Tag Archives: Crony Capitalism

Ohio Supreme Court Takes Up Photo Enforcement Kangaroo Courts

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“Toledo, Columbus and Dayton have joined Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia in petitioning the justices to overturn a Court of Appeals decision from June that found Toledo’s administrative review process unconstitutional.  The ruling has city officials worried about the potential for losing millions if the court decides Toledo deprived vehicle owners of their due process rights by usurping jurisdiction in setting up administrative panels that offer the accused less of a chance to win their appeal. Redflex in its court briefs claims a loss in the case could cost cities $100 million. Optotraffic, a competing camera vendor, predicted ‘copy-cat lawsuits’ would be filed in every jurisdiction.”

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/42/4210.asp

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California: Two More Cities Chose To End Red Light Camera Use

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“Though Redflex made $361,200 from operating the cameras in El Cajon, the city ended up losing $62,000 after ticket revenue was split with state and county governments. Money was not an issue in South Gate which also terminated its contract earlier this month. Officials predicted the program would make $75,763 in profit for the South Gate and $336,319 for Redflex out of the $5 million worth of tickets issued. After ten years, the city council decided to end the program based on public input.  Cities have also recently been spooked by the Redflex bribery scandal in Chicago, Illinois that has already cut the Australian firm’s profit in half.”

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/42/4216.asp

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Speed Camera Fines Challenged Worldwide

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“In Parma, Italy, the group Nuovi Consumatori insists the city never obtained the proper authorization for its speed cameras and that 40,000 tickets worth 9 million euros (US $12 million) issued between January 16 and July 31 of this year should be refunded. The group has asked the public prosecutor to charge Mayor Federico Pizzarotti with a seven counts of fraud and to confiscate the cameras, according to Blitz Quotidiano. This is no idle threat, as a number of officials have been arrested in Italy over speed camera fraud since 2006.  In Austria, officials were forced to refund 4000 bogus tickets worth 230,000 euros (US $310,000) that were issued on the A12 highway west of Innsbruck.”

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/42/4217.asp

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Private Probation Firm Illegally Extended Sentences, Judge Finds

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“Last week, a Georgia county judge ruled that Sentinel Offender Service had illegally extended the sentence of Mantooth and potentially thousands of others who were required to pay the firm monthly probation fees, and was illegally ordering electronic monitoring for misdemeanor offenders — prohibited by state law — while charging probationers for their own monitoring.  Other named plaintiffs in the pair of cases were hauled off to jail and/or subjected to electronic monitoring for alleged probation violations six years after their probation had ended for minor offenses like possession of marijuana and no proof of insurance.”

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/09/24/2666401/private-proba/tion-firm-illegally-extended-sentences-judge-finds/

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Slave Dollars: State Guarantee Private Prisons 96% Occupancy

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“If the governments don’t maintain the specified number of people behind bars, they have to pay penalties to the companies that operate private prisons. The state of Colorado paid $2 million to companies because the rate of crime and the number of convicts in the state fell by a third in the last 10 years.  The profit driven prisons put pressure on law enforcement and prosecutors to try to charge and convict individuals of more serious crimes just to fill prison beds. It also encourages authorities to send prisoners to private penitentiaries rather than state facilities even if they are cheaper. The number of prisoners in private verses public prisons has increased by 1,664% over the last 19 years.”

http://www.storyleak.com/states-guarantee-private-prisons-96-occupancy/

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Where Prisoners Are Guaranteed To Private Prisons

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“Most quotas require at least 90 percent of the beds in a prison to be filled, according to a new report by the advocacy group In the Public Interest, and quotas were part of nearly two-thirds of the contracts the group analyzed. Prison companies use the profits to expand, effectively pulling the strings on state prison populations as lawmakers must incarcerate a certain number of people — or pay. The state of Arizona recently paid the prison company Management & Training Corp. $3 million for empty beds when a 97 percent quota wasn’t met, reported HuffPost’s Chris Kirkham. The U.S. leads the world in incarcerating its residents, with one in 100 adults behind bars.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/private-prisons_n_3955686.html

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Vacant Private Prisons in Oklahoma May Re-Open

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“CCA has posted job openings for various positions at the Watonga prison and a warden has been named, according to the CCA website.  The prison, whose capacity is about 2,100, closed in 2010 after the state of Arizona ended its contract with the company. Meanwhile, in Hinton, Mayor Shelly Newton said representatives from Geo Group, which operates the Great Plains facility, have been holding job fairs in preparation for a new contract. The Great Plains prison, which has a capacity of 2,000 inmates, closed in 2010 after Arizona also ended its contract for that facility. Newton said re-opening the prison would greatly benefit Hinton’s economy. The city has about 2,000 residents.”

http://oklahomawatch.org/2013/09/19/vacant-private-prisons-in-oklahoma-may-re-open/

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How Private Prison Companies Make Millions Even When Crime Rates Fall

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“The Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest owner of private prisons, has seen its revenue climb by more than 500 percent in the last two decades. And CCA wants to get much, much bigger: Last year, the company made an offer to 48 governors to buy and operate their state-funded prisons. But what made CCA’s pitch to those governors so audacious and shocking was that it included a so-called occupancy requirement, a clause demanding the state keep those newly privatized prisons at least 90 percent full at all times, regardless of whether crime was rising or falling. Occupancy requirements, as it turns out, are common practice within the private prison industry.”

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/09/private-prisons-occupancy-quota-cca-crime

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‘Monsanto Protection Act’ attached to Obamacare defunding bill

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“The House Republican government funding bill, which passed in the House last week, contains a three-month extension of the Monsanto Protection Act, which shields companies like Monsanto and Dow Chemical from legal action resulting from Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) crops. The Act also places the authority of whether or not GMO crops can be grown and sold domestically into the hands of Federal Department of Agriculture rather than with the courts or public referendum. The Democratically-controlled Senate is making no plans to work to keep the rider active beyond its current expiration date.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/25/senate-democrats-move-to-end-monsanto-protection-act/

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The American Economy is Not a Free-Market Economy

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“Those inclined to dismiss Lewis’s claim as exaggerated must confront the solid body of evidence he amasses. Everyone knows that governmentally-sponsored mortgages helped to fuel the housing bubble that burst in 2008 with disastrous consequences. As Lewis points out, though, the situation is much worse than most people imagined. ‘By the end of 2007 government-sponsored mortgages accounted for 81% of all the mortgage loans made in the US and by 2010 this had risen to 100%.’  Government dominance is of course bad for the economy, but it works to the benefit of a small group of the powerful. A great strength of the book is that Lewis names names: he tells us who the predators are.”

http://mises.org/daily/6540/The-American-Economy-is-Not-a-FreeMarket-Economy

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