When one lives in a capitalist culture where everything is for sale, one get used to privatization. For some, money is the only motive, so when looking to save money on prisons, such thinking gave birth to the abomination of private prisons. At that point, the fate of prisoners was in the invisible hand of the market, which profited by refusing them parole and gained nothing by rehabilitatng them.
Not surprisingly, private prisons and detention centers for immigrants are hot beds for prisoner abuse, sexual assault and mysterious deaths.
Now, one private prison company is moving into mental health care. GEO Care now has mental health hospitals in Texas, Florida and South Carolina.
The Austin Statesman reported:
“A series of health and safety and compliance reviews by the Texas Department of State Health Services found GEO Care’s Montgomery facility rife with patient neglect, forced seclusion, denial of access to phones and family visits and administering of medication without patient consent.”
According to the AP:
Three gruesome deaths at the privately run South Florida State Hospital triggered an investigation that revealed concerns that employees were overmedicating patients and failed to call the state abuse hotline after a patient died in a scalding bathtub, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The article below makes the point that Texas is already spending lesst per capita on mental health services of any other state in the nation. But like anyone brainwashed by the profit motive, moving to privatization will save us even more. And because our victims will be behind walls, we won’t even have to look them in the face.
http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/09/the_state_of_texas_is.html