Private Prison Research Paper

Private prisons scattered across the country house tens of thousands inmates. The companies behind some of the largest private prisons claim they are lifting the weight of taxpayer dollars funding federal prisons. In a billion dollar industry, many find it hard to believe that they’re not working for their own best interest. Humans rights organizations across the country have challenged the corporations behind the industry. These groups argue that this system doesn’t work to rehabilitate prisoners, but rather set their inmates up for failure; reaping in more profit for themselves. The demand for private prisons arose during the tough-on-crime era. Ronald Reagan had taken a strong position against what he viewed as America’s ever growing drug war. Around this harder sentencing had been established and regulations were being put into place
Journalist Shane Bauer from Mother Jones was a part of an undercover investigation into the CCA and its innerworkings. Bauer found the application process surprisingly simple and lacking in much background checking. The head of training at Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana once said to the cadets, “...if you come here and you breathing and you got a valid driver’s license and you’re willing to work, then we’re willing to hire you” [Bauer]. The applying cadets after four short weeks of training, will take a test to determine if they are fit to become a corrections officer. The test is somewhat of a joke, as the test seems more like a CCA trivia rather than a selection test. Bauer states, “We will need to know the names of the CEO, the names of the company founders, and their reason for establishing the first private prison more than thirty years ago” [Bauer]. People elevated to positions of power in history prove time and time again that humans undergo a drastic personality