Lobbying
As previously stated, private prison companies have to rely on the big prison population in order for them to make money because he main concern of these private corporations that run these facilities is money. Due to this, these companies will do whatever it takes to make sure the prison population increases so they can keep making money. Therefore, the private prison companies will lobby for laws to boost the prison population. Due to this financial motive they will do whatever it takes to make money. In the Corrections Corporation of America’s 2010 Annual Report they even stated the following:
Our growth is generally dependent upon our ability to obtain new contracts to develop and manage new correctional and detention
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Also, sentencing alternatives under consideration could put some offenders on probation with electronic monitoring who would otherwise be incarcerated. Similarly, reductions in crime rates or resources dedicated to prevent and enforce crime could lead to reductions in arrests, convictions and sentences requiring incarceration at correctional facilities.
This quote from the Corrections Corporation of America’s 2010 Annual Report shows that they are not concerned with reducing the prison population, but instead are worried about laws that would force them to downsize and or lose money. It also seems like they are trying to instill fear into people because of the mention of electronic monitoring and how those people should be incarcerated and not put on probation and making it seem like they are going to cause chaos in the streets. Therefore, in order for them to continue the growth that they mentioned in the quote above they started lobbying.
These private prison corporations have previously worked corporations, lawmakers and worked with interest groups that advocate for prison privatization through the group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC is a non profit group that advocates for free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty (Mason, “Too Good to be True”). CCA was a member of this
Despite what you may think, private prisons have existed in the United States dating all the way back to 1852, beginning with the San Quentin state prison. Private prisons did not truly become as common as they are today though until President Ronald Reagan led a large-scale effort for increased privatization around the United States during the 1980’s. One result of this effort was a large upswing in the number of private prisons. As a result of private prisons becoming more common place, it has been seen that compared to prisons run by the government, length of sentences have gone up within private prisons, while at the same time the treatment of prisoners has gone down. This topic interests me because I believe that it should never be in the best interests of such a large and powerful group to have as many people as possible in prison for as long as possible. In my opinion, it is not ethically correct on a basic human level to ever have it in people’s best interests to keep other people in prison. I chose this topic because I have always held a strong opinion on this topic but have never had the time to do extensive research on it and either confirm or dispel my current beliefs about it.
An organization known as ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, is a group that is known for the inclusion of corporations into the drafting of laws. Laws such as “Three strikes and you’re out” and “Mandatory minimum sentence” have greatly affected the American prison system. By creating these laws, prisons stay full for longer. This is beneficial to many corporations involved in ALEC, like the CCA, because it profits off of the success of their private prisons. This idea messes up the prison system because it encourages prisons to bring in more inmates and keep the prisons full. In fact, the prison labor industry has got so large that it is too late to try and stop it because there are so many businesses that depend on the cheap labor.
Private prisons use a system known as an occupancy requirement. Such is a case in which a private company requires a state to keep a prison the company owns filled with a minimum percentage of inmates. This policy is made to stand no matter how crime in the state may fluctuate. Occupancy requirements are common practice within the private prison industry. In the Public Interest group reviewed 62 private prison contracts. The group found that 41 of those contracts included occupancy requirements that demand local or state government must keep the prisons between 80 to 100 percent full. According to the report all the big private prison companies such as CCA, GEO Group, and the Management and Training Corporation try to include occupancy
Across the nation, both local and federal prison systems have looked to private corporations to provide beds for
For profit prisons are contracted out to the government to help hold convicted criminals. Private prisons are thought to help save money for states, it also helps with overcrowding. Since America incarcerates so many people they didn’t have space to put everyone. So, they started using private prisons. But private prisons can be more dangerous than public prisons. The conditions in private prison are not very good, and there have been many complaints about it. Some people think that inmates should not be sold for profit. The for-profit prison industry has two main corporations the Geo and the CCA.
