Interesting factoid...did you know that private prisons are the biggest business in the prison industry complex? About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. This privatization of prisons began with Ronald Reagan when he made it his life's work to cut the federal work force. It was further developed during Bush, Sr's years and then really took off with Bill Clinton. According to http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289 "Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one." They increase their profits by cutting down on staff. For example, a company called CCA has a beautiful new facility in Lawrenceville, Virginia where there are only five guards during the day and two at night to watch over 750 inmates. Further, "inmates may get their sentences reduced for 'good behavior,' but for any infraction, they get 30 days added - which means more profits for CCA. According to a study of New Mexico prisons, it was found that CCA inmates lost 'good behavior time' at a rate eight times higher than those in state prisons."
It gets better. It has become exceedingly profitable to import inmates with long sentences, which means the worst offenders are being moved around in a crazy game of chess...a very profitable game of chess. Mixed with these often violent offenders are those convicted of non-violent crimes. Worse, it is believed that more than half of the 623,000 inmates in municipal or county jails are innocent of the crimes they are accused of and the majority are awaiting trial.
Contributing to the tremendous increase in prisoners is the hefty sentences for rather minor offenses brought about by mandatory minimum sentencing. Drug offenses, first meant to target high level distributors, have worked to incarcerate all that are arrested with the "intent to distribute." Nearly 50% of the incarcerated are in for drug charges. In 2012 alone, almost 7,000 people were convicted in federal courts for marijuana offenses, more than any other type of drug. Ironically, more and more states are legalizing marijuana, yet the people incarcerated for possession of it will remain imprisoned until they complete the minimal 85% of their sentences. This contributes to the fact that the US has more people imprisoned than any other country in the the world.
The cost of keeping these prisoners is $29,000 per year per prisoner. The average sentence is nearly ten years. As a result we taxpayers pay over $50 billion annually for state prisons. The bottom line is, if we continue to make imprisonment profitable then rehabilitation is not an option. The companies that are running private prisons have a vested interest in recidivism and minimum sentencing. Meanwhile the safety of the general public is compromised while families are torn apart by lengthy jail sentences. Of course, do the crime, do the time is a given. However, we must rethink sentencing of non violent criminals and we need to stop making privatization profitable.
Contributing to the profitability of prisoners is the idea of prison labor. According to http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289 "At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons." There is a laundry list of corporations that are using prison labor to cut costs including IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom's, Revlon, Macy's, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores and several others. Why is it so profitable? Because inmates get paid very little. In Colorado they get $2.00 per hour. In privately run prisons they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of 6 hours. Some prisons do indeed pay their prisoners minimum wage, but that is still a huge cost savings for many corporations. It is so profitable that a company that operated an assembly plant in Mexico near the border closed down the operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, meanwhile, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq.
Reform is necessary, but there's just no money in it!
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