Só lendo..

E vão acontecendo surpresas, embora, um indivíduo se considere bem informando. A notícia com que começa a nota referenciada abaixo deixou-me siderado. Enfim, aquilo que refere, poderá ser só um acontecimento isolado, não reflectindo a verdade do sistema, mas é certo que se filia no quadro de incentivos criado nos EUA (e no RU) pela introdução da iniciativa privada no sistema prisional. Será só uma questão de um quadro regulamentar inadequado? Em todo o caso, a evidência parece apontar que esta situação cria as condições para um crescimento desproporcionado e injustificado da população prisional.

• George Monbiot: This revolting trade in human lives is an incentive to lock people up Comment is free The Guardian

  "It's a staggering case; more staggering still that it has scarcely been mentioned on this side of the ocean. Last week two judges in Pennsylvania were convicted of jailing some 2,000 children in exchange for bribes from private prison companies. [...] The judges were paid $2.6m by companies belonging to the Mid-Atlantic Youth Services Corp for helping to fill its jails. This is what happens when public services are run for profit. [...] As the Journal, seldom associated with raging anti-capitalism, observes: "Prison expansion [has] spawned a new set of vested interests with stakes in keeping prisons full and in building more ... The result has been a financial and political bazaar, with convicts in stripes as the prize." [...] The US has, by a very long way, the world's highest proportion of people behind bars: 756 prisoners per 100,000 people, just over 1% of the adult population. Similarly wealthy countries have around one-tenth of this rate of imprisonment. [...] Today the UK has a higher proportion of prisoners in private institutions than the US. This is the only country in Europe whose jails are run on this model. [...] In the two countries whose economies most resemble the UK's - Germany and France - the prison population has risen quite slowly. France has 96 inmates per 100,000 people, an increase of 14% since 1992. Germany has 89 prisoners per 100,000 - 25% more than in 1992 but 9% less than in 2001. But the UK now locks up 151 out of every 100,000 inhabitants: 73% more than in 1992 and 20% more than in 2001. [...]"