By Jayla Lynch '24
In the 19th century, philosopher Jeremy Bentham opposed capital punishment and wrote about using prisons as a means to prevent crime, thus creating the ideals of our modern-day prison system. Although modern prisons were made to deter crime and to rehabilitate inmates, in the United States, they have evolved into another means for corporations to profit off of Black and Brown Americans.
In the 1800s, prisons were handed over by the government to private organizations to run. Companies would use prisoners as free labor to make a profit, then give a portion of money to the government, all while pocketing the rest. Although there have been some changes to this system, the foundation remains: the government pays corporations to run prisons that then exploit inmates for profit. An example of this is the “Kids for cash” incident, in which “two judges in Pennsylvania were revealed to have been accepting money from the owner of two private juvenile detention centers in return for sentencing juvenile offenders to time in those centers. Children were sentenced to time in detention centers for offenses like shoplifting DVDs or failing to appear at hearings they were never notified of.” Going to prison in the US destroys your life, and should be treated as a last resort, especially when it comes to children. We are supposed to provide a better future for our children, not take it away for money. These corporations are also lobbying for laws that would keep people in prison, as seen when the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO group explicitly lobbied against immigration reform which would have helped 11 million people gain legal status. The more people in facilities, the more money corporations make, so their move was to keep immigrants in these facilities despite knowing the facilities' horrible conditions.
Additionally, the purpose of privatization was to save money for the government, but that is not the case. The New York Times states that, “Studies suggest that governments save little money, if any, by turning over prison functions to private outfits. And in 2016, under President Barack Obama, the Justice Department concluded that private prisons were in general more violent than government-operated institutions.” If the government isn’t saving money, and Americans are suffering because of private prisons, why are we keeping them? Workers in private prisons make thousands of dollars less than they would working in a public prison, medical care is inadequate--that is if inmates get any, living conditions are horrendous, and guards assault and abuse inmates.
There is no limit to what corporations will do to make a profit, and it is unacceptable. Those in the criminal justice system deserve better and the only way to do better is to abolish private prisons and hand the control of prisons back to the government. Otherwise, we will have tools for corporations to use and abuse at their disposal. There is no reason to stand with corporations that don’t stand for humane prison conditions.
Sources
Bauer, Shane. “The True History of America's Private Prison Industry.” Time,
https://time.com/5405158/the-true-history-of-americas-private-prison-industry/ . September 25, 2018
Glick, Noah. “As Private Prisons Push To Keep Costs Down, Workers Can Pay The Price.” Pulitzer
Center.
https://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/private-prisons-push-keep-costs-down-workers-can-pay-price# March 10, 2020
Haberman, Clyde. “For Private Prisons, Detaining Immigrants Is Big Business.” New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/us/prisons-immigration-detention.html. October 1, 2018.
Joy, Tara. “The Problem with Private Prisons.” Justice Policy Institute.
http://www.justicepolicy.org/news/12006. Feburary 2, 2018.
Unknown."History Of Imprisonment - Crime Museum". Crime Museum.
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