The Pros And Cons Of Prisons In Prison

As of now, the cost of operating prisons is on the rise, along with the number of people in prison. Currently, taxpayers are spending between $20,000 and $25,000 annually on each individual prisoner (The Third Branch, Costs of Incarceration and Supervision). A proposal to reduce the cost of imprisonment is to put the prisoners to work. Within the next five years the prison population is expected to increase and is estimated to cost an additional 1.6 million dollars (The Economic Impact of Prison Labor). “If half of the prisoners could be employed by private enterprise during that time, their work would reduce taxpayer costs by almost $9 billion per year.” (The Economic Impact of Prison Labor)

“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 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

Traditionally, there have been four justifications for punishment: deterrence, confinement, rehabilitation and retribution. While these methods can be flawed at some point in history they served as primary reasons for the justification of punishment. Recently, there has been an epistemic shift in thinking about punishment where now it is focused on retribution and incarceration. The emphasis on this method has lead to an increase in incarceration and the rise of a prison system. While we acknowledge that there will always be a need for society to punish criminals in order to protect the rights of individuals, however a prison/prison system is not the correct way to handle such problems. Currently the prison system is being used an economic tool for private companies to exploit cheap labor from inmates. Known as the prison-industrial complex private enterprises are now able to build more prisons to “benefit” society and themselves as the prison population grows. Since the 1980’s the growth in prison

The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is an organization which over the past few decades has grown tremendously in the United States. This political cartoon showcases how our societies are transitioning from dependence on the Public Education system to the dependence on the Prison Industrial Complex and how the people who are funding these corporate businesses are less focused on bettering of the community but are primarily money hungry. My close analysis of this image reveals how the prison industrial complex negatively affects our communities yet is beneficial to the people and corporations who operate them.

More people have been locked up in the United States than any other country. In the article “Prison Industrial Complex Economics”, it states, “the United States has approximately 6.5 million people under the criminal justice supervision. Incarcerated rate has grown from 176 in 1973 up to 700 in the year of 2000” (Waquant). Incarceration is a big business that feeds into drug violence, corrupted guards, and racism in criminal justice system, taxpayer cost, and racism in the criminal system and through privatization of prisons.

American prisoners receive free medical attention, housing, meals, utilities, use of exercise equipment, and laundry services. The cost of these services amount in the billions of dollars a year and government budgets are straining to accommodate these fiscal requirements. “There’s special urgency in prisons these days,” “As state budgets get constricted, the public is looking for ways to offset the cost of imprisonment” (Brown). This economic concern requires work programs to aid in the relief of financial burdens incurred from convicted criminals. Once found guilty of a crime the prisoner needs to take responsibility for the costs incurred. Prison labor has evolved from the day of hard labor, breaking rocks, and making license plates to

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.

It can be noted that mass incarceration of individuals for drug offenses serves a purpose in society. During a prison stay, inmates can be paid under a dollar an hour, while the prison and the rest of the system can see an upwards of $500 million (Love, 2017). Merton’s theory of structural functionalism can break down this system by describing as a prison as an institution that keeps convicts out of society’s way, while the prisoners work for minimal wages in order to turn a profit that eventually is returned to society. With the apparent economic opportunities that prison labor holds, the over sentencing of individuals by means of extremely harsh laws is a direct benefit to those in charge of the corrections

Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates. Now, there are over a hundred private prisons, and 62,000 inmates, expected to hit 360,000 in the coming decade (Pelaez, 2008). Prisoners work in variety industries, making clothing and shoes, dental lab work, metal production, operating slaughterhouses, rural industries, and producing military gear and supplies. Furthermore, they are often paid less than minimum wage, if anything at all. In federal penitentiaries, the minimum wage is standard, but on the state level they can receive as low as two dollars an hour, while in private prisons they receive as low as seventeen cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day (Paleaz, 2008). Most of the time, prisoners are not exposed to meaningful employment where they can learn new skills that apply to the outside workforce, being instead tasked with labor-intensive, menial and often dangerous work (Khalek, 2001). Moreover, upon refusal, they are locked in isolation cells and/or denied basic necessities like toilet tissue and other ostensible privileges (Paleaz,

Society made the preconceived notion of the prison system to be seen as a source of revenue. According to Marc H. Morial, “ Incarceration in the United States has become less about justice, and more about the profit motive.” The idea of making money off of people because of crimes more less petty crimes are easy targets in the judicial system. People who have high ordinance of power make the belief of finding the best and most profitable solutions to the economy through prisons. They use free labor from prisoners as equity to their own monetary advantage, which puts them on the upper hand in government and with other corporations that sway political decisions. Monetary values direct how prison systems are ran to build up commission for legislation and

Rania Khalek, a progressive activist, claims that “There is one group of American workers so disenfranchised that corporations are able to get away with paying them wages that rival those of third-world sweatshops.” These laborers, who the US society labels as prisoners, have been legally stripped of any political, economic or social rights and are ultimately relegated to being second-class citizens. They have no choice but to work for little or no wages. This marginalization renders them practically invisible and these prisoners who are locked behind bars where we cannot see or hear them are our modern-day slaves of the 21st century. Society pays so little attention to those who are behind bars that instead of trying to educate those convicted and try to rehabilitate them, many of us use them to earn more money.

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

The United States is home to five percent of the world population, but 25 percent of the world’s prisoner. There must be a change to the current prison system which is doing more harm than good in American society and must be reformed. Reasons for this claim are that American prisons are too overcrowded with inmates, which creates a dangerous and unhuman environment. The cost to run a prison has gotten too expensive for tax payer pockets, and lastly the prison system is more as a punishment instead of rehabilitation with about sixteen percent of inmates most serious offence being drug charges. Prisons fall short of reforming criminals and the government is obligated to completely reform the prison systems in the United States.

The debate over prison labor has existed as long as the concept it’s self. Opponents claim that it exploits prisoners, takes away jobs from the general population, and puts people in danger by allowing convicts access to their personal information. While supporters of prison labor argue that it helps the economy as well as benefits prisoners. On this issue I stand on the side of the supporters. By having prisoners work we are accomplishing several beneficial things. First, work keeps them occupied and out of trouble, instead of getting into confrontations with other inmates, they are actually doing something productive. Second, by working they are alleviating some of the high costs of keeping them