The U.S. is trapped in a penal tautology predicted by President Dwight D. Eisenhower four decades ago. A decrease in crime heralds the success of building prisons; and so legislators build more prisons. An increase in crime means we need more prisons; and so we build more prisons. This is exactly the corrupted reasoning on which private prisons thrive. This is exactly the corrupted reasoning that state legislatures are using tax dollars to support. And the reality is that there is NO END IN SIGHT!
Additional research has shown that the private prison trend has undermined justice for the sake of profit and once inside prisoners suffer higher rates of violence, medical neglect and are offered fewer rehabilitative programs than in public prisons. A post 9/11 homeland security budget of 615 million allocated by the federal government sent private prison vendors into an unabated feeding frenzy. Immigrants are being incarcerated at staggering numbers even though the vast majority of their crimes are non-violent.
Citizens are not faring much better. The U.S. ratio of of prisoners to population was 110 per 100,000 between 1900 and 1975. In less than thirty years that figure has increased 4-fold to 445 per 100,000 – A total of over one million caged citizens. Private prison companies often seek business by promising state legislators that they canprovide comparable services at a “reduced cost”, claims that have never been proven.
Several studies affirm and conclude that; “There is no evidence that meaningful cost savings have been achieved by prison privatization.” A study done in 2001 found that “Private prisons create illusory savings by selecting the least costly prisoners.”
sources: AFCME (Union), Albuquerque Journal, American Capital, Anchorage Daily News, Associated Press, Centre Daily Times, Corrections Professional, Dow Jones News Service, Houston Chronicle, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PR Newswire Associates Inc., Providence Journal Bulletin, The Arizona Republic, The Daily Oklahoman, The Mississippi Link, Santa Fe New Mexican, Wall Street Journal
~Anthel Brown, MSP
