The Prison Industrial Complex

The influx of immigrants into the United States, especially during the summer of this year, has been a cause of controversy and political debate, not just on Capital Hill, but across the entire country. This issue has many supporters and detractors on both sides of Americas political landscape. However, with that being said, perhaps the following will clue you in on one of Americas largest for profit businesses, and their interest in retaining the value, capital, market share, and endless supply of product/stock for their shareholders.

The Prison Industrial Complex

This issue not only touches the lives of migrant families, it affects the entirety of our judicial process and laws that govern our criminal justice system. These laws and processes have been lobbied for extensively, using political tools that wield great influence over sentencing laws and standards. Creating strict judicial guidelines that create high recidivism rates, which in of of itself creates more profit.

Source / Alternative source

Many of the toughest sentencing laws responsible for the explosion of the U.S. prison population were drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, which helps corporations write model legislation. Now a new exposé reveals ALEC has paved the way for states and corporations to replace unionized workers with prison labor.

Using these massive legislative processes, the laws that are being written are co-opted for the advantage and maintenance guarantee to keep and maintain a never ending cycle of prisoners and profit motives.


Corrections Corporation of America is one such industry that utilizes these tactics to sway legislation and guarantee their shareholders a residual return on investments within the corporation. Below is an excerpt taken from CCA's 2010 annual report. It highlights the for profit prison industries intent and motivations.


Now that we have established a baseline, let's dig into the premise.

I'm not going to discuss here how or why or what created this massive industry. Nor what has been it's main contributing factor to the rise and cause. Having said that, let's move on to the topic at hand.

In September of this year an interesting article came out regarding migrant incarceration and it's affect on for profit prisons during this period. Two corporations saw huge spikes in their market share.

Source / Alternative source

Share prices for two of the largest private prison firms have spiked sharply since an influx of unaccompanied migrant children crossing the border was reported this summer. And some investors in GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America are seizing on the opportunity for more profit from incarceration, according to recent comments to CNN Money.

The private prison industry has been riddled with complaints from top to bottom. But with powerful political connections and huge cash flows, it moves full steam ahead. This however, isn't always the case. There are several companies which have recently divested all their interests from the industry, and I think it's note worthy to give them credit.

Source

NEW YORK -- In a groundbreaking move, three major corporations have announced the divestment of a combined total of nearly $60,000,000 from Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group (GEO), confirmed after ColorOfChange.org urged company executives to reconsider the financial, moral, and political implications of private prisons and divest. In the past few months, ColorOfChange has reached out to more than 150 companies urging divestment, and remain in conversations with dozens of company executives about ending support for the industry.

Regardless of divestment, which is a good thing, the system and process still moves forward. Regardless of the abuse and complaints the industry receives, it still moves forward with ground breaking efforts to build and sustain the for profit imprisonment of whoever or whatever makes a buck. With a new facility opening in Dilley Tx, it appears that the norm will continue.

Source

Federal officials are planning a new for-profit family detention lockup for immigrant children and their parents in South Texas. The 2,400-bed “South Texas Family Detention Center”—as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is referring to it—is slated for a 50-acre site just outside the town of Dilley, 70 miles southwest of San Antonio.

With this massive new potential for income, and the recent border crossings. Patched in with bed rate guarantees. Will Americas next huge for profit prison crisis and a need to fill beds, result in a much needed reason to continue the influx of undocumented migrants into America with hopes for a better life, only to end up locked away and housed for profit.

I hope not...

Many pigs become screws working in jails so no conflict of interest here then.

Prisons for profit now means that the USA has a higher percentage of people in jail than anyone else in the world and elected officals have reached deals with the coporations who build the jails to keep them full.

"Land of the free" my backside

You don't just end up in prison. You have to do something negative to society to get there. Often there are multiple offenses resulting in incarceration, many of which are never recorded.

For example, habitual shoplifters get away with an average of 240 thefts before they are properly punished for their crimes.

a reply to: suz62

You don't just end up in prison

Prison for profit – How innocent people end up in jail

Yeah, you like many other people here seem to be very much part of the problem.

a reply to: Daedal

Daedal

You say

I'm not going to discuss here how or why or what created this massive industry. Nor what has been it's main contributing factor to the rise and cause.

