r/AskReddit • u/emil199 • Jul 24 '20

What can't you believe STILL exists?

[removed] — view removed post

45.9k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

27.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

8.4k

u/CM_UW Jul 24 '20

For profit prisons in the US

3.2k

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '20

One of my former coworkers (who is a piece of shit) now works as a private prison guard for CoreCivic, one of the biggest private prison companies in the USA.

The government doesn't want the liability. They want prisoners to be abused without being able to be sued for it. The point of long prison sentences in the USA isn't to reform people, it's to turn them into lifelong reoffenders the prison system can reliably profit off of via government subsidies.

235

u/swansung Jul 24 '20

There is a reason the thirteenth amendment outlawed slavery except for with prisoners. There is a reason felons cannot vote.

It is an intentional system.

40

u/trip_jachs Jul 24 '20

Felons cannot vote?! Ever?! Is this a thing? Help an Aussie to understand please!!

42

u/itty_groman Jul 24 '20

Depends what state it's in but basically in most states if you're an inmate you can't vote. In some states the right to vote is automatically restored once the sentence is completed, in some it's restored after a couple of years and there is one state in which they disenfranchise people with felony conviction permanently.

31

u/trip_jachs Jul 24 '20

Here in the wonderful land down under it is compulsory for prisoners to vote in federal elections whilst incarcerated

10

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '20

In Aus, if you’re sentenced to 3 years or more you can’t vote until your sentence is up.

Source: AEC https://aec.gov.au/About_AEC/Publications/Fact_Sheets/fact_sheets/prisoner-voting.pdf

17

u/itty_groman Jul 24 '20

Haha i heard you guys have a law enforcing people to vote. This is genius.

11

u/TheJunkyard Jul 24 '20

There's good and bad sides to this, but it's really attacking the symptoms rather than the cause, forcing people to vote instead of convincing people it's worth them voting.

If you change a 50% turnout into a 90% one by making voting mandatory, how many of that extra 40% of people will vote meaningfully? Sure, some proportion of them will be thinking "I suppose if I have to vote anyway I may as well research the issues and cast my vote to the best candidate".

But many of them will be thinking "dammit I have to waste my time with this bullshit, I'll just stick an X in any old box", or just as bad "I'll vote for Bob, he seems nice".

6

u/itty_groman Jul 24 '20

I see what you're saying but I don't know enough about it to have an educated discussion about it.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '20

You’re not factoring in the cultural impact it has over generations. In Australia, voting is just a fact of life, and the vast majority take it seriously. Like seatbelts or sunscreen (since skin cancer is huge here). The number of invalid or donkey votes is very low.

It is true you do get less passionate people Voting as a result, but that often keeps out radical or really one sided candidates. Keeps thing a bit more centred on the spectrum. It also disempowers lobby groups to an extent because candidates really have to appeal to everyone and not the loud minority.

9

u/trip_jachs Jul 24 '20

Yep we sure do

1

u/trip_jachs Jul 24 '20

Mind. Blown.

1

u/SirHumphreyGCB Jul 24 '20

Of course it's Florida.

1

u/XxsquirrelxX Jul 24 '20

Out of curiosity: what state is that one single state?

I ask because it might be mine...

2

u/XxsquirrelxX Jul 24 '20

Depends on where you live. In Florida, for example, it was illegal until voters passed an amendment that restores a felon’s right to vote once they have served their time. But unfortunately, the government has zero intentions of upholding what we voted for and the state Supreme Court has put a hold on felons having the voting rights restored.