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!