The Pros And Cons Of Private Prisons

In the early 1980’s, stricter laws lead to a lot more people committing crimes and that directly lead to a rise in the amount of people in prisons (Hough, Allen, and Enver Solomon 4). This was all before the established program of prisons and trying to reach their goal. Looking back at the time, there was controversy among everyone, every race, every ethnicity. Around the 90s, the population in prisons rapidly increased and prisons across the United States were operating at 115 percent above total capacity. In order to increase space and buildings to support all these prisoners and keep them off the street, state officials tried pushing for a larger fund to build and expand prisons but was only supported by 40 percent leading to a rejection …show more content…
The issue was that they had realized such an industry for private prisons that there was no need to provide great quality anymore. Corporations that ran these prisons ran them for a profit no matter what. It ended up at a point where it was cheaper to run a state prison than it was to pay for a private prison. Private prisons cost the state an average of $46.50 per prisoner per day in 2012, while the state’s comparable public facilities ranged from $35.11 to $40.47. States started to realize this loss but the problem was that they were already under contract and setup to host hundreds of thousands of inmates. States did not have the capacity to take that over, and so it still continues today. Private prisons today run to make a profit. In doing so, they pay officers less, decrease food quality to buy the cheapest food, and try and keep inmates for as long as possible to get paid per inmate per day. The issues from private prisons just rise everyday with reports of malpractice, forced labor, and fights breaking out (Burkhardt, Brett, and Brian T. Connor 5). The one thing that private prisons lack is the education program and goal to help the inmate instead of storing them. The traditional prison was there to keep the inmate out of harm’s way from society and try and change them. Private prisons only encourage inmates to stay the same to show a positive amount on their balance sheets. There are thousands of reports on private vs state run prisons comparing them, and no single report can really tell what is going on with inmates, spending, and employees. The overall opinion can be judged on whether the reader sees a difference in society. These large corporations have profited of crimes for too long and can lobby their way with the