By contrast, DHS’s immigration detention program detains around 400,000 people every year. The growth of immigration detention has been astonishing. In 1994, approximately 6,000 noncitizens were detained per day. The daily average had surpassed 20,000 individuals by 2001 and 33,000 by 2008. To manage the growing detainee population, ICE has increasingly turned to contracted facilities such as for-profit prison corporations. This growth has allowed private prison companies such as GEO Group (GEO) and CoreCivic (formerly known as CCA) to significantly profit from labor savings. Private companies are incentivized to cut medical staffing and deny care to maximize shareholder return. Maximizing that return is the primary goal. These companies have managed to accomplish their goal by forcing their detainees to work and upkeep the facilities for little to no pay, saving millions in labor costs. In the year 2012, “GEO brought in an estimated $33 to $72 million in profits.” CCA, estimated profits ranging from “$30 to $77 million, or about 25% of the company’s total profits.” To give some perspective, a facility in Adelanto California, owned and operated by GEO, would pay $109,865 annually in detainee wages at $1 a day. If GEO were to pay the state’s minimum wage, they would be spending $7,910,280 annually in labor. This gives GEO a total savings of
The minor financial benefit they may provide is not enough to offset the detriments they have on our society. In addition to society the people inside the prison suffer from the cut budget as well losing out on healthcare and other quality of life benefits. Beyond this the ethical idea of using people's punishment and suffering as a form of profit is deplorable. These corporation are then using the money they make to influence our country's lawmakers encouraging the imprisonment of more and more people and doing much less to help the people already inside the prisons. Our nation should stop the expansion of private prisons ,which have expanded significantly the past few years, and then begin to phase them out allowing for the growth of a healthier justice system (Mason, Too Good to be True Private Prisons in
As CCA’s presence in California has grown they have increased their spending on political campaigns and lobbying in California, the Huffington Post reports Corrections Corp of America has spent nearly $290,000 on California campaigns during the 2011-12 election cycle, 8 times as much from the 2005-06 cycle.10 Since running for governor in 2010, Jerry Brown has taken in $15,000 from Corrections Corp of America, which also spent $50,000 in support of his initiative to raise taxes, and he received $25,900 from the private prison contractors The GEO Group inc. The GEO Group also contributed $25,900 to his 2010 Republican opponent, Meg Whitman.11 Spokesman for Jerry Brown’s administration Evan Westrup, said that “the contributions played no role in Brown’s decision to sign the new contracts.” The problem with this statement is the fact that there appears to be no good reason for this deal besides profiting while saving California a little money at the expense of privatizing the corrections system. Steve Owen, a CCA spokesman, said that “lobbying allows the company to educate the government about the types of solutions we provide and to stay current on issues that affect our ability to best serve our partners.” The problem is the line between educating or suggesting is blurred when you begin the conversation with $20,000, then it becomes clear that your it becomes clear your intentions are to bribe and
In the 80 's, the rising number of people locked up as a result of the War on Drugs and the wave of privatization that occurred under the Reagan Administration saw the rise of the for-profit industry. Prior to the 80 's, private prisons did not exist is the US. In a 2011 report by the ACLU, it is claimed that the rise of profit prison industry is a "major contributor" to mass incarceration, along with the stuffed state budgets. Louisiana, for example, has the highest rate of incarceration I in the world with the majority of its prisoners being privatized prisons, profit facilities. Such institutions could face economic failure without a steady influx of prisoners. A 2013 Bloomberg report states that in the past decade the number of inmates in for-profit prisons through the U.S. Rose 44 percent. Corporations who operate prisons,
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
Prison overcrowding is one of the most burdensome problems plaguing our criminal justice system, but privatization is not the answer. The federal prison population increased by almost 800 percent between 1980 and 2013. (Pelaez, 2016).This is a much faster rate than the most state prisons could accommodate in their own facilities. In an effort to manage the rising prison population, many states began contracting with privately operated correctional institutions to house inmates. There are patterns of abuse, especially against the mentally ill in prisons operated by for-profit companies such as the Corrections Corporations of America also known as "CCA". Many of these for profit corporations have been accused of providing abysmal care to prisoners.
The state of Georgia contracts with two private prison companies, the Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Corporation, that when combined, house 7,974 offenders in four separate facilities ("Private Prisons"). The Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) facilities, which are managed by CCA, claim that their prisons are safe, sanitary and give prisoners the opportunity to participate in a variety of programs such as educational classes and counseling. However, in other states where the CCA is contracted to manage these private facilities, state investigations have proven quite the opposite.
"The most common rate is 90%, though some prisons are able to snag a 100% promise from their local governments" (Mathews 2). Contracts between the government and private prisons stating the minimum capacity rate of the jail, exist for all private prisons. Private prisons, or a facility for incarceration, run through a third party and have contracts with the government. This approach guarantees money for profit-seeking CEOs, causing them to effectively run as a business. However, the quotas these contracts call for present a problem because "[w]hile incarceration statistics have skyrocketed, crime rates have increased much more slowly" (Smith 3). The quota put forward by the private prison industry causes the rise of imprisonment rates. Because
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
Nowadays, we are facing a major experiment in privatization. For example, private companies have entered the business of managing public schools, or religious schools. Also, they even run in prison industry. Among them is Private Prison Corporation of America, which is growing fast in prison industry in the United States. Especially, immigration detention business has brought up massive profit for Private Prison of America. Therefore, corporation is planning to join other private prison corporations by making campaign donation and retaining lobbyist to draft and seek the passage of two laws about anti-illegal immigrant and the Intensive Probation Act that will increase opportunities to do