I could go thru the numbers—Feds hold only 10% of ppl in prison, only 8% of ppl in prison are in privates, canceling contracts would free no one—but those are minor points, really.
This big point?
PUBLIC PRISON ARE PROFITING TOO. And hold 92% of all ppl behind bars.
This big point?
PUBLIC PRISON ARE PROFITING TOO. And hold 92% of all ppl behind bars.
We spend $3B on private prisons, but $50B in publics. And 2/3 of that $50B is wages. That’s about $35B. Ten times private revenue, 100 TIMES private profit.
And that is what matters. Here’s why:
And that is what matters. Here’s why:
Why do we fear privates? Bc we say, correctly, that the profit motive gives them an incentive to lobby for tougher laws.
That’s exactly what a $35B wage bill does for the publics, but in far bigger ways (besides the 10-to-100-fold difference in size):
That’s exactly what a $35B wage bill does for the publics, but in far bigger ways (besides the 10-to-100-fold difference in size):
Correctional officers and their unions will fight for their jobs, esp since in many places they are one of the few well-paying, if utterly awful, jobs around (PTSD and suicidal ideation rates for corrections officers are abt the same as vets who see active combat).
And unlike private prisons, COs can’t diversify. CoreCivic can try to get to probation contracts, but a CO in upstate New York can’t get a probation job so easily, since those will be in NYC, Buffalo, etc.
A HUGE incentive to fight reform.
A HUGE incentive to fight reform.
Our emphasis on privates misses this huge public sector threat.
Not one single presidential criminal justice reform plan talks about how to address this, even tho options certainly exist:
vox.com/the-big-idea/2…
Not one single presidential criminal justice reform plan talks about how to address this, even tho options certainly exist:
vox.com/the-big-idea/2…
Making this particularly important is the racial economic justice of prison closures.
The econ of prisons is usually framed as locking up Black and Brown ppl from cities to benefit rural Whites.
And while true in many places, this breaks down somewhat in the South.
The econ of prisons is usually framed as locking up Black and Brown ppl from cities to benefit rural Whites.
And while true in many places, this breaks down somewhat in the South.
In the South, prisons tend to be located in small towns that are more heavily minority than other small towns—that’s WHY the prison is there.
So decarceration raises some tricky policy issues that get too little attention.
So decarceration raises some tricky policy issues that get too little attention.
But, in the end, the biggest problem w looking to the privates is that it distracts us from the real problem:
Mass incarceration is not the product of a small band of shadowy financiers.
It is a public sector failure—it’s OUR failure. It comes from choices WE collectively made.
Mass incarceration is not the product of a small band of shadowy financiers.
It is a public sector failure—it’s OUR failure. It comes from choices WE collectively made.
