policy.
policy.
I just recently learned that Private capital has become involved in the punishment industry and most prisons in the US are owned and operated by corporations. We all know that private business main goal is to make profit, they do not think how their decisions would affect the general public when making decisions. Prison Industrial Complex plays a big role in increased rates of incarceration because they “own the prisons and want to make profit from incarcerating as many people as possible” (Lecture pdf). Corporate owned prison system is an example of opportunistic capitalism and in this case some wealthy corporations benefiting incarcerating so many people. It is not different than…
The article written by Donald Cohen talks about how Americans, citizens and policy makers alike, feel that the privatization of prisons is worsening the criminal justice system. The article stated about a consensus that mass incarceration is not safe nor beneficial for our communities. This conflicts with the interests of corporations, such as CCA and GEO, who would benefit in the increase of incarceration rates. Private prison corporations currently play a part in multiple aspects of the criminal justice policy process. A new campaign called ‘Programs Not Profits,’ is advocating for the money that go to private prisons and investing it in more job training, substance abuse treatment, and mental health care. ‘Programs Not Profits’ is only one…
When people think of prisons, they imagine that the occupants inside deserve to be there. That a person is doing their time for a crime committed. When it comes to privately owned prisons, the time doesn’t always fit the crime.…
| Title) The title of this poem is “Golden Retrievals,” which is only two letters off from the words “Golden Retrievers”. A golden retriever is presumed to be the speaker in this poem, and the title obviously hints at this fact. The title also offers another perspective into the meaning of the poem, since, after reading the poem, we know that it is not purely about golden retrievers. The reader will realize that Mark Doty has an underlying theme to the poem.…
"Tough on crime" rhetoric comes and goes, leaving lasting impressions on the overcrowded prison systems, creating long term financial obligation for government budgets. America 's correctional system is a vast enterprise, in terms of the number of people it processes and services, the number of employees required for inmate care, custody, and control, the cost of outside contracting required to maintain and constantly enlarge facilities, and the burden to the taxpayer. The correctional system requires nearly one third of resources allocated to the criminal justice system. Yearly it costs over $64 billion to operate the correctional systems of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government. This sum is only one percent of all government spending. Per prisoner to feed, house, clothe and supervise costs $20,000 not including indirect costs. The yearly expenditure exceeds $30,000. The other significant cost is construction. They divide the total construction cost of any one institution by the number of prisoners it houses to arrive at the cost per "bed." This cost is on average as low as $31,000 per year for a minimum security prisoner to as high as $80,000 for a maximum security prisoner. Of course the annual cost of incarceration varies from state to…
By directing more money into the prison industry, the state is teaching and funding the notion that in our society it is acceptable to value the reduction of “crime” by enslaving inmates than it is to support a child’s education, creativity, and future.…
Privately owned prisons began to emerge in the mid-1980s. These prisons emerged because of the ideological imperatives of the free market, the huge increase in the number of prisoners, and the substantial increase in imprisonment costs. (1) Proponents of privatized prisons put forward a simple case: The private sector can do it cheaper and more efficiently. Corporations such as Correction Corporation of America and Wackenhut promised design and management innovations without reducing costs or sacrificing quality of service. (1) Many interest groups comprised of correctional officers, labor works, and a few citizen groups strongly oppose the privatization of the prison system. I will identify four of these groups that oppose private prisons,…
First, we have the safety concern that critics bring up when the topic of private prisons is mentioned. Secondly, we have the dependency issue they bring up when talking about data relating to the industry’s growth in the last decade. Finally, we have the issue of keeping inmates locked up in order for the private prisons to make more money. Since private prisons are in the business of making money, they are always tempted to cut corners to turn a greater profit each quarter. They do this by hiring people who are not properly trained when compared to a staff member who is employed by a publicly prison ran by the state. In fact “private prison employees receive 58 hours less training than their publicly employed counterparts” (Mason). A nationwide study found that “assaults on guards by inmates were 49 percent more frequent in private prisons” (Smith). The study also saw that inmate-on-inmate assaults were “65 percent more frequent in private prison” (Smith). Given these statistics, those who are critics of private prisons have a valid reason for concern. These statistics allow for critics to show that there is a strong possibility that the lack of training given by private prisons. Leads to a higher risk of violence within the prison walls. Since their staff members are not adequately trained to handle the duties they are required to perform on a day to day basis. Furthermore, dependency is an issue…
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 main goal of private prisons is to make profit disregarding the necessities of the inmates. Privatization provides bad health services to the inmates, lack of opportunities to get an education, undertrained staff, insecurity, and a high recidivism rate. The United States has the largest incarceration rate in the entire world, and this is due to the prison-industrial complex (PIC). The more defendants are sent to private prison, the more profit they and other businesses make. This is a political influence where the private prison, and certain businesses such as: Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut Securities (GEO) benefited from it.…
Part of the criminal justice system has become privatized and many investors hope to profit (Kraska, 2004). On the one hand, the investors create many jobs. For example, workers are needed to build prisons, supply prison food, supply prison clothes, and provide medical care. On the other hand, the investors need customers (i.e., inmates); hence, there is an incentive to confine people in prison. By locking people up in prison, the state effectively manages the surplus labor force, which is naturally generated in a capitalistic society (Kraska, 2004). Thus, politicians appear to be effectively serving the public. After all, jobs are created and there are fewer unemployed people in the…
America’s prisons have a major importance in modern society. They are a huge contributing factor to the safety of our country and allow for proper and humane punishment for those who commit crimes. While America’s streets continue to be plagued by crime and dangerous people, prisons help significantly in decreasing the crime rate and removing those people from society in order to create a safer place for people to live. Although there are many pros that come with prisons, a handful of cons come with them as well, which allow for arguments to rise about whether prisons should be allowed in America or not. Prisons are a necessity in modern society that punishes and rehabilitates those who commit crimes with the purpose of protecting…
In, “Beyond the Prison Bubble,” published in the Wilson Quarterly in the winter 2011, Joan Petersilia shows different choices about the imprisonment systems. The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any free nation (para.1). The crime rate over a thirty year span had grown by five times since 1960 to 1990. There are more people of color or Hispanics in federal and state institutions then there are of any other nationality. The prison system is growing more than ever; the growth in twenty years has been about 21 new prisons. Mass imprisonment has reduced crime but, has not helped the inmate to gradually return back to society with skills or education. But the offenders leaving prison now are more likely to have fairly long criminal records, lengthy histories of alcohol and drug abuse, significant periods of unemployment and homelessness, and physical or mental disability (par.12).…
Incarceration rates have dramatically increased in the United States than in anywhere else in the world. In fact, according to “Incarceration nation,” America has about 707,000 incarcerated people compared to Russia, who has about 474,000 people. Not only has this caused a problem inside the prison walls, it has also increased economic situations for stakeholders.The recent increase in incarceration rates has had negative effects on the United States economy by causing an increase in expenditure on prisons that could be better used for education. This increase in incarceration rates has also led to overcrowding in prisons, leading to unsuitable conditions for prisoners and prison workers.…
Private enterprise is no stranger to the American prison. When the United States replaced corporal punishment with confinement as the primary punishment for criminals in the early nineteenth century, the private sector was the most frequent employer of convict labor. Prisoners were typically either leased to private companies who set up shop in the prison or used by prison officials to produce finished goods for a manufacturer who supplied the raw materials to the prison. The former arrangement was called the contract system, while latter came to be known as the piece-price system. In both instances, a private company paid the prison a fee for the use of prison labor, which was used to partially offset…