The Private Prison System

The private prison system is a system that allows for private prisons to contract work from corporations by using the prisoners as workers. These workers work for just a few dimes and nickels a day. A former writer for the El Diario La Prensa, in New York, Vicky Pelaez tells the prisoners’ stories for them. In her article titled, “The Prison in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery?” she points out the negative impact of private prisons on the sentencing of African-Americans and other non-white races in the United States justice system.The article’s main point focuses on how the private prison system is directly influencing the amount of people being incarcerated.While at the same time, she argues that the corporations are …show more content…
Another researcher, Christopher James, research has also determined crack cocaine is majority used by poor black and Latino Americans, while powder, which costs more, is used by wealthier races in the United States. Another example of Pelaez’s great use of data is the way she lists a large number of American corporations that have taken advantage of the prison labor industry for their own good. By doing so, Pelaez ultimately appeals to a reader’s past experiences with these corporations and forces a reader to take note of how products we consume are being made. She also uses reliable sources such as The California Labor Focus, the Progressive Labor Party, and accounts of various human rights organizations. As a result, her article proves to be a reliable and significant source of information for readers interested in this …show more content…
Her article notes the necessary evil of private prisons, and how they are being used in an unregulated, almost monopolized manner. She states that 75% of private prisons are owned by the same two companies. In addition to that fact, and her point that I agree with the most is the fact that these two companies both used the minimum number of guards for the maximum number of prisoners to take advantage of the cost efficiency of prison labor. This means those companies are trying to make the most they can off of the prisoners. However, the particular point she made about the unfair wages the prisoners were receiving should have been expanded on. She discusses the good behavior incentives (work hard, and get a shorter sentence) that private prisons attempt to make on the surface, while they secretly have a reverse law in effect that if any prisoner commits an infraction they receive 30 more days on their sentence. After researching this, I found that many private prisons in Virginia have this policy in affect and that many prisoners commit infractions. Moreover, at these