Private Prisons

Because America has the largest prison population in the world, there are multiple types of prisons. One of the most problematic of these is private prisons. Private prisons, as opposed to federal state prisons, are owned by private citizens are for profit. That’s right; people make money off the incarceration of others. Prison has become a billion dollar industry and it is promoting incarceration as a way to make money. Private prisons are a huge piece of what is wrong with the American prison system.

So what exactly are private prisons? As I previously stated, private prisons are for profit privately owned institutions. Because of the mass incarceration problem in America, State and Federal prisons do not physically have enough room to hold all of the incarcerated people. So the government has resorted to paying private businesses to build and maintain prisons and inmates. This has turned prison into a business.

Furthermore, the more prisoners kept in these private facilities, the more money private prison companies make. So needless incarceration of non-violent offenders is promoted because of the potential profit. In fact, some private prison contracts have what is called “Lock up Quotas”, meaning that is the prison is not provided enough prisoners by the state, then tax payers will incur a fee from the company. Basically the government is given an ultimatum, arrest as many people as possible to fill private prisons, or pay a penalty fee.

These facilities are run by underqualified and under paid correctional officers. Private prison guards make significantly less than federal prison gaurds make. A private correctional officer makes about $28,000 a year or about $14 an hour. While a federal corrections officer makes about $47,000 a year or about $21 an hour. The salaries of the prison guards differ dramaticly from those of there supieriors at private prison companies. While correctional officers salaries leave them near the poverty line, big company executives make salaries that range from $1-6 million dollars a year.

Private prisons are also notoriously corrupt.  The inmates are treated horribly and there are many cases of cover-ups for inmate assault. Take Estelle Richardson’s case. Richardson was found murdered in her solitary confinement cell. Her skull was fractured and she had several broken ribs. She was in prison for a minor drug offense and had two young children waiting for her on the outside. The only other people in the area with her were four prison guards. But Richardson was not at just any prison, she was an inmate at a CCA or Correction Corporations of America prison. CCA is on of largest private prison companies in America, with a net worth of over $2 billion dollars. So while the four prison guards were indicted in the case, they were never convicted due to lack of evidence. In fact, the only camera in the room at the time happened to stop working during the time of the attack. Many have said that the CCA let their guards get away with her murder.

Another example of private prison corruption is a 2008 dubbed “Kids for Cash”. This scandal involved two local Pennsylvania judges. Each judge was paid $1 million dollars to sentence children who had committed minor offenses; some had committed no offense at all. Over the course of this scandal 2,000 kids were sentenced to private prisons. Both judges received hefty prison sentences but the damage was done and many children had still served needless jail time.

Toward the end of his presidency, Obama announced that he along with the justice department, were beginning plans to end the use of private prisons. This decision had come after a federal audit found that private correctional facilities have more safety issues than federal prisons. Attorney general at the time, Sally Yates, ordered that private prison contracts not be renewed and cited declinging prison populations are a contributing factor to the decision. This decision would slowly but eventually phase out private prisons completely. Or it would have if Trump had not been elected. The new attorney general Jeff Sessions rescinded this Obama administration decision. Sessions cited future limits on prison population as his reason for the decision. While there is always the possibility for future legislation, in this republican dominated government we live in currently, it looks like private prisons are here to stay.

So what are your thoughts on private prisons? Did you know this was an issue? Do you think private prisons are a good idea? Let me know in the comments!

Racial Inequality in the Prison System

This week I want to talk about racial inequality in the prison system. Given that black history month has just recently come to a close, I feel that this is a very prevalent and important topic to discuss. The prison system disproportionately affects African Americans and minorities in general much more than white American.  This issue is tearing apart the fabric of many primarily African American communities.

The basis of the problem lies in the numbers. While about 30% of the country is a minority, they account for about 60% of the prison population. This in itself shows an unjust bias to minorities in the justice system. To break it down by race, a 1 in every 15 African American men are incarcerated at any given time. The same numbers effect Hispanic men by 1 in 36 but white menonly by 1 in 106.

This issue largely in part can be attributed to racial profiling. According to findings by the Department of Justice, African American and Hispanic drivers are three times as likely to be subject to a search when pulled over than white drivers.  African Americans in particular are four times as likely to be subject to the use of force during police encounters. These numbers are a clear indication of racial profiling in the police force.

This discrimination begins early I the lives of young minorities in America. Over 70% of arrests that occur on school property involve an African America or Hispanic student. To further the point, African American and Hispanic youths make up 60% of incarcerated youth in prison today. On top of that, more minority youths are sentenced as adults then white youths. In fact, 58% of incarcerated African American youths are sentenced as adults.

This racial inequality affects women to. The number of incarcerated woman has a whole has grown by 800% in the past three decades and a disproportionate amount of these incarcerated women are minorities. African American woman are three times more likely to go to jail than white women, and Hispanic woman are 69% more likely to go to jail then white women. This proves that these inequalities do not discriminate by age or gender.

Minority offenders are also far more likely to receive longer and more cruel sentences. A study done by the U.S. sentencing commission found that African Americans typically receive sentences 10% longer than white people who commit the same crimes. African Americans are also 20% more likely to be sentenced to jail time and 21% more likely to be subject to mandatory minimums.

So what can we blame for this? How do these inequalities happen? Well the war on drugs has a lot to do with it. African American communities are far more likely to be targeted for drug investigations than white communities. A human rights watch study found that people of color are no more likely to sell drugs then white people. African Americans only represent14% of regular drug users, why are they 37% of drug users arrested? In fact, 1 in 3 adults arrested for a drug related offense is African American.

These injustices also follow minority offenders outside of prison. When they are released there wages tend to be lower than those of white offenders. The wages of both black and white offenders go down after being incarcerated, but it affects African American men and women much more than their white counter parts. Wages grow 21% slower for African American men and women than white men and women.

Felony convictions also prevent 31% of African American men from voting. This is because felony convictions looses you your right to vote, but because a disproportionate amount of African Americans have felony convictions, this law affects far more of the African American community. Many have blamed the election of Donald Trump on the overwhelming number of African Americans unable to vote because of felony convictions.

So what do you think of this issue? Were you aware of this problem prior to reading this? Do any of these number surprise you? A lot of them really shocked me. There is still a lot of work to be done to reach true equality in America.