You won't but if I may, I will address this briefly. From my vantage point a couple of decades ago, watching this beast flourish, one of the the main things that helped this industry along to what it has become today was the concept that government was to big. That what would save America was to "privatize' many of the government operated systems. One such was the penal system.

As inefficient and expensive as the government run penal system was at that time, there was still a strong popular sense of not turning prisons into forced labor camps. While specific prisons skirted this rule, it was generally held. When the movement to down size government control began moving in earnest, the dream of turning over government run functions to private industry was highly prized by many segments in US society.

As this "new sense" of, government can't do anything right anymore grew, there was also a rebirth of the idea that private enterprise is much more efficient because they have to compete in the "market place" where government didn't. Government it seemed to may had a monopoly on things like prisons. But even as this rush turning over these responsibilities to private industry was blossoming, there were those who spoke out against this citing the very future your OP describes, though it now no longer the future but the present.

I think that at that time what many could not grasp, and maybe still don't, is that though slavery had become illegal, would be slave owners were still abundant. Slave owners have hidden behind many guises. Your Irish and Catholic and we are Protestant, so, we can own you. You are black and we are white, so, we can own you. Now it seems that the guise they hide behind is "you are a bad person because you broke the rules we wrote, so, we can own you.

I think the US is well on the way to owning a permanent slave class, a slave class that is owned and operated by Big Business. That is of course if you don't count the rest of us wage slaves.

a reply to: Dabrazzo

Why? Because I'm not so gullible that I believe everything I read?

Well Done!!!

Traditionally prisons and jails were run by the government with government employees - with government (hence public) oversight. Since the mass outsourcing of government services at tremendous cost to taxpayers this is the kind of abuse and exploitation we see in many areas.

When Saint Ronnie Raygun said that government was the problem, he was speaking to robber barons not 'We The People'.

www.pogo.org...

Is an excellent analysis of the cost to the tax-payer for various 'outsourced' work. Just the cost not the quality.

I can't format the table I wanted to embed but here is a synopsis:

POGO’s study analyzed the total compensation paid to federal and private sector employees, and annual billing rates for contractor employees across 35 occupational classifications covering over 550 service activities. Our findings were shocking—POGO estimates the government pays billions more annually in taxpayer dollars to hire contractors than it would to hire federal employees to perform comparable services. Specifically, POGO’s study shows that the federal government approves service contract billing rates—deemed fair and reasonable—that pay contractors 1.83 times more than the government pays federal employees in total compensation, and more than 2 times the total compensation paid in the private sector for comparable services.

Additional key findings include:


Federal government employees were less expensive than contractors in 33 of the 35 occupational classifications POGO reviewed.
In one instance, contractor billing rates were nearly 5 times more than the full compensation paid to federal employees performing comparable services.
Private sector compensation was lower than contractor billing rates in all 35 occupational classifications we reviewed.
The federal government has failed to determine how much money it saves or wastes by outsourcing, insourcing, or retaining services, and has no system for doing so.
- See more at: www.pogo.org...

POGO is the acronym for Project for Government Oversight

I'll take one line item from the chart I recommend everyone looking at (it's impossible to miss if you scroll through the document)

Correctional Officer

What full annual compensation (including benefits and such) for a federally employeed one costs WE THE PEOPLE:

$72,977.00

What full private sector annual compensation (including benfits) for a correctional Officer:

$33,598.00

What 'WE THE PEOPLE' are billed by a contractor for ONE correctional officer annually:

$83,803.00

So we pay $83,803.00 to the contractor, the contractor compensates (including cost of any benefits) their employee $33,598.00 and the contractor makes a Gross Profit of $50,205.00.

If that isn't exploitation by the contractor of the system, their employees, the government, and 'WE THE PEOPLE", I don't know what is.

Check it out - it's way worse in other areas of Government Contracting.

Who's benefiting?

This doesn't even begin to address the 'quality' of the work provided by these over-priced private contractors. Think about the shabby services provided to our troops in Iraq - the bad water, etc or the bad roll out of the ACA internet system. There are hundreds of examples of 'BAD' performance by Private Contractors performing government jobs.

a reply to: suz62

You don't just end up in prison. You have to do something negative to society to get there.

