The Week: The private prison industry, explained

Source: The Week

Following are some excerpts from a great article on the private prison system. To read the entire article, click on the link above.

  • Today, private prisons incarcerate about 9 percent of all U.S. prisoners, and 19 percent of all federal prisoners. About 75 percent of all immigrants detained by ICE are also in private prisons.

  • CoreCivic has 42 percent of the market and GEO Group 37 percent. GEO Group donated heavily to President Trump’s campaign, and both GEO and CoreCivic contributed $250,000 to his inauguration committee. [FAC NOTE: RON BOOK IS THE LOBBYIST]

  • A month after Trump’s inauguration, CoreCivic and GEO Group stocks shot up by 137 percent and 98 percent, respectively.

  • Private prisons save money by hiring fewer guards, paying them less, and giving them less training, as well as by providing fewer educational, medical, and enrichment services to inmates. The result is less control of the inmates and more violence.

  • For-profit institutions have no incentive to rehabilitate their prisoners, but every incentive to keep recidivism rates high so they can get future contracts.

  • A scathing 2016 report by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General found that federally contracted private prisons had more security violations per inmate than public prisons, including a 28 percent higher rate of inmate-on-inmate assaults and more than twice as many inmate-on-staff assaults.

  • CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America, has been cited numerous times for abuses in its prisons.

  • [A judge described] a GEO Group juvenile facility in Mississippi [as a] “cesspool of unconstitutional and inhuman acts and conditions.”


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7 thoughts on “The Week: The private prison industry, explained

  • August 9, 2018

    America was founded on cheap labor (slaves) and although that term is no longer Politically Correct the fact is that in the USA the rich are still getting rich off the backs of the poor.

    What better way than to make a sub-class called sex offenders who can be harassed endlessly and finally locked away to work for pennies just like the slaves of the past.

    Lesson not learned in the shortsighted land of the “free”!

    Reply
  • August 9, 2018

    Small wonder there’s a thousand or more weekender paramilitaries in the US. Most of them led by former SEAL team members or Army Rangers… I don’t recognize anymore the nation I spent a year on the Korean DMZ to defend

    Reply
  • August 9, 2018

    This is exactly what I wrote regarding personal experience with family member and it was a recent 3 years.

    Reply
  • August 9, 2018

    Private prisons fund politicians. Politicians, Senators, Judges & L.E.O. purchase Private Prison Stock & make sure they get record returns from their’ investment. It is a scam & Rick Scott as a Senatorial hopeful will ensure convicted felons never vote or have rights restorations & return to prison. This especially applies to the S.O. community, which continually gets saddled with new rules, regardless of how long it has been since conviction. Be prepared to become perpetual prison slaves. YOUR RIGHTS ARE FULLY SUPPRESSED & YOU ARE CASH COWS!

    Reply
    • August 9, 2018

      Inmates are property owned by the State and used for profit.

      Reply

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