By Skyler Pierce-Scher
The number of private prisons grew dramatically after Nixon’s War on Drugs, strengthened later by Reagan, when incarceration rates “skyrocketed beyond the capacity of the nation’s existing prisons”(Joy, Tara. The Problem with Private Prisons). In 40 years, between 1975 and 2015) the U.S. saw a whopping 500 percent increase in incarceration rates. Investors saw this as an opportunity to profit off of mass incarceration. In the decades following the War on Drugs, incarceration rates continued to rise and the U.S. made little progress in lowering them. Prisons were overflowing and it became very expensive to maintain the prison industry, resulting in a growing rate of private prisons. The U.S. began making some progress in lowering the prison population and number of private prisons under the Obama administration where many actions were taken towards criminal justice reform (which you can read more about here); however, after Trump was elected in 2016, the U.S. began moving backwards: “Throughout 2016, then-candidate Trump campaigned on a ‘law and order’ message and, perhaps more importantly, an, moreover, an anti-immigration message. Both led to a surge in the population of convicted offenders and detained immigrants. Upon Trump’s election in 2016, private prison stocks spiked immediately, as investors speculated that demand for prison beds would rebound and perhaps surpass earlier levels.” (Burkhardt, Brett C. Private Prisons, Explained). In addition to the War on Drugs, Trump’s zero tolerance and anti-immigration stances, caused incarceration rates to spike, and companies again took the opportunity to invest in the unethical business that is private prisons.
A prison becomes privatized when governments (local, state, or federal) take bids from large firms to take over operation of a prison and/or build new ones. This gives the company the full responsibility of managing day to day operations within the prisons. The firms are paid by the government per inmate and sentence length. Private prisons claim to save the government money; however, they do this by paying prison guards and other employees less and failing to hire proper medical staff. They also give their employees less training. In turn, there are very high rates of inmate-on-inmate violence, because the prisons are understaffed and the guards aren’t properly trained on how to handle these situations. Additionally, inmates of private prisons are often exploited much more than government owned prisons. Private prisons, or for-profit prisons, are able to exploit inmates for free labor by claiming they are providing them with career opportunities, while the prisoners do not get paid for their work. Many people and companies profit off of this unpaid labor, and encourage the prisons to prolong the “good” prisoners’ sentences so they can continue to profit off of their labor. The private prison industry is not a way of limiting rising prison populations but rather a corrupt and unethical business enriching large corporations, while stripping prisoners of basic human rights.
Footnotes:
Carroll, Lauren. “How the War on Drugs Affect Incarceration Rates.” www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/10/cory-booker/how-war-drugs-affected-incarceration-rates/.
Burkhardt, Brett C. “Private Prisons, Explained.” The Conversation, 20 Mar. 2017, theconversation.com/private-prisons-explained-73038.
WATCH.
In 38 seconds Steve Prattor, Sheriff of Caddo Parish in Louisiana, tells you why he REALLY likes keeping "good" Black men in jail. pic.twitter.com/7YtxixE1rU
— Shaun King (@shaunking) October 12, 2017