Prisons For Profit

The privatization of our nation's prison industry is a real problem. When individuals and corporations stand to profit from increased incarceration rates, whats stopping them making sure these rates only continue to increase?

The United States currently has over 2 million people locked up in its prisons, that's more people in prison than any other country on Earth. The Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group are two of the biggest driving forces behind these numbers. As private prison companies they profit off the incarceration of others. They are also behind the increasing introduction of anti-immigrant legislation such as Arizona's controversial SB1070. The criminalization of illegal immigrants leads to higher incarceration rates and therefore larger profits for these companies.



Through campaign contributions and lobby groups which help influence legislation these corporations can ensure a steady stream of new convicts for their facilities. "From 2005 through 2009, for every dollar that GEO spent lobbying the government, the company received a $662 return in taxpayer-funded contracts, for a total of $996.7 million. CCA received a $34 return in taxpayer-funded contracts for every dollar spent on lobbying the federal government, for a total of $330.4 million." (Cervantes-Gautschi)

In 2009 GEO had profits topping $1 billion, while CCA had a profit of over $1.6 billion.



The results of my Lexis Nexis search lead me to believe that this may actually be a censored story. I was unable to find any articles that directly spoke of the influence private prison companies have through their lobbyists on the passing of stricter illegal immigration legislation. Articles I was able to find spoke more of problems that have arisen within private prisons such as abuses and the cost of running these prisons.
Links: Private Prisons Found to Offer Little in Savings ,
Dark profits in industry of migrant detention; As private security firms craft a global business, abuses in camps soar

Works Cited:
Cervantes-Gautschi, Peter. "Wall Street and the Criminalization of Immigrants." Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names. Counterpunch.org, 15 Oct. 2010. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. .