In the last several decades, the prison industry in the United States has been expanding at a detrimental rate. With well over 2 million individuals incarcerated as of 2013 (), the US prison population trumps that of any other country. With 5% of the world’s population, the United States accounts for nearly one quarter of the world’s known prison population. With an industry of such epic proportions, evidently funds, resources, and management are in huge demand. In this current situation, private prisons, run by for-profit corporations which aim to provide higher quality services at a cheaper cost, could be viewed as beneficial to society, and even a solution to the growing problem that is the staggering rate of incarceration. Nevertheless,
He argues that privately contracted prisons reduce cost of corrections for federal and state budgets. Seiter explains how private and public corrections are not competitors but partners. Partners that “ are proud of the services they deliver and are committed to meeting the expectations of the taxpayer and public official responsible overseeing their work” (Seiter 419). Private prisons have the ability to buy the fundamental supplies, hire more staff to avoid overtime expense which lower the operating costs to run the prison and make more profit. Setier accurately states that over the past decade “ new growth in prison inmates is going to private prison” (419).
In chapter 13 of Corrections in America, the author describes the history of private-sector involvement in corrections and identifies its advantages. The author also describes how prison inmates were considered slaves of the state. Overall, this chapter compares gatekeepers and rainmakers. A private sector correctional facility is any prison, for-profit prison, detention center, is a facility in which juveniles and adults are physically restricted, housed, or interned by a nongovernmental organization which is constructed by a public-sector government agency.
The prison-industrial complex is a corrupt political system that consists of overpowered politicians whose sole ambition is exploiting poor, uneducated, and under-privileged Americans to make money. Although, it wasn’t initially the purpose when Rockefeller started the war on drugs, but he started something bigger than he could’ve imagined at that time. The prison system has been proven to be ineffective, and costly waste of resources. However, it probably won’t be abolished due to the cash flow that it brings to some of the largest corporations in the
Teen pregnancy- Force teens into birth control as soon as the teen turns 13. Global Warming- Everyone gets electric cars so we don 't have to use fuel ever again.
In the United States there are more people incarcerated than any other nation in the world. Recently, many states have taken drastic steps allowing private companies to buy prisons and operate them as profitable businesses. The business models of these companies relies on a high incarceration rate and the ability to operate at a very low cost. This could put a large portion of the prison population at serious risk of having their safety put behind the revenue they earn. Even though these for-profit prisons show no evidence of saving the federal government any money, and have dubious health and safety records, some politicians still push for legislation that is good for private prison companies.
Thesis: It is very important for the sake of Americans tax dollars that we change the way that prisons are run and increase the productivity of inmates so when they are released from jail they are ready to be a productive member in society and have the confidence to achieve new goals. Introduction: Day after day, millions of inmates sit in jail doing nothing productive with their lives. We are paying to house inmates that may not even have a good reason to be there. For example, drug offenders are being kept with murderers and other violent offenders.
In recent decades, there has been a trend developing in America towards the privatization of America’s prisons. Independent companies have contracted, built and staffed prisons in several different states instead of having the government in control of these facilities. There is still much uncertainty, however, if private prisons will be able to succeed. Some companies have failed while others cling to average revenues. Some people believe that these measures will save taxpayers money while other are afraid that private prisons have no real interest in rehabilitating prisoners.
The presence of private prisons in America gives some groups in power an incentive to not unite the American people. These prisons exist on a capitalistic profit motive and are either required to hold a certain amount of prisoners to receive funding or are required to pay the government for every empty cell. Despite this, proponents of private prisons argue that they save the country money. While that may be true, they ruin American lives. The private sector that owns them has an incentive to lobby for mass incarceration, and unfortunately the people victimized by society are the most likely to be incarcerated and forgotten about.
Private Prisons Many people in America have no idea that there are different types of prison systems. The two different types of prisons include state-ran and private. State-ran prisons are prisons owned and operated by the local, state, or federal government; however, private prisons are prisons in which individuals are incarcerated by a third-party organization that is under contract with a government agency. Private prisons are funded by the government and have the unique ability to do whatever they want.
Private prison companies’ dependence on ensuring a large prison population to maintain profits provides inappropriate incentives to lobby government officials for policies that will place more people in prison (Mason, 2012). For example, mandatory sentencing, three strikes laws, and truth in sentencing, which all contribute to higher prison populations. Also, in some cases could increase the number of people held in immigration detention facilities. This is proven by creation and organization of model legislation through conservative lobbying groups, including political contributions and lobbying efforts of individual companies. As a result, the effort to increase reliance of incarceration occurs at a time where the rate of imprisonment
Nonviolent crimes should be punishable with fines rather than jail time, It has caused a large amount of prisons to be at overcapacity. Understand that a nonviolent crime is a crime that does not involve the use of any force. The population surging in jails and prisons all around America and the amount of money that goes into taking care of these inmates continues to expand. Jails provide three meals a day, basic health care, protection, and power/electric for every inmate admitted.
Over 2 million people are currently being held in United States prisons, and while the U.S. may only hold 5% of the world’s population, it houses 25% of its prisoners. In the past few years, America’s prison system has fallen under public scrutiny for it’s rising incarceration rate and poor statistics. Many Americans have recently taken notice of the country’s disproportionate prisoner ratio, realized it’s the worst on the planet, and called for the immediate reformation of the failing system. The war on drugs and racial profiling are some of the largest concerns, and many people, some ordinary citizens and others important government figures, are attempting to bring change to one of the country 's lowest aspects.
In addition to this, the authors also mentioned that private prison has an advantage in avoiding violence among inmates compared to state prisons. (Lukemeyer & McCorkle, 2006, pg. 189). However, according to Levan, due to inexperienced correctional staff in private prisons, evidence have shown that the environment in private prisons is violent, and the number of assaults occurring in private prisons is double the number of attacks happening in public prisons and moreover sexual abuse is prevalent in private prisons.(Levan, 2012, pg. 22) Hence, introduction of private prisons is not an optimal solution to tackle prison violence as it is