No amount of cruelty will slake the barbaric craving of many Americans to see "criminals" harmed. When privately run prisons shirk the constraints that public institutions operate under, they are responding to a public demand for savagery.
Way to paint with a broad brush! The article is from an American news paper - there's obviously quite a few Americans who believe that while crime needs to be punished, it must be done in a safe, humane way.
If the privately run prison is not meeting spec, then at the very least the regulating authority (the state government) shares at least half of the blame. They are contracting for a service, and perhaps not screening bids that are unrealistic, and are not monitoring the contractor for compliance, or possibly not competently putting together the contract so that adequate oversight is possible.
Whether run by the state or a company, the state is ultimately responsible for the activities at these institutions. There are plenty of examples of state run prisons that compare to these privately run examples.
No. The one ultimately responsible for the actions are the ones doing it. The appalling conditions at these prisons is first, foremost, and primarily the fault of the company running them. Trying to bring the state into this discussion is trying to cloud the air and take responsibility off the companies doing these things, usually for the unrelentless pursuit of more profit.
And these companies are also making it their job. I am not willing to abdicate their responsibility in the matter. They are the ones that chose, of their own free will, to push these appalling conditions onto people.
Violence through revenge is deep within our core, and to deny it is to deny our humanity. Morality is only useful in times of civilized comfort.
Wanting to see criminals suffer horribly is exactly as wrong, or exactly as right, as wanting to see them locked up for years and eventually possibly rehabilitate and rejoin greater society.
> Violence through revenge is deep within our core, and to deny it is to deny our humanity.
I agree. Dehumanizing the "other" is profoundly human.
But rising above bloodthirst through rationality and empathy, and crafting institutions (such as laws) which better us all, together... is also profoundly human.
> In other words, it really doesn't matter.
The universe may be indifferent, but human actions are meaningful to other humans.
Self-centeredness (illustrated here as violence through revenge) is a characteristic most strongly associated with single-cell organisms. Along that axis, humans are characterized by being a complex system embedded in a complex system. We are defined by our internal and external organization, and are always striving in this way. The biggest denial of our humanity is to think of ourselves and our actions as apart from the reality of this systemic functioning.
