Businesses, bonds, real estate, and prisons. What do these four things have in common? All are products people invest in for maximum profit. Prisons are making profits off of their prisoners, promoting the ideals that, “You just sell it like you were selling cars, or real estate, or hamburgers” (A brief history... 1). Although prisons were originally intended to be a place to detain and rehabilitate criminals, they are now a business where every prisoner is no more than a number. A private prison is defined as a prison or immigration detention center run by private companies who are contracted by federal or state officials. “Today, for-profit companies are responsible for approximately 6% of state prisoners, 16% of federal prisoners, and,
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Private prisons must be banned because they are detrimental to the prisoner's health, place an enormous economic burden on both the community and the prisoners’ families, and disproportionately target minority …show more content…
“These prisons operate without the same systems of accountability as regular Bureau of Prisons facilities and prisoners suffer,” said Carl Takei, an ACLU attorney (Wessler 1). Private prisons are allowed to provide inadequate medical care to their prisoners. Licensed Practical Nurses (LV/PNS) are often hired to work at private prisons as opposed to Registered Nurses (RNs); however, these employees are not as rigorously trained. They are intended to be support staff, not primary caregivers. “In 19 cases reviewed and reported to The Nation, at least one medical doctor flagged the overextension of LVNs as a factor impeding medical care” (Wessler 4). But the medical care staff is not the only inadequate staff. After an infamous escape from an Arizona private prison in 2010, the Arizona Department of Corrections reported that the prison staff are “not proficient with weapons, and habitually ignore sounding alarms” (Banking on Bondage 5). Additionally, statistics reported to the Department of Justice (DOJ) show that 95% of private prisons replaced and trained staff at a much higher rate than public prisons. The DOJ also concluded that private prisons often have separation rates (the rate at which staff resigns, is fired, and retired) that exceed 50% of the staff, compared to a 9% maximum for public prisons (Camp 10). With such new and inexperienced staff, one cannot
Private prisons must be banned because they are detrimental to the prisoner's health, place an enormous economic burden on both the community and the prisoners’ families, and disproportionately target minority …show more content…
“These prisons operate without the same systems of accountability as regular Bureau of Prisons facilities and prisoners suffer,” said Carl Takei, an ACLU attorney (Wessler 1). Private prisons are allowed to provide inadequate medical care to their prisoners. Licensed Practical Nurses (LV/PNS) are often hired to work at private prisons as opposed to Registered Nurses (RNs); however, these employees are not as rigorously trained. They are intended to be support staff, not primary caregivers. “In 19 cases reviewed and reported to The Nation, at least one medical doctor flagged the overextension of LVNs as a factor impeding medical care” (Wessler 4). But the medical care staff is not the only inadequate staff. After an infamous escape from an Arizona private prison in 2010, the Arizona Department of Corrections reported that the prison staff are “not proficient with weapons, and habitually ignore sounding alarms” (Banking on Bondage 5). Additionally, statistics reported to the Department of Justice (DOJ) show that 95% of private prisons replaced and trained staff at a much higher rate than public prisons. The DOJ also concluded that private prisons often have separation rates (the rate at which staff resigns, is fired, and retired) that exceed 50% of the staff, compared to a 9% maximum for public prisons (Camp 10). With such new and inexperienced staff, one cannot