Analysis: The Immigration Industrial Complex

“A set of bureaucratic, political, and economic interests that encourage increased spending on imprisonment, regardless of the actual need. The prison-industrial complex is not a conspiracy, guiding the nation’s criminal-justice policy behind closed doors. It is composed of politicians, both liberal and conservative, who have used the fear of crime to gain votes; impoverished rural areas where prisons have become a cornerstone of economic development; private companies that regard the roughly $35 billion spent each year on corrections not as a burden on American taxpayers but as a lucrative market. An interweaving of private business and government interests. (Aviram

The media plays a huge role in forming people's perceptions of crime. Without the media we would remain ignorant to occurrences outside our direct social groups. The media and especially news coverage therefore provides us with an important point of contact with the rest of society. In evaluating its effect on popular perceptions of crime it becomes important to consider where most of the information comes from and how representative it is on actual criminality. If it takes "facts" (the truth, the actual event, a real thing) or if it is heightened to a crime myth. With a myth being based upon "exaggeration" or heightening of "ordinary" events in life. Crime myths become a convenient

Across the nation, both local and federal prison systems have looked to private corporations to provide beds for

Despite all of this, Corplan Corrections, one of the groups involved in planning the constructing of the facility, says on its website: many prisons bring 150-400 new jobs to a community + income that flows into city and county budgets + “free and donated” labor for civic projects, parks, schools, and public needs.

The use of private prison has been a serious issue in the United States. The main issue is the amount of money that private prison companies are consuming. The private prisons are making millions of dollars from housing inmates. Between 1970 and 2005 the U.S. population has grown by 700 percent (Private prison, 2013). This massive increase in the U.S. prison population is far outpacing the population and crime rate. Due to this, America has the biggest prison rate than any other country worldwide. Juveniles make a huge amount of the population as well. Since there is such a high number of mass incarceration worldwide the private prison companies are making huge profits. The use of private prison companies such as the Correction Cooperation of America (CCA) and the Geo Group, Inc. has had a lot of controversy. These two private prison companies are known as the largest two private prison companies in the United States. However, since crime rate in the United State have been decreasing over the past decade. These two groups are starting to suffer because less people are incarcerated. According to Hanna Kozlowska, “Collectively, these two private prison companies has lost around $2.2 Billion dollars.” Unfortunately, since crime rates is decreasing private prison companies are losing money. Therefore, the Correction Cooperation of American and the Geo Group, Inc. has resulted to aggressive tactics to make money. In my opinion, I think that private prison companies

According to the journal article “Advantages and Disadvantages of Private Prisons” there are many disadvantages and advantages in private prisons as compared to federal, state, and local facilities. The advantages of private prisons include how they are seen as an enhancement to the current problem of prison overcrowding due to private prisons having more capacity in supplying empty beds and cells to inmates. Another advantage includes how private prisons take around 18 months to build as for government prisons take over two years. Private prisons are also known to build their prisons in locations that provide financial benefits to the communities. Many of those benefits include stable employment increase, and increase in community resources for spending. Private prisons are also known in reducing costs to complete costs associated with employment, which offers many alternatives for more ideas into the correctional system as well as bringing in more staff that are young and eager than the public paid staff and equipment purchasing. Another advantage is the ability to hold a greater number of female inmates which have the history of costing government institutions more money. Private prisons also have the

Initially, this appears solely a benefit. Purely logical that, to prevent hazardous physical conditions for inmates, some must move to a separate location. However, with profits as reward for this overflow of criminals, companies in charge of these institutions felt encouraged to support strict incarceration procedures and policies, willing to subject convicts to any sort of punishment within the jail in order to gather more profit. As civil rights attorney and professor at Cornell University Joseph Margulies states: “The companies that build and run private prisons have a financial interest in the continued growth of mass incarceration.” Instead of, as state prisons do, focusing concerns on inmate rehabilitation, these prisons focus on increasing their profits through the number of inmates they have incarcerated and their length of

This can clearly be seen by a report investigating the top five interest groups lobbying to keep marijuana illegal. Private prison corporations make millions by incarcerating people who have been imprisoned for drug crimes, including marijuana. Likewise, CCA has sent letters to more than 48 states asking for a “20 year management contract plus an assurance that the prison would remain at least 90% full” and have advocated for direct incarceration of illegal immigrants.

