The Goal of Private Prisons: A Scheme for Profit
The operations of private prison show that their success is dependent upon housing the maximum number of inmates. In order to fill beds at private facilities the private corporations lobby for stronger drug and immigration laws along with longer sentences to accompany these laws. These new laws result in the United States having five percent of the world population but housing twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. (Liptak, 2008) The effects of lobbying mean that as a country we lock up more people than any other country. The United States as of 2013 has 1,574,741 people incarcerated. Of these inmates forty-five percent were charged with a non-violent crime. (U.S. Department of Justice, …show more content…
Which leads to a cycle of people locked up for non-violent crimes who are then subjected to violent murders that are left in a situation which they learn to adapt to survive in turn increasing their recidivism rate. As the President calls for a change in the way the judicial system imprison offenders we are staring down overcrowding in almost every state. At the root of the problem states are forced to contract with private prisons to relieve overcrowding quickly. Profit is the main goal for any capitalism business this applies to private prison corporations as well. When profit is the focus of a prison wages, training and staffing suffer leaving those behind the fences in a delicate situation that is primed to claim lives. What lies behind the fences and razor wire of any prison drastically contrasts that which the public see on television; a nightmare of …show more content…
(Liptak, 2008) The U.S. Department of Justice compiles the statistics of inmate population then, releases those figures to the public. In reviewing the released numbers the breakdowns according to state, age, race and sex are able to be compared along with the overall number of citizens incarcerated. When state incarceration is combined with the federal incarceration 1,574,741 are behind bars in this country as of 2013. Inmate population breakdown by sex and race reveal more statistics that cannot be ignored. There are roughly thirteen times more men imprisoned over females. In the race category minority inmates are locked up more frequently in all age brackets under 40. Additionally, forty-five percent of the inmate population is considered to have committed non-violent crimes. (U.S. Department of Justice, 2014, p. 4-8) Private prisons house 128,195 inmates or roughly eight percent of the total inmate population. (Lee, 2012) When compared to Canada and countries in Europe, the United States hands down longer prison sentences for the same crimes. (Liptak, 2008) Private prisons help contribute to every one of these statics. Mandatory sentences are supported by these companies which lead to more non-violent offenders
The operations of private prison show that their success is dependent upon housing the maximum number of inmates. In order to fill beds at private facilities the private corporations lobby for stronger drug and immigration laws along with longer sentences to accompany these laws. These new laws result in the United States having five percent of the world population but housing twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners. (Liptak, 2008) The effects of lobbying mean that as a country we lock up more people than any other country. The United States as of 2013 has 1,574,741 people incarcerated. Of these inmates forty-five percent were charged with a non-violent crime. (U.S. Department of Justice, …show more content…
Which leads to a cycle of people locked up for non-violent crimes who are then subjected to violent murders that are left in a situation which they learn to adapt to survive in turn increasing their recidivism rate. As the President calls for a change in the way the judicial system imprison offenders we are staring down overcrowding in almost every state. At the root of the problem states are forced to contract with private prisons to relieve overcrowding quickly. Profit is the main goal for any capitalism business this applies to private prison corporations as well. When profit is the focus of a prison wages, training and staffing suffer leaving those behind the fences in a delicate situation that is primed to claim lives. What lies behind the fences and razor wire of any prison drastically contrasts that which the public see on television; a nightmare of …show more content…
(Liptak, 2008) The U.S. Department of Justice compiles the statistics of inmate population then, releases those figures to the public. In reviewing the released numbers the breakdowns according to state, age, race and sex are able to be compared along with the overall number of citizens incarcerated. When state incarceration is combined with the federal incarceration 1,574,741 are behind bars in this country as of 2013. Inmate population breakdown by sex and race reveal more statistics that cannot be ignored. There are roughly thirteen times more men imprisoned over females. In the race category minority inmates are locked up more frequently in all age brackets under 40. Additionally, forty-five percent of the inmate population is considered to have committed non-violent crimes. (U.S. Department of Justice, 2014, p. 4-8) Private prisons house 128,195 inmates or roughly eight percent of the total inmate population. (Lee, 2012) When compared to Canada and countries in Europe, the United States hands down longer prison sentences for the same crimes. (Liptak, 2008) Private prisons help contribute to every one of these statics. Mandatory sentences are supported by these companies which lead to more non-violent offenders