Disadvantages Of For-Private Prisons

Slave labor was believed to be a thing of the past within the United States, a far distant travesty of the 18th century. Following Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which liberated slaves across the United States, no more would individuals be taken advantage of and oppressed for the benefit of others, or so we thought. Private prisons, also known as for-profit prisons, have recently become quite successful at making monetary gain by taking advantage of their prison population. Private prison unlike public ones are not overseen by the states and are instead managed independently by corporations, such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), who are contracted by the government. The main incentive for managing these prisons, is that they give corporations access to cheap manual labor. Many …show more content…
They put their support towards laws that would increase the number of inmates and laws that would keep them incarcerated longer. An example of a law that was are heavily supported is California’s three-strikes law, which calls for harsher punishment for repeated offenders. California’s version of this however differs from other states in that it instead of only counting felonies it also counts misdemeanors. These are the type of laws that they support, which allow them to not only have more inmates but also keep them longer due to the harsher sentences. It is not only legislatures that they attempt to influence but also judicial workers. In one case judges were bribed into sentencing children to jail time for petty crimes. Crimes that would often times be a warning such as stealing a DVD from your local Wal-Mart became a jail sentence. This is the type of corruption that stems from allowing corporations to make financial gain individuals, and more cases just like the one mentioned would keep on occurring if we allow these corporations to