Originally Posted by Sunny Day

Many a private prison contract calls for 80, 90 or 100% occupancy. So if the prison contact is 100% but the occupancy is 70% the company gets paid for 30% ghost prisoners. Empty beds are actually better for them. They get paid, but have no food, clothing, medical or other costs of real prisoners. Also they can shut down housing units and save costs by having fewer guards.
They do want as many prisoners as possible because there have been a lot of news stories about this and taxpayers are starting to get wise.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013...uota-cca-crime

http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/b...rison-industry


Another fine example of privatization is the Chicago parking meter mess

http://americablog.com/2013/09/priva...r-debacle.html

"The deal, you see, is structured like this. Not only does CPM get the money its meters hoover up from the fine upstanding citizens of Chicago. It gets money even if the meters are not used. Each meter has been assigned a ?fair market valuation.?If the City takes what is called a ?reserve power adverse action??that can mean anything from removing a meter because it impedes traffic flow, shutting down a street for a block party or discouraging traffic from coming into the city during rush hour??CPM has the right to trigger an immediate payment for the entire loss of the meter?s fair market value over the entire life of the seventy-five-year agreement.?"