Old "Kids for Cash" Ted Cruz is also a dirty hypocrite.
The Troubling Stances on Private Prisons Among Many 2016 Candidates
MARCH 6TH 2015
By: Alex Mierjeski
In recent years, public and political opinion on criminal justice and prison reform has undergone something of a sea change. Emerging from the 1980s and 1990s––decades defined by harsh sentencing laws, dragnet policing, and the apex of the famously ineffective war on drugs––the public and even once-tough-on-crime advocates are taking a second look at the efficacy such hard-line policies supposedly wrought.
Arguably, one of the vilest outgrowths of the mad rush to lock up offenders of all stripes has been the private, for-profit prison sector, an industry whose many violations are frankly hard to keep up with. In the latest scandal, prisoners at one private Texas facility that holds mostly undocumented immigrants rioted recently over poor medical care, as well as things like overflowing sewage and overcrowding. In recent years, the same facility has been plagued with allegations of sexual and physical abuse, maggots in inmates’ food, and inmates’ wash loads mixed with mops and cleaning equipment.
Ted Cruz (R)
Texas Sen. Cruz has a complicated relationship with private prisons. For one, as a lawyer, Cruz once represented the developer Robert Mericle, who is notable for secretly giving two judges cash in exchange for sending juveniles to his private detention facilities––one of the most flagrant judicial corruption schemes in recent history known as the “kids for cash” scandal.
Second, Cruz has strong ties to the conservative “bill mill,” the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is famous for orchestrating lucrative contracts between states and privately operated prison companies. In fact, CCA and Geo Group—the two largest private prison companies—have been major corporate sponsors of ALEC. In 2013, when ALEC came under fire for its support of the “stand your ground” laws at the heart of the Trayvon Martin trial, Cruz, a former member himself, told reporters: “My advice to ALEC is very, very simple: stand your ground,” he said, touting his proud support of the organization.
https://archive.attn.com/stories/1092/2016-candidates-private-prisons