Argumentative Essay On Prison For Profit

The United States has the world's highest incarceration rate. With five percent of the world's population, our country houses nearly twenty-five percent of the world's reported prisoners. Currently there are approximately two million people in American prisons or jails. Since 1984 the prison population for drug offenders has risen from ten percent to now over thirty percent of the total prison population. Federal prisons were estimated to hold 179,204 sentenced inmates in 2007; 95,446 for drug offenses. State prisons held a total of 1,296,700 inmates in 2005; 253,300 for drug offenses. Sixty percent of the drug offenders in prisons are nonviolent and were purely in prison because of drug offenses (Drug War Facts). The question then arises,

Over the past few decades, America has developed an obsession with incarceration. Since the early 70s, crime rates have remained stable, but as of 2006 the rate of incarceration has increased nearly 500% (Hallett 2006) and has only continued to increase since. Anti- crime rhetoric has led to more public fear than ever “even though the crime rates suggest that public safety has improved over the years” (Patten 2017) This increase in arrests is fueled mainly by “the war on drugs” and strict control of immigration. The war on drugs (Coined by Richard Nixon and spearheaded by Ronald Reagan) (Patten 2017) causes thousands of arrests each year, and targets minority communities (African Americans get arrested 8 times more frequently than white offenders for drug crimes). While anti-immigration laws target mainly Mexican

In his chapter on “Assessing the Prison Experiment,” he explained that the increase of crime rate is not the sole reason that mass incarceration occurs, and it was also because the courts and the legislature did indeed became “tougher” on offenders (Currie 14). Currie discussed the circumstances of the war on drugs, which was launched by President Richard Nixon. He indicates that the incarceration rate and sentence longevity were increased dramatically since the beginning of the war on drugs. Some of these offenders were given a sentence for more than ten years without the possibility of parole, which is taking away any chance of the prisoner being released before the completion of his or her sentence. Locking people up is a failed attempt to descend the crime rate, and the adoption of mandatory minimum sentencing law is the root of mass incarceration. The government should reconsider the current sentencing laws and reform the correctional system in order to solve the current mass incarceration problem. Furthermore, establishing more community-based programs for youth offenders and initiating early release programs are excellent alternatives to resolve the issue of mass incarceration from both long-term and short-term perspectives, respectively.

Crime rates are down in America, yet there is an unproportionately large number of Americans incarcerated. This paper will delve into and examine this problem and how it is closely linked to private prisons and the issues surrounding them. While private prisons claim to be cost effective and well-run, evidence has shown that these profit-driven companies ignore ethical consequences by purposefully lengthening prisoners’ sentences, target certain groups for incarceration and maintain despicable living standards for the prisoners; ultimately, these prisons have caused more harm than good for the state.

The War on Drugs is seen by many as an enormous factor of mass incarceration. There were more than 1.5 million drug arrests in the U.S. in 2014. More than 80% of them were for possession only (Drug Policy Alliance, 2017). 208,000 people are incarcerated for drug offenses in state prisons and 97,000 are incarcerated in federal prisons for the same reason. 1 in 5 incarcerated people are drug offenders (Peter Wagner, Bernadette Rabuy, 2017). According to Politifact, “The state and federal prison population remained fairly stable through the early 1970s, until the war on drugs began. Since then, it has increased sharply every year, particularly when Reagan expanded the policy effort in the 1980s, until about 2010…. In 1980, about 41,000 people were incarcerated for drug crimes, according to the Sentencing Project. In 2014, that number was about 488,400 — a 1,000 percent increase.” Even other factors, like

America has a major problem with overcrowding in its prisons, and action needs to be taken. Since 1970, the inmate population in the United States has increased over 700%, far greater than the general population as a whole. This has led to declining quality of life within the prison system including 8th Amendment violations and it represents a needless drain on state finances. There is simply no value in keeping non-violent convicts in the prison system, sometimes for years. The costs are high, and there is very little benefit to America. The justice system needs to be overhauled to relieve the massive crowding in US prisons.

In America today, there is a trend in corrections of taking the duty of running prisons out of the hands of state and federal authorities and contracting it out to private organizations. Along with the drift to privatization is a plethora of research pertaining to the subject taking many different approaches to analyzing the effectiveness. The majority of research focuses on one of three areas. The first questioning whether or not it is cost effective to make the switch. The second being the ethical problems that can and have risen from the privatization of prisons. The third being a wide painting of the change and the implications it has on society as a whole.

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

One of the largest factors that has contributed to the high numbers of the prison populations and the racial disparities of the criminal justice system has been the “war on drugs”.

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

Privately owned prisons began to emerge in the mid-1980s. These prisons emerged because of the ideological imperatives of the free market, the huge increase in the number of prisoners, and the substantial increase in imprisonment costs. (1) Proponents of privatized prisons put forward a simple case: The private sector can do it cheaper and more efficiently. Corporations such as Correction Corporation of America and Wackenhut promised design and management innovations without reducing costs or sacrificing quality of service. (1) Many interest groups comprised of correctional officers, labor works, and a few citizen groups strongly oppose the privatization of the prison system. I will identify four

Are Private Prisons being run for profits or are they just a solution to the current problems we are dealing with today in society? There has been a recent debate on whether private prisons are being run for profit for their corporations or for the people. Especially with the expected increase in stocks on the two major private prison corporations due to the election of our new President Donald Trump. There has been many different problems and views arising to this. Many of the problems I will be talking about that include the important topic of mass incarceration and the safety of the inmates and staff at these facilities.

However, private prisons have received a lot of government money, which allow for private penitentiary executives to bring in large compensations (“Privatization,” n.d.).

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

As discussed below, even assuming arguendo that private prisons are more cost-effective than state and federal-run prisons, this is achieved through cost-cutting measures. As one commentator notes, “[m]uch of the presumed cost savings of private prisons are achieved through lower staffing costs: private prisons pay their employees less than public prisons.” Cost-cutting can threaten prisoner safety and lead to deplorable prisons conditions.. For example “[a] private prison in Idaho run by CCA (which operates 3 out of 4 active private prisons in Oklahoma) established a reputation as a “gladiator