It is clear from existing studies that the number of incarcerated people has increased almost five hundred times in the last three decades. A large number of criminals behind bars was prompted by several factors; many are largely blamed on the so-called war against drug use in the country. Moreover, many professionals believe that most of the inmates living in prisons are there illegally. The studies have shown that the people serving various sentences in prisons are black and Latinos with only a small percentage represent the White population. Moreover, the increased number of inmates led to the development of privately owned prisons in America. Most people have viewed the act of privatizing prisons with different reactions. Therefore, this paper looks at the issue of privatization of prisons in America by considering its origin, reasons for incarcerations, and other factors that surround the issue.
The fact that America has private prisons is not news to many in the world. The act of privatizing prisons started in the 1980s when the Correction Corporation of America (CCA) pioneered the thought of running a prison for the purpose of making profits. One of the founders of CCA told an Inc. Magazine reporter that they aimed just to sell the prisons as if they were selling real estate, cars or hum burger (Shichor, 1995). The CCA built and operated their first private county jail and juvenile detention center in Tennessee in 1984. They then opened another correction facility in Houston, Texas at the same time.
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Since the inception of the first private country jail and correction center pioneered by the CCA, several other private prisons owned by the CCA have come into existence; they include the Winn Correction center in Winnfield, Louisiana. The corporation also owns a detention center in Ohio and in many other states in America. Further studies have shown that there were only five private prisons in America in 1991 (Pozen, 2003). However, the numbers have increased to 100 private prisons that are currently operating in the States of America. Moreover, the private prisons currently have over 70,000 inmates compared to 2,000 present as at 1991. It is also projected that the number of inmates in private prisons will increase to 360,000 over the next decade (Palaez, 2016).
It is evident that the increasing numbers of people going to jail for petty offenses has led to the increase in the number of private prisons in the US. Studies show that even though the rate of crime has gone down, the number of people has increased as a booster to help those investing in prisons for profit (Hallett, 2006). Some of the factors that have made it possible for the private prison business to boom in America includes longer prison sentences for people guilty of possession of a little amount of narcotic and hard drugs such as cocaine (Nicholson-Crotty, 2004). For example, the federal law requires that any person found in possession of 2 ounces of crack or rock cocaine can face up to ten years in prison while those found in possession of 5 grams of crack or 3.5 ounces of heroin may face up to five years in prison (Palaez, 2016). It is important to note that whites use crack cocaine and heroin more than blacks and Latinos. However, it is the minority groups who get the longer terms in prison with the possibility of no parole.
Some of the factors that led to the privatization of prisons in America are the soaring numbers of inmates behind bars. Research shows that there are currently two million Americans in prison (Palaez, 2016). The studies support the fact that many Americans who have gone to prison are there for causing fewer violence offenses that have earned them longer jail terms. In fact, most judicial professionals believe that the number of crime rates in America has reduced, but the rate of incarceration has increased mostly to benefit those who own private prisons (Shichor, 1995). In fact, a research study indicates that private prisons are run mainly for profit purposes. These private prisons have reinvented the nature of free or cheap labor that was once left for people from third world countries in America. Similarly, reports show that private prisons are able to get cheap labor by using their inmates to do more work that would have caused them millions of dollars paid to people in formal employment opportunities (Palaez, 2016). Moreover, it is clear that private prisons pay their workers lower than state-owned prisons does. For example, private prisons pay as low as 17 cents per hour working at six hours a day while state-owned prisons pay up to $2.50 per hour working at eight hours per day (Palaez, 2016).
On the same note, private prisons have thrived because of the large amounts of profits they get when they outsource labor to large corporations. In fact, most reports show that the private prison complex is growing in the US and its beneficiaries are in the Wall Street. It is also clear that the private industry has its own website, the Internet, and conventions, trade exhibitions, mail and Internet orders (Palaez, 2016). Moreover, private prisons also have their own advertising companies, food supply, advertising firms on the Wall Street, and also take part in the stock market among other profiting activities (Palaez, 2016). Moreover, the private prison sector also provides labor to some large and well-known multimillion dollar profit firms such as Microsoft, Motorola, Boeing, IBM, Macy’s Hewlett and Parker, Lucent technologies, Dell, Compaq, Nettle, Honeywell, and Revlon among others (Palaez, 2016). This has been made possible by 37 states, which have legalized the ability to contract prison labor by private organizations that mount their operations within the state-owned prisons.
