Private v. Public Sector

Who should run corrections and detention facilities.

Governments can be inefficient, but free market efficiencies can be brutal.

Here's a Chron editorial slamming the privately run Hutto Federal Detention Center. A snippet:

The children at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in
Taylor, 35 miles northeast of Austin, live in cells; they
wear uniforms and receive inadequate medical and
educational services, are often cold and hungry, separated
from their parents as punishment, and until recently
received one hour of schooling per day and rarely played
outside. They are guilty of no crimes, and endanger no
one. Their parents, who are incarcerated here because
they are seeking asylum after fleeing such circumstances
as war, torture, political persecution and rape, or are
accused of violating civil immigration laws, have committed
no crimes.

In a recent visit, a U.S. Consgressman gave a more upbeat assessment of the conditions, but it raises an important issue. How do we care for the children of illegal immigrants? Is it our responsibility to care for them as we might care for our own children or does their status put them in a secondary position?