Charles Koch supporting prison reform

[ksen]

http://www.vox.com/2014/4/15/5618724/the-koch-brothers-posted-something-awesome-on-facebook

The Charles Koch Institute is using social media to start a conversation about the impact of prison on racial minorities.

Check the post the Institute is sponsoring on Facebook.

It promotes a forum happening Wednesday night in Austin, Texas, called "How the Criminal Justice System Impacts Well-Being." The panel features Gary Bledsoe, the president of the Texas NAACP and will be moderated by Andrew Kirell, the editor-in-chief of Mediaite. They'll be livestreaming the event here.

According to the teaser on the Charles Koch Institute site, the panel will discuss why the United States has "only 5 percent of the world’s population but about 25 percent of its known prison population."

Ok, what's the catch?

 

[SimpleDon]

http://www.vox.com/2014/4/15/5618724/the-koch-brothers-posted-something-awesome-on-facebook



Ok, what's the catch?

Way to go Chuck. You have clawed your way a couple of notches on my cretin scale. You are up to diseased slug!

 

[maxparrish]

http://www.vox.com/2014/4/15/5618724/the-koch-brothers-posted-something-awesome-on-facebook

Ok, what's the catch?

The catch is that either you have spent along time spewing venom at clouds so as to protect your view of the world, or you trusted some dubious sources for your image of Koch. Had you bothered to read and understand Koch and libertarianism, this would not have been a shock.

 

[doubtingt]

The catch is that this is nothing other than a Machiavellian attempt by Koch to co-opt the issue of racial inequality in prisons as a tool for his extensive efforts to privatize the prison system for his and his buddies financial gain. His efforts to keep millions of minorities from voting under the false guise of preventing non-existent voter fraud shows he cares nothing about racial injustice and in fact is seeking to increase it. This is about making the rich richer, which is all that most of what Koch does is about. IOW, maxparrish is accidentally correct (much like a broken clock), in that if you understood faithers of the so-called "libertarian" religion and their ethic-free willingness to do and say whatever makes the rich richer, then this wouldn't be a shock.

 

[coloradoatheist]

The catch is that this is nothing other than a Machiavellian attempt by Koch to co-opt the issue of racial inequality in prisons as a tool for his extensive efforts to privatize the prison system for his and his buddies financial gain. His efforts to keep millions of minorities from voting under the false guise of preventing non-existent voter fraud shows he cares nothing about racial injustice and in fact is seeking to increase it. This is about making the rich richer, which is all that most of what Koch does is about. IOW, maxparrish is accidentally correct (much like a broken clock), in that if you understood faithers of the so-called "libertarian" religion and their ethic-free willingness to do and say whatever makes the rich richer, then this wouldn't be a shock.

So is his argument that he wants more whites in jail or more people in general? If he wants to get rich with prison systems than he should want more people in jail.

 

[laughing dog]

. Move along folks, nothing really new here to see. Koch's message is just a twist on one of Ron Paul's talking points on his POTUS campaign trail.

 

[dismal]

Yes and they support pot legalization because it will help their big pot grower buddies earn profits!!1121!!!
And they support gay marriage because it will help their big gay marriage minister buddies earn profits!!!11111

 

[doubtingt]

So is his argument that he wants more whites in jail or more people in general? If he wants to get rich with prison systems than he should want more people in jail.

His argument is simple and the same one pseudo-libertarian corporatism use for everything:
Gubmint is evil.
Profit motive cures all ills.
Anything that seems wrong with society is due to evil gubmint and can be cured by giving control of it over to corporations.
If you think that racial inequality in imprisonment is bad, then blame gubmint anb privatize prisons.
Therefore, if you care about racial injustice, privatize everything.

Koch is interested in protecting the wealthy. Privatization is just one avenue. Shrinking all aspects of government and thus reducing his taxes are another. Thus, he can and does argue both that we need to privatize prisons and that we need fewer people in jail, since even with private prisons, the legal system as a whole still costs tax dollars. He isn't concerned with the liberty of whites or blacks in prison any more than he is concerned about the liberty of the millions of citizens he wants to strip the right to vote from. He argues for fewer people in the legal system to reduce taxes and for private prisons to reap the $ reward of those that are in the system.