There are many private prison deals where people have either invested their money into the prisons or the prison has backed another business or running candidate with the prison’s money. Regardless of which way it goes, both sides usually come out on top with the prisoners losing. One group even created something called the Prison Divestment Campaign in 2011. The campaign was formed by several groups working together to try and get investors to pull out of private prison deals (Magee 49-50). It was easy for them to get scared that other parts of branches of the government would become privatized seeing as a piece of the judicial branch already had. The lobbying, however, can be proven especially with recent events. The day Donald Trump was elected to be the US President stock prices of CCA had risen by 43% and the stock for the GEO Group had risen by 21%. Just a few day after and the stock had risen above 100% from what it had previously been. During the time of his campaign Donald Trump had repeatedly spoken of cities and embellished their crime rates. Trump’s propaganda, as well as his fiery immigration speeches, has led to incarceration rates slowly climbing. Under Trump’s administration, federal prison populations shrink as private prisons thrive all due to the fact that private prison companies backed Trump in his

Currently, many prisons are beginning to be run by private corporations. If a company is running a prison then they need prisoners to stay in business. Around 1 in every 107 Americans is currently being housed in a prison. The United States has about 5 percent of the world’s population yet 25 percent of its prisoners(ACA, 2008). This is the easiest way to maintain a large prison population is by maintaining the current drug war. The largest private prison company in the United States is Corrections Corp. of America(ACA, 2008). In the last twenty years, CCA has donated nearly $5 million dollars to certain political

What if I told you that prisons in America aren 't built for the main purpose of locking up “criminals” and making them better to re enter society and keeping other citizens safe but for some companies to make profit off of cheap labor? In essence that is the prison industrial complex. How do we define it? A few define it as a term that is used to explain rapid expansion of the US inmate population to the political influence of private prison companies and businesses that supply goods and services to government prison agencies mainly affecting minorities mainly African Americans but to put it simply is that more and more prisons are becoming privatized and getting third party contracts from government agencies instead of the government owned.

It is often said “prisons work” but does it actually teach the inmates a lesson? Or does it just give criminals a holding place until their sentence is up? These questions come up often because of the security issues inside the prisons, the percentage rates of the inmates that end up back in prison, and taxes that affect the citizens of the community surrounded.

Privatizing prisons may be one way for the prison population to get back under control. Prisons are overcrowded and need extra money to house inmates or to build a new prison. The issue of a serious need for space needs to be addressed. “As a national average, it costs roughly $20,000 per year to keep an inmate in prison. There are approximately 650,000 inmates in state and local prisons, double the number five years ago. This costs taxpayers an estimated $18 billion each year. More than two thirds of the states are facing serious overcrowding problems, and many are operating at least 50 percent over capacity. (Joel, 1988)” Private prisons may be for profit, but if they can solve the issue of cost then it may be a

The form in which private prisons profit is straightforward and seems harmless. However, it is the reaches which these corporations take that are entirely unscrupulous. Private prisons form contracts with the government by which they receive a per diem per prisoner given by its corresponding state. ”Let’s suppose that it costs $100 per day to house a prisoner, and the prison building can hold 1,000 inmates. A private prison can offer their services to the government and charge $150 per day per prisoner” (source 9). So the name of the game is saving money. The less that a facility is to spend results in a greater profit output. However, private prisons are going as far as neglecting the health of the prisoners, for marginal gains.

“it is primarily because they are prisons, not because they are contractual, that private prison face challenges of authority, legitimacy, procedural justice, accountability, liability, cost, security, safety, corruptibility, and so on. Because they face no problems that are both unique and insurmountable, private prisons should be allowed to compete (and cooperate) with government agencies so that we can discover how best to run prisons that are safe, secure, humane, efficient and just”. (Logan, C. 1990)