Apart from offering cheap labor to large organizations and poorly paying their inmates, privately owned prisons do not offer their inmate effective living conditions. For example, studies report that most officers in privately owned prisons mistreat their inmates. Worse still, they are given the opportunity to be released after five years for good behavior. However, any simple misdemeanor leads to an additional thirty days imprisonment (Shichor, 1995). On the same note, the living conditions are not bearable for private inmates. The cells have hostile prisoners who beat up others, the health conditions are wanting and that most of them die from curable diseases. Moreover, food services are another issue that most prisoners in the privately owned correction facilities have to deal with.
Similarly, reports show that prisoners in private jails usually find it hard to leave the jails because of the longer sentencing requirements for minor misconducts that also come with lack of possibility of parole and the constant extension of release terms (Hallett, 2006). The leaders of private prisons use minor misconduct to extend the prisoners stays within the correction centers, hence, making it hard for prisoners to live in such areas. Private prisons in the US are the new face of human exploitations; it is clear that inmates in privately owned prisons do much work and get lower pay than those in state prisons. Moreover, they work for longer hours with less pay. For example, they pay as less as 17 cents per hours while working for six or longer hours under deplorable conditions (Nicholson-Crotty, 2004).
Moreover, they also do not get the possibility of parole even for a minor offense that does not include violence or murder. In fact, the highest-paying private prison is in Tennessee where inmates earn 50 cents per hour for what the organization terms as highly skilled labor (Palaez, 2016). Similarly, another factor that has propelled the existence of private prisons is the ability to import and export inmates. Thus private prisons are capable of importing inmates from overpopulated state prisons at a fee. For example, in 1996 after the president passed the law that ended the supervision of prison which also required state-owned prisons to avoid overcrowding and mistreatment of inmates, private prisons started making offers to overcrowded prisons to transfer some of their inmates to them at a fee. Mostly, these were the long-serving prisoners or those with high-security issues known to be the worst criminals. The private prisons decide to charge $2.50 to $5.50 per day per head (Pozen, 2003).
Thus, the above discussion shows that the number of increasing inmates in states and federal prisons plays a role in increasing the number of private prisons in America. Moreover, overcrowding, unsafe, and violent conditions in state prisons makes it possible for the CCA to open many private prisons in the states to accommodate most of the prisoners. The studies have shown that the privatization of prison in America is a form of business to those who own them. Private correction facilities offer cheap labor to their inmates. They pay as low as 17 cents per hour compared to their state counterparts who pay as low as $2.50 per hour. On the same note, private prisons make money by outsourcing cheap labor to big firms such as Dell, IBM, Microsoft, HP, and Macy’s among others. It is also clear that private prisons currently hold almost 8 percent of the total US jail population. In fact, the numbers of private prisons have increased from just five in 1991 to 100 prisons in 2017. On the same note, private prisons are known to be big business for their owners and those who have invested in them. They have poor living conditions for their inmates who also suffer from different curable diseases.
References
Hallett, M. (2006). Private Prisons in America: A Critical Race Perspective. St. Louis: University of Illinois.
Nicholson-Crotty, S. (2004). he Politics and Administration of Privatization: Contracting Out for Corrections Management in the United States. Policy Studies Journal .
Palaez, V. (2016). The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery? New York: Global Reseach Campaign.
Pozen, D. (2003). Managing a Correctional Marketplace: Prison Privatization in the United States and the United Kingdom . J.L. & Pol. Vol 19 , 253.
Shichor, D. (1995). Punishment for Profit: Private Prisons/Public Concerns. CA: Thousand Oaks.
