A major portion of an Idaho prison-conditions lawsuit that stretches back nearly three decades could be closed, as a federal judge weighs whether changing conditions and procedures at the Idaho State Correctional Institution have done away with rampant violence, near-routine brutal rapes of newly arrived young prisoners, overcrowding, limited access to psychiatric and medical care and other problems that were identified there in the early 1980s. But a newer prison-violence case, involving a privately operated Idaho prison, still is pending./Betsy Russell, Eye on Boise

Question: Are private prisons a good idea?

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