Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.John F. Kennedy

Private Prison Boom

I found a small article in der Spiegel magazine disturbing although I know there are those who will find in it a good tip, or a good move. I had already read that the Trump administration, in this case the Justice Department under Jeff Sessions, was undoing the phasing out of private prisons begun under the Obama administration.  But this article went further. It took notice of this action because Deutsche Bank issued a report saying that under Trump the stock market had done well, hitting the 22,000 mark, that how long it will last was debatable since there were already signs of a crash–the word used by the article. However the bank’s report advised there were two “buy” recommendation the analyst was bullish on. They are CoreCivic and Geo Group, the two largest operators of private prisons in the US. Deutsche Bank analyst Kevin McVeigh’s report pointed to the  Federal Bureau of Prisons and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (FBP and ICE) estimate that  for the 2018 budget 12000 additional beds will be needed , an estimate that is bound to benefit these 2 companies.

Private prisons are a blight on the moral fiber of both the US and humanity. It’s distressing that there are those who think the companies that operate them make good investments.