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HSI

City:

Phoenix

Ideas contributed by Community Member

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Privatize Federal Prisons

  We already know that the private sector can run prisons far more cheaply than the federal government, they have 38,000 employees that get the same exact enhanced law enforcement pension that members of congress get. We could sell the 250 prisons and save billions of dollars in fixed costs and not have to worry about enhanced pensions for prison guards who can retire after 25 years of service at any age or at 50 years ...more »

  We already know that the private sector can run prisons far more cheaply than the federal government, they have 38,000 employees that get the same exact enhanced law enforcement pension that members of congress get. We could sell the 250 prisons and save billions of dollars in fixed costs and not have to worry about enhanced pensions for prison guards who can retire after 25 years of service at any age or at 50 years old with only 20 years of service with a great federal law enforcement pension even if they only worked in the prison as a secretary or other support role like a nurse. The private sector has shown that they can do this, if need be we keep a BOP team in each prison to make sure everything is done to the regulations or the contract and maybe even keep a few maximum security prisons in the government to lock up the worst of the worst federal prisoners like the Blind Shiek or Timothy McVeigh before they get executed. You could shrink BOP from 38,000 to 1000 max. This would save billions, the federal government should be out of the business of prisons, especially minimum and medium security prisons.

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  15 comments for Idea: Privatize Federal Prisons

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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  Ideas to Make Other Parts of Government More Efficient and Effective »

  Purchasing Equipment, Supplies and Travel Services

  I think that as a goverment bureaucracy we have carved out way to many special interests and pay way too much for virtually everything. Veteran owned business, Minority owned business, Woman owned business, Disabled owned business. I know that this will be unpopular to many and will probably get very little traction, but why should being a woman or minority owned business be an excuse to gouge the US Government into ...more »

  I think that as a goverment bureaucracy we have carved out way to many special interests and pay way too much for virtually everything. Veteran owned business, Minority owned business, Woman owned business, Disabled owned business. I know that this will be unpopular to many and will probably get very little traction, but why should being a woman or minority owned business be an excuse to gouge the US Government into sometimes paying double for what I can often "google" and buy online for half as much sometimes much less than that. Why can't veterans and women compete the same as everyone else. I support and applaud our veterans for thier service and think they should get every benefit they deserve, but as a veteran myself I don't think that should include charging the government more for the same thing when I decide to start a business.

  The government should establish a central website for purchasing everything from pencils to travel. Every US business could register with the site and compete for governement business based on an established criteria such as price, return policy, shipping etc. The government purchaser would go to the site and put in a product and all the merchants registered would be put in the price they were willing to sell the product for.

  In this internet age, where virtually all of us use the internet to find the best value, I don't understand why the US government still uses a cumbersome bureaucracy for buying things. There are at least 4 steps in my agency for me as a manager to buy a box of pencils, and probaly 2 or 3 more for the purchase card holder to buy them and when they finally get to me I realize that the governement paid triple for them than what I could have paid for them on my own.

  We should also do the same for travel. You should go to a website, put in the flights you want and the hotel you want or need to stay at and a company should be able to package that for you and send you a complete package and cost for your trip. I don't know when anyone with the power to change it, will, but the government travel system, especially FedTraveler is completely broken and disfunctional. There are much better ways to go about it, but despite what anyone in my office says, we keep these crazy ways of booking travel and the fees pile on.

  I hope that some of these ideas get some hard looks but after almost 20 years of federal service and beating the drum for more efficiencies I am not confident that anyone really wants to listen to the end user.

  Thanks for the opportunity to hear from us.

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  2 comments for Idea: Purchasing Equipment, Supplies and Travel Services

  Submitted by Community Member 2 years ago

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