America has a problem. Our Department of Justice is just too good at arresting criminals. We're packing folks into jails like they cattle. Did you know that we have the highest rate of incarceration of any other country? That's both in percentage and in sheer numbers. How about that for American Exceptionalism? Now that's something to be proud of. Other countries can't even keep their prisons open. Look at the Netherlands, they just can't keep their jails full (Link). Oh wait, that's because of progressive drugs policies that are the polar opposite of the American justice system. You might remember how terribly racist and ineffectual the United States courts are from my previous post. Oops.
That doesn't change the fact that American jails and prisons are absolutely overflowing with inmates (A large number of these inmates are serving time for non-violent crimes. In fact, only about half of the inmates in state prisons were there for violent crime). The solution seems pretty simple. We need to examine our justice system and see why the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. We should compare ourselves to other nations and see how they handle criminals. Then, we need to take that information and reconfigure our justice system so that it is balanced and fair. Well the states don't look at it that way. The general consensus is that we just need to build more prisons. Ah, but there's a bit of a catch. No state really has the money to fund these massive projects. The solution that some states are considering is a terrifying one.
The idea of a privately owned prison is a relatively new concept. We can trace the history of the modern private prison in the United States back to the 1980s. Essentially, a company known as Correction Corporations of America received the rights to operate a prison facility in Tennessee. From there, CCA has been growing rapidly and raking in massive amounts of money. Much of this "business" has been from the War on Drugs funneling prisoners into their facilities.Why would a state switch to a private prison? It's much cheaper. From CCA's website, we have their pitch:
The company also provides valuable economic benefits to its local community partners by paying property, sales and other taxes, and providing a stable employment base that focuses on building careers with unlimited growth and development opportunities.If it saves the state money, well that could be good, right? Oh wait. It doesn't. In fact, there have been instances where it was more costly to the state to run a private prison than to run a normal one. Ohio recently considered selling one of their prisons to CCA. They cited that the sale would save the state 3.8 million dollars. However, a research council demonstrated that "the prison sale would cost taxpayers $11 million more over the next 20 years than if the state would have continued to own the prison." (Link)
What could be the harm of these for profit prisons and what does that have to do with the class? It comes down to the fact that these are businesses. Their main goal is to amass as much profit as possible. If they don't turn a great profit, their investors will be very upset. Keep in mind, this is an incredibly lucrative business to get into.
"The number of inmates in private prisons increased by roughly 1600 percent between 1990 and 2009. In 2010, the two largest private prison companies alone took in nearly $3 billion in revenue, and their top executives each received annual compensation packages worth well over $3 million." - (Link)
How does a prison make money? Having more prisoners. How do you get more prisoners? You get into politics. CCA has been actively involved in politics for many years. Reports from 2008 implicate that "[CCA] spent more than $2.7 million from 2006 through September 2008 on lobbying for stricter laws." (Link). Here's another great example of their lobbying, "As the immigration debate continued in 2007, CCA spent $3.25 million lobbying members of Congress to approve funding that would ultimately lead to increased spending on immigration detention." (Link). It gets even better, they have also been lobbying the Department of Homeland Security as well. It seems that CCA isn't just content making money off of American prisoners, they're looking to go global.
This is a statement from CCA regarding potential profit losses in the future: "... any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them." (Link)
So, this company that makes profit incarcerating people is lobbying for tougher laws so that more people can be imprisoned so they can make a bigger profit. If you were keeping track, CCA is literally lobbying to ruin people's lives in order to make money. If that doesn't make your skin crawl, it should.
How does this tie into LS479? It's a pretty easy series of connections to make. The book Marked taught us that having a prison record drastically affects your ability to readjust to normal society. A prison record is a death sentence for future employment. Combine that with the fact that my previous blog demonstrated that the War on Drugs is racially biased beyond reason and you have a very serious issue. This company, CCA, makes money off of the imprisonment of individuals. Lobbying for stricter sentencing and an added emphasis on the War on Drugs is just proof that this company does not care about the rehabilitation of individuals, but rather they are just looking for the biggest possible profit.
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