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spring wife's
now this story's been I am ongoing I think
first heard about this a couple years ago when the investigation began
since nineteen since 2003 I should say
a Pennsylvania judge
mark cheer Farella received millions in dollars in bribes
for condemning miners to maximum prison sentences
in pennsylvania in the private prison industry
longer sentences earns the private prisons
more money from the state's in one case cheer Bella sentence
a 10-year-old to two years in a detention facility for accidentally
bottoming out his mother's car
according to the
a Pennsylvania Supreme Court over 5,000
miners were unjustly sentenced to prison and is night their constitutional rights
many of them have now been released
I N clear to their charges the court has overturned 4,000 convictions
by this guy from 2003 to 2008
he was convicted on 12 counts including racketeering money laundering mail fraud
and tax evasion
also ordered to repay 1.2 million
in restitution
apparently from his illicit gains he's gonna go to jail
for nearly 30 years I
I'd say that's just about right maybe i'd tack on another 10
but I don't know how all this guy is just
unbelievable
any it aside from the obvious corruption here
it also shows a dynamic that is very problematic
when you set up such incentives to send people to prison
you're going to send more people to prison this is obviously an extreme and
make an example that
but systemically these incentives work in the same way
one individual may not be getting
millions of dollars for extending the sentences
love hover have children but
you're creating systems you're fueling the drug war
you're providing incentive to send people to prison
in a way that is not necessarily benefit society at all
this is not to mention the a how
inefficient these private systems are they don't save states any money
study after study has shown that all they do is they create a lobbying force
that encourages more draconian laws to send more people present we've seen the
private prison industry get excited about the idea of deportations
about immigrants sending a documented for immigrants to prison
for extended periods of time we've seen them promote
escalation of the drug war and you see this incentive structure
filter throughout the system this may be
a an example in extreme example
but it's indicative of an incentive structure that we're setting up
that is just as corrupt in many ways