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Varughese 1 Ethan Varughese English 101 James Brausch 30 November 2021 Banking on Bondage Why Private Prisons are Detrimental to Society Currently the United States holds the record for the world’s largest prison population, housing over 20% of the world's prisoners. The United States is an industrialized nation which is often praised for its technological advancements and economic success, yet we have an incarcerated population of over 2.3 million. In order to cover the problems caused by for profit prisons, it is important to explain how the United States arrived at this point. The United States massive prison population is a direct result of the War on Drugs championed by President Nixon during the 1970s. The War on Drugs advocated for higher prison sentencing, and mandatory minimum sentences which helped fuel the immense increase in our prison population during the 1980s. Subsequently, the swift increase of the incarcerated population resulted in a substantial burden on the prison system’s public sector which was unable to handle the skyrocketing prison population. Eventually, this burden led to the modern emergence of for-profit private prisons at the state and federal level. Because for-profit prisons are privately owned, they are able to cut corners and utilize cheap prison labor thus decreasing inmate’s quality of life and increasing corporate revenue. For-profit private prisons actively put profits over human lives and any industry whose raw materials are incarcerated human beings will support legislation that gets more people placed in jail for longer with harsher sentences. For-profit private prisons are incredibly detrimental to society, because their sole business model revolves around banking on the bondage, putting profits over the incarcerated, and the criminal justice system entirely.

Varughese 2 In order to analyze the benefits and drawbacks of privately owned For-Profit prisons, we first must examine the pertinence to the prison industrial complex as a whole. The earliest For- Profit private prison was founded during the 1980s and held around 350 inmates. Consequently, as more and more corporations realized how lucrative privately owned prisons could become, more states began taking into consideration promoting various legislation. This legislation would enable privately owned prisons to operate, and contract thousands of beds to private corporations. Today, there exist over 100,000 incarcerated inmates locked up in For-Profit privately owned prisons through 27 different states. According to the source “Despite public rebukes of the use of private prisons, growth in the use of private prisons nationally has been substantial, with the population incarcerated in private prisons growing by 46.6% between 2000 and 2016 (The Sentencing Project, [70]).” This quote helps paint a picture regarding the notable expansion of private prisons and incarcerated population within those prisons over the last 16 years. While the population incarcerated in private prisons has grown by almost 50% overall, half a dozen states have seen an increase that is impossible to ignore. According to the source “Six states have more than doubled the number of individuals in private prisons since 2000. Arizona had the largest increase, holding 479 percent more people in private prisons in 2016 than in 2000, followed by Indiana (296 percent), Ohio (226 percent), Florida (211 percent), Georgia (113 percent), and Tennessee (112 percent).” These statistics by themself should be alarming, but coupled with the fact that these corporations profit off the incarceration of our fellow citizens it becomes a hard pill to swallow. It is clearly shown by the aforementioned statistics that the number of privately owned prisons is increasing at an astonishing rate, with a large relevance to the entire prison industrial complex. However, what makes these prisons special, is that their end goal is profit, and that profit correlates directly to the number of persons incarcerated. Because of

Varughese 3 this interconnection between inmates and profit, owners of private prisons will want to have as many people incarcerated as possible for as long as possible to maximize profits. Considering the fact that private prisons profit from its number of prisoners, it is more than fair to contend that private prisons are a blight to society, focused solely on banking on bondage. The conversation regarding the efficacy of the privatization of prisons is a controversial and tricky one. Those who champion private prisons often claim that they may be able to offer society the same service, at a cheaper price point than the government. On the contrary, numerous studies actually prove that private prisons are ineffective at saving money compared to public prisons. According to the source “In previous research, the conclusion about the cost of private prisons differs from paper to paper with most pointing toward little to no cost savings stemming from the use of private prisons. These results came from multiple studies that primarily used case study analyses to form their conclusions.” This quote directly contradicts one of the strongest arguments in favor of privatization, that private prisons save taxpayers money. Multiple studies have found for-profit prisons to be futile at saving money. Another argument in support of private and for-profit prisons is that they will be able to provide superior services for inmates. This statement is immensely flawed, and for a specific reason. For-profit prisons operate as any other business does, wherein cutting corners increases the bottom line and this starts with the staff. On average, correction officers employed by private prisons earn a much lower salary compared to public prisons, thus resulting in high job turnover, and employee shortages. Private prisons that are understaffed have reported higher levels of violence according to the source “Studies have found that assaults in private prisons can occur at double the rate found in public facilities.” The studies clearly show that the cost cutting of salaries, has led to a detrimental dynamic between inmates and understaffed and underpaid correctional officers.

Varughese 4 Unfortunately the cutting of costs affects not only the employees, but more importantly severely affects inmates. Because profit is the ultimate goal, countless private prisons across the country have been caught for inhumane cost cutting practices that significantly lowered inmates quality of living. For instance, according to the source “Michigan's switch to a privatized prison-food system was supposed to save the state money—$16 million, or more than 20 percent of what Michigan had been paying to feed the 44,000 people held in its prisons. But in order to make the numbers work, Aramark's three-year, $145 million contract required the company to slash costs to an average of $1.29 per meal.” This quote perfectly encapsulates the concept of how private prisons are willing to cut costs wherever possible to maximize their net profits. Consequently, a few months after multiple private prisons located in Michigan reported unsanitary food conditions which resulted in ailments for the inmates. According to the source “ About 30 prisoners at a Michigan correctional facility are being treated for symptoms consistent with food poisoning after maggots and fly larvae were discovered in one of the meal serving lines, an official confirmed Monday.” So long as private prisons have the option to save money by cutting costs, they will actively choose increasing net profits over the health and wellbeing of the incarcerated whom they are responsible for rehabilitating. As mentioned earlier, various studies have found private prisons to be ineffective at saving much if any money, whilst simultaneously providing inferior services such as unsanitary food to inmates decreasing their quality of life. For these reasons, it is fair to assert that the efficacy of private prisons is non-existent due to the primary goal of profit maximization overtaking rehabilitation. Another fundamental aspect of the conversation regarding private prisons is the ethics and morality surrounding privately owned prisons. Because the large majority of corporations have less concern for the wellbeing of the general public, it is important we examine the ethics

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