Human misery for profit

Rise of Private Prisons in the United States  

by Rebecca Gray

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While the number of people wanting to go prison has most certainly not increased in recent years, the numbers for people who want to build prisons has. According to Global Research, "Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports." Something happened in the last decade to spark such a rise in private prisons, but what was it?
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Simply put, there is money to be made in the private prison industry. Just as Starbucks and Wal-Mart build stores to sell their products and drive revenue, private prisons operate the same way. Since the private prison industry in the U.S. began in the 1980s, companies like Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut have built prisons and run them as publically traded companies. Like any other profit-seeking business, the more "customers" these prisons get, the more money they make.
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Global Research points out that "private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one." Because U.S. prisons are continually overcrowded-there were 1,571,013 prisoners in the U.S. in 2012, a whopping 25% of the world's inmates-the population in private prisons has only increased. In other words, when justice gets outsourced, companies like CCA and their stock holders benefit. Prisoners, on the other hand, probably don't benefit regardless of where they do time, but comfort is not the point of a prison sentence.

The key word for private prisons is "business." In their own words, CCA stated "our primary business strategy is to provide quality corrections services, offer a compelling value, and increase occupancy and revenue."As such, they design prisons to run as efficiently as possible by holding as many prisoners as they can, but with the fewest numbers of guards on the payroll as possible. Just as Starbucks wants to sell more cups of coffee, CCA wants to sell more orange jumpsuits, jail cells, and fewer personal liberties. Boasting an increase of 500% in their profits over the last 2 decades, CCA has clearly found a business model that works.

Human misery for profit - Hurray for the good ol' US of A!