We need an evidence-based approach to criminal justice, not a profit-based approach. We already lock up too many non-violent offenders in a drug war that's done nothing but make pot, cocaine, and meth easier for minors to acquire than beer and cigarettes. The last thing we need are lobbyists swarming the statehouse with ideas about how we can lock up more citizens so they can make more money.

Arizona has offered its prisons to for-profit operators. It has had no takers. It is better off because when the for-profits have run public prisons, such as the Tulsa county jail, they have left them in ruinous shape when their contracts were finally cancelled.

Arizona commissioned a study a few years ago that discovered that it's for-profit prisons cost 8.5% to 13.5% more than public prisons.

The for-profits pay terrible wages with next to no benefits, resulting in horrendous turnover, over 50% annually, industry-wide. These amateurs are the reason they have about 30 times as many escapes, per prisoner, as do public prisons.

Radical Iowa “taxpayer” organizations, reflecting the desires of the richest residents of the state to escape their fiscal obligations, produce useless, non-peer reviewed research supporting privatization of core services at spin shops such as the Iowa Public Interest Institute. It's worthless and they know it, but it takes a sophisticated member of the electorate to realize the nature of the scam.

Congratulations to the Independent for carrying an objective article that is not overwhelmed by the spin these tax resisters promulgate.