In a perfect world the only folk in prison would be people who've done wrong to society. Once upon a time, you could face prison for being homosexual. Alleged Commies were jailed in the 50s. In some places, marijuana is illegal and in others it isn't. Your statistically more likely to be imprisoned for drug possession whilst black than you are when white.

Celebrities are less likely to face incarceration for crimes than poor people.

If you steal a $1000 off your bank, you face a good chance of imprisonment. If your bank makes millions from selling bad home-loans, those responsible are unlikely to face imprisonment.

Many prisoners are there through prejudiced juries. Innocents are on Death Row.

It's not always about being 'negative to society.' Often it's being in the wrong place at the wrong time, being the wrong colour or being on the wrong end of the class system and wrong side of the political divide.

a reply to: Kandinsky

So you want no prisons at all. Not really realistic.

a reply to: suz62

We need prisons.

We don't need to assume that every prisoner is there because they deserve to be.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: suz62

We need prisons.

We don't need to assume that every prisoner is there because they deserve to be.

What exactly is your point?

a reply to: suz62

Your opinion that you 'have to do something negative to society' to be imprisoned is simplistic.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: suz62

Your opinion that you 'have to do something negative to society' to be imprisoned is simplistic.

I don't buy into the belief that we're sending thousands of innocents to prison. I've seen a few things.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: suz62

Your opinion that you 'have to do something negative to society' to be imprisoned is simplistic.

But perhaps statistically accurate.

a reply to: xuenchen

It certainly is.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Government is not outsourcing the services to taxpayers, but to corporations. Think logically. There are two main options, who runs the services: government employees or private companies. Both are covered by the taxpayer. If private corporations are involved, of course, the costs are incredibly higher, as someone intends to profit from it. Nothing more.

I am not American, although I have a lot of experience with US companies and system, having lived there for a while. The problem does not directly lie in the government itself, but in corrupt government who decides to satisfy the needs of corporations instead of people, nothing more.

In this county, the systems like that are run directly by the government. Not a single private entitiy is involved. Whether you work as a prison attendant or a nurse, you are basically government employee. No CEOs, no shareholders, no one profits directly from prison services. Thus the prices are low, even too low, as the government does not receive enough money from taxes. I personally do believe nurses should get paid more than they are right now, although this is a questionable situation, as in the end, I would not want someone treat me just because they get paid enough for it, but because they truly believe it is the right thing to do. If they were just in there for the money, they would not treat me if I could not pay. Currently government pays them, whether I can pay or not, and I can be sure that is the main thing in their eyes, not the numbers , as their pay is fixed. Whatever the number of patients, same salary. Whatever the financial situation of patients, same salary.

a reply to: VirusGuard

Here's a statement for you. It definitely sounds like securing the border would affect the bottom line.

Source

"Investors see this as an opportunity. This is a potentially untapped market that will have very strong demand," said Alex Friedmann, an activist investor who owns shares of both CCA and Geo Group

originally posted by: suz62
You don't just end up in prison. You have to do something negative to society to get there. Often there are multiple offenses resulting in incarceration, many of which are never recorded.

For example, habitual shoplifters get away with an average of 240 thefts before they are properly punished for their crimes.

So please explain how "the land of the free" has more people per 100,000 in jail than anywere else in the world?

Either American are more prone to crime

Or

The USA has lots of BS laws on it books and harsher sentanceing

originally posted by: suz62
a reply to: Kandinsky

So you want no prisons at all. Not really realistic.

What he is likely getting it is the stupidity of sending thousands to jail for "crimes" that have no negative effect.

Prison should only be for those who commit violent or theft /property damaging crimes

Sending drug user to prison is stupid.

And things like tax evasion can be handled by fines.

originally posted by: suz62

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: suz62

Your opinion that you 'have to do something negative to society' to be imprisoned is simplistic.

I don't buy into the belief that we're sending thousands of innocents to prison. I've seen a few things.

innocent people ending up in jail is not a belief system it is a fact....all you need to do is remove the blinders and look into it and you will see