More Jail Musings

"When is my death row job available?"

Archer Daniel Midland could do executions cheaper

All rise!

Finally some real judicial economy.

Cameron County does not have the worst jail in the world. In fact it is not even the worst jail in the Valley. On a scale of bad, worse, horrible, the standings would be Cameron County, Willacy Detention Center, with La Villa coming in last. These are all places where federal prisoners are kept, but the last two are privately owned facilities.

My impression has been that La Villa is by far the worst of the three and lately there seem to be fewer Brownsville prisoners housed there. Maybe the U.S. Marshal's office finally gave up on them. I had one client in La Villa who tells me he screamed for twelve hours trying to get attention during an appendicitis attack. The other guys in the jail were screaming with him. He didn't die and after his surgery, he cleaned up pretty well, but it could have been bad. He was in jail on a charge of entering the country illegally.

There are certain things that privatization may make cheaper, but depending on the goals involved, it sure doesn't make things better. Private jails may make a profit, but they don't do much for the quality of justice.

Why not sell the courthouses to Walmart and allow them to use Walmart greeters as judges? This would be cheap. The same for executions. Executions could be contracted out to Archer-Daniels-Midland. They could use the same employees used in the slaughterhouses. This would be cheap.