It’s no secret that the United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world or that the population of our prisons has literally exploded since the 1980′s when Ronald Reagan first declared the “war on drugs.” What might not be as well known is the profit motive that, like everything the right does, underscores the policies they create.
On September 19
th, 2013 the Huffington Post published this
infographic, which shows the states in the US which have entered into contracts with private prison companies. Those prisons have an agreement with the state, which ensures that the prisons will remain at at least 90 percent capacity. If, at any time, the number of prisoners should drop below the quota, the state has an agreement to pay the company for the empty beds.
Private prison companies emerged in the 1980′s, right along with Reagan’s
war on drugs. While in the White House, Reagan also made a list of 78 industries that he felt should be privatized… and one was the prison industry. Surprised? It was during his term that the first private, for profit prison opened, in Hamilton County, Tennessee. The Corrections Corporation of America, which now operates for profit prisons across the country, got its start in 1984, with a little help from friends. Since the 1980′s the incarceration rate in the US has quadrupled, putting the country at the top of the world, in the number of citizens locked away behind bars. Our incarceration rate of more than 1 for every 100 persons, is a national disgrace. It should be clear by now that the war on drugs was motivated not by some moralistic idea of a drug free society, but by the potential profits which stood to be made off such mass incarceration of our own citizens.
Jan Diehm of the Huffington Post created an
infographic to illustrate the private prison problem. It is based on information released by the advocacy group ‘In the Public Interest’. The group examined hundreds of agreements between state governments and private prison companies, in order to compile a detailed report, which was released in September, 2013. They found that a majority of contractual agreements between states and private prison companies included a quota for keeping beds full. The lowest prisoner quota was 70 percent, while the highest, in Arizona, was 100 percent. The report found that the most common quotas for private prisons is 90 percent.
Think about that. What’s the incentive to see the number of incarcerated individuals decline? Is there an incentive to reduce the overall crime rate? What’s the incentive for ensuring that we have a fair justice system or for ensuring that the people we lock up behind bars really deserve to be there? Under this system. there is no incentive to do any of these things. What’s worse, there is an opposite incentive, one that rewards both states and for profit prisons with cold, hard cash for putting as many people as possible behind bars, innocent or guilty, deserving or not deserving. It’s a system in which not locking people up behind bars, results in a monetary loss.
In 2010, a group of three prisoners escaped from an Arizona
private prison facility. After the three were apprehended weeks later, the state tried to get out of its contract with the private prison company that operated the facility, Management and Training Corp. Following an investigation which resulted in the state’s determination that the facility was “dysfunctional,” Arizona stopped sending new prisoners to that location. Management and Training Corp responded by threatening to sue the state for $10 million. Because of a contractual agreement, which guaranteed the prison would be kept at 97 percent capacity, the state eventually ended up paying $3 million, for refusing to send prisoners to a “dysfunctional” facility.
For profit prisons are operating all around the United States. Diehm’s infographic only shows those which have a quota of 90 percent or higher. Most are located in the southern portion of the country, with Florida and Arizona having the greatest number of facilities with high prisoner quotas. Moving farther north, Ohio and Indiana each have a single facility with a 90 percent or higher quota. Surprisingly, the state of California, often considered to be one of the most liberal in the country, also has three such prisons operating within its borders.
To be certain the United States needs to take a long hard look at the evidence regarding the country’s failed war on drugs.
Democratic Representatives Sam Farr (CA), Maurice Hinchey (NY) and
Pat Leahy, as well as others, have at various times, proposed changes to existing federal drug enforcement policies. President Obama has taken steps to reduce mandatory sentences and alleviate some of the disparity with which the war on drugs has impacted minorities. Most recently, as a growing number of states pass legislation to legalize marijuana, the Department of Justice and the President have vowed not to pursue charges against residents who are not violating state laws.
This is just the beginning of what needs to happen. A growing number of human rights, non-profit and religious organizations vehemently
oppose the for profit prison industry and the monetary incentive that underscores their operation in the United States. Republicans however, are pushing to expand privatization, in spite of evidence that these policies are detrimental to the country as a whole. When profits provide the motivation for public policy, we see the negative impacts of those policies across the board. It’s up to us to determine if we want our justice system to represent justice or if we want it to be a for profit industry, which operates at the expense of human beings.
Here’s the infographic from Huffington Post:
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