In cases where cost savings can be shown, such savings are fairly modest and result from reductions in staffing, fringe benefits, and other personnel- related costs. For example, research has shown that private prisons pay new officers less and provide employees with nearly 60 fewer pre-service training hours than do public prisons. Not surprisingly, correctional officer unions continue to oppose private prisons. Other issues that private prison institutions face is of advocates claiming that their facilities provide the same level of care as do state run facilities. But researchers have not yet validated this claim consistently. One study of 48 private and public juvenile correctional facilities concluded that public and private facilities are very similar in terms of environmental quality. Overall, private prison systems bring to light more important and crucial issues to light. Like for example, should the government give all it’s power when it comes to inmates to these private profit seeking organizations and corporations? Will these private companies always act consistently with the public …show more content…
CCA 's revenue in 2013 was nearly $1.7 billion. Profits of $300 million, 100 percent of which came from taxpayers via government contracts. The Geo Group’s revenue in 2013 was nearly .5 billion with profits of more than 115 million. Many other companies that have followed suit with CCA are very profitable companies mainly due to the spike in the prisoner population. These extremely high profits have caught the eye of many banks in Wall Street and have since then become its main investors. Wall Street involvement has opened the doors for lobbying for these companies who now have major influential power within our government. This influence these private prison institutions have on our government today, has been called and described as the Prison Industrial Complex. This term which was derived from the MIlitary Industrial Complex, is used to describe the interest of government and the private prison industry that use policing, and imprisonment as solutions that are, in actuality, economically, socially, and politically problematic. The Prison Industrial Complex attributes the quick expansion of the US prisoner population to the political influence of private prison and institutions and businesses that supply goods and services to government prison agencies. This Complex is represented by corporations that profit from incarceration establishing their authority