaning that there are more inmates, now with no incentive for good behavior, and less officers to deal with them.
Walker's refusal to fill these vacant positions make me question what his motivation for not doing so is.
I would not be surprised in the least to find out that he is setting corrections in a downward spiral in order to claim that it's not cost effective to keep running it and trying to privatize the entire system. He did similar things over and over when he was Milwaukee County Executive.
Just one more reason to the scores of reasons to recall him in June.
I don't know if Walker himself cares about prisons, but there is definitely a movement nationwide to privatize prisons, so that wouldn't surprise me. Too many people give in to greed these days, not caring that there is a conflict of interest when you make money from keeping the cells full.
ReplyDeleteIf the prisons are privatized the people running them are not in control of filling them. I don't follow your logic anom.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Maybe the prison system is being mis-managed. I cant think of a reason not to privatize the security at prisons, surely their are companies out there that specialize in this and can still be overseen by government. Maybe that's why it's been so popular nationwide.
After THE Civil War, many people across the south who were free were put right back into forced labor situations due to petty criminalization and heavy punishments.
DeletePrivate prisons amount to no better than private security forces.
Private security is there to protect the owners interests.
It's popular nationwide because lazy Republicans are unwilling to actually sit down with the many people it takes to hammer out solutions. Seriously, I think Republicans are simply too lazy to do the work to make things work better. They are all wealthy heirs who want things now, and fast. They're all used to simply paying some other people to do things for them, their whole lives.
Check out the global perspectives: SERCO is a company in Australia--investigate this, man! Ever wonder if a private company could become more powerful than your government, right in your back yard?
Are you in favor of privatizing our military, too?
You have to be kidding! You can't figure out that a for profit company wouldn't be pushing for laws to lock people away for as long as possible. ALEC is driving all the anti immigaration laws so it clients bail bondsmen and Correction Corp. of America make more money. Correction Corp. of america has offered to buy any state run prision as long as the state agrees to keep the prision near capacity for something like 90 years. Arizona just did a study on its private prisons and its a disaster.
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