Correctional Facilities Industry Paper

The United States spends nearly $81 billion per year on corrections, but where is this money coming from, where is it going, and is it actually reducing crime rates? Crime rates in the United States have fallen since 1991 and murder rates have also fallen by half in last 25 years, however the prison population has increased by 500% in the last 40 years. Increase in the number of incarcerated citizens also lead to an increase in new prisons around the country and also the crippling of the american justice system. As the author of Wages of Rebellion describes, the prison-industrial-system as the most

Texas Prison System becomes something from the past, and the private prison system becomes the future due to limited budgets and events? Squaring off the full cost of state prisons in Texas requires accounting for expenditures in all areas of government that support the prison system not merely those within the corrections budget. “Due to supplementary budget to taxpayers can include expenses consolidated for governmental determinations such as employee benefits and capital costs, and services for inmates funded through other agencies. The prison also costs the cost of subversive, contributions to corrections wage earner pensions and retiree health care plans; states must pay the remainder of those contributions in the future.”(n.d.)

Today, the private prison industry is big and extremely profitable. The industry is dominated by two large companies, Corrections Corporations of America (CCA) and the GEO group. The annual combined revenues for both companies amount to over $3 billion while their top executives get compensation of over $3 million each. However, the way these companies operate is wholly unethical.

In 2001, Emerging issues on privatized prisons found many striking statistics concerning the privatization of prisons. It is estimated that worldwide there were 184 privately operated correctional facilities. Within the United States, a total of 158 private correctional facilities are operating. A substantial portion of the worlds privately owned correctional facilities are in

Business’s that appear to be removed from the corrupt corporation of prison are ultimately expanding the prison industrial complex. Prison incarceration has become a multi-billion dollar industry that needs more than 2 million U.S. citizens to put into prison on any given day. This paper will be base for explaining how the PIC works and what really goes on behind all the barbed wire and armed guards. “The term ‘Prison Industrial Complex’ was first coined by either Eric Schlosser in 1998 or by Angela Davis in the same year, in order to examine the complex configuration compromised of the US prison system, multi-national corporations, small private business and the inmate population in the social and political economy of the 21st century United States “(Smith and Hattery 2). The prison system today seems to be a flawed one, where the smallest offences send people to years into either a private, state, or federal prison.

Private prisons have a negative effect on states and local governments. Unfortunately, the number of private prisons has been increasing since their inception in 1983 causing further problems. For-profit prisons offer no real benefits and are bad investments for states. Furthermore, private prisons beleaguer communities with high turnover rates that hurt local economies. The demands of these institutions put an excessive burden on the local community’s infrastructure. Similarly, private prisons strain the county and city legal systems. More often than not, spin-off industries and economic benefits promised by the for-profit correction industry fail to appear. Additionally, private prisons are allowed to cherry pick the least expensive

His policies caused the growth of a massive corrections system that currently houses an estimated 2.2 million inmates. Since the 1970’s federal and state correction agencies have consistently struggled to meet the increased demands brought on by the US Department of Justice and strict drug laws; this in turn created the opportunity for Corrections Corporation of America to form, the largest private prison network in the United States (Godard, T 2015). With the precedent it set with the first private detention center, CCA changed the face of US corrections for good. The private sector became the quick fix to the problem of overcrowded and understaffed public prisons.

Similarly, since the 1980s there has been the initiation of privatization of prisons, in the United States. Today, for-profit companies operate 264 correctional facilities, housing almost 99,000 inmates (Glans, 2011). The two largest are Correction Corporations of America (CCA) and the GEO Group, which together combined for a capacity of 129,000 prisoners. According to Think progress, in 2010 Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group made over 2.9 billion in revenue (Sanchez, 2011). Equally important, these companies exert influence on public policy, in order to fashion the marketplace environment (i.e. more prisoners/African American males) required to increase its businesses. This is done through lobbying politicians, direct campaign contributions, and political networking.

The term prison industrial complex is a replica of the military industrial complex (Tabibi, 2015a). Both refer to their respective industry as providing massive amounts of revenue in the American economy. To provide perspective and context to the amount of money produced by the prison industry in the United States, the film Corrections (2001) by Hunt, cites the amount as being upwards of forty billion dollars. Corporations, elected officials, and government agents, all have an invested interest in the expansion of the prison system (Davis, 2003a).

Prison Privatization: The Case of Michigan Privatization is a term and action that has grown in prominence and visibility in the United States and in many other parts of the world in recent years. Privatization may be found in virtually all sectors of the U.S. economy and has the potential to impact millions of employees in both non-profit and for-profit organizations. Various factors contribute to the decision to privatize, and much debate has taken place regarding the costs and benefits of this fundamentally system-changing process. While privatization may occur in all sectors, from privately-held corporations to the federal government, the focus of this paper will be privatization relating to prisons, particularly in the state of Michigan.

As the number of prisoners have constantly been rising at an exceedly fast pace, several governments around the world have embraced the use of private prisons. Private prisons are confinements run by a third party, through an agreement with the government. In the United States, it is estimated that there are over 1.6 million inmates, of that there are 8% that are housed in privately-operated prisons. While the other 92% are housed in the public prison system. Private prisons have existed since the 19th century. Their use increased in the 20th century and continues to rise in some states. When a government makes an agreement with a private prison, it makes payments per prisoner or vacancy in jail on a regular basis for maintenance of the prisoners. Privatization became involved due to the fact that prisons were becoming overpopulated. Public prisons contracted the confinement and care of prisoners with other organizations. Due to the cost-effectiveness of private firms, prisons began to contract out more services, such as medical care, food service, inmate transportation, and vocational training. Over time private firms saw an opportunity for expansion and eventually took over entire prison operations. However, now their security, how they treat the inmates, and their true cost effectiveness has come into question

In the course of the most recent 20 years, the U.S. correctional facility populace has qua-drupled, with someone.9 million people in the slammer in government and state penitentiaries, and local prisons by the year 2000. firms are looking for benefit making open doors from this prison populace. that corpora-tions are profiting by prison work: correctional facility privatization and prison exchange. we tend to in the blink of an eye survey key clarifications of detainment, re-port on this condition of prison privatization and correctional facility industrialization, look at the effect they require on sorted out work, and propose union routes in battling against the amplification of organization force inside the (D. E. (2002 inside the u. s., privatization should be comprehended as each a driving and main effect of financial procedure. The expanding dependence on advertised sorts of organization and organization self-direction in a portion of control by government is normally talked as "the new administration. " thirty The new administration is demonstrative of late changes inside the relationship between the business sector furthermore the state itself—changes that region unit resolute from world financial rivalry and option sorts of commonality amongst state and non-state on-screen characters, locally and transnational, as these have created in late decades (C. J. (2014).

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

These measures were taken to ensure public safety but are now posing a problem for our correctional facilities. Overcrowding and budgets are among the problems brought about by these measures. Both the state and federal correctional population throughout the United States have steadily seen significant increases in their population, every year for the past decades. Based on the census found on the Bureau of Justice website, the data collected between June 30th 2000 to December 30th 2005 showed that prisoners held in custody between federal and state prisons increased by 10%. (“Bureau of Justice Statistics”, p.1 -2)

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