Alyssa Surdam
In Motion Special
It’s no secret that the United States is the world leader in incarcerations. According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, in 2016 the United States had a total of 2.2 million people serving hard time. That’s 670 per 100,000 U.S. citizens.
The Sentencing Project, founded 30 years ago in Washington, D.C., attributes the phenomenon to sentencing and policy changes within the United States criminal justice system. Researchers also state that mandatory minimum sentencing and cutbacks in parole releases are partly to blame for the rise in incarcerations since 1980.
It is so expensive to house all the inmates that the United States has moved to a different business model when it comes to criminal justice. That system allows corporations to run prisons with the aim of making a profit.
According to Shifali Baliga’s article in the Duke University Law Journal, this is done via social impact bonds, defined as “a contract between a government agency and a private entity where the private entity is paid an agreed upon sum of money only if it can meet certain outcomes.”
Three major concerns are that people are being incarcerated for longer, costs are being cut in dangerous ways and there is no way to ensure corporations honor the contract they signed with the government.
The book “Punishment for Sale: Private Prisons, Big Business and the Incarceration Binge,” finds that the rising prison population has not reduced crime rates, which proves the incarceration binge is ineffective.
A huge drawback to privately-owned prisons is that the prison itself is supposed to execute policies set by a government agency or legislation and have no influence on these policies and how they’re enacted. In theory, it sounds like a good idea. However, private entities are having more influence over such policies than the government intended and private prison operators exert more control over a criminal’s sentence in states without fixed sentencing guidelines.
Time served is determined by a prisoner’s actions and behavior and private prison employees have considerable discretion over what constitutes good or bad behavior. They can shorten or lengthen an inmate’s sentence based on their own criteria. Because these prisons are in business to make money, it is suspected that they lengthen the amount of time an inmate serves. A single parole denial or revocation of good-time credit results, on average, to $10,000 to $20,0000 more per year for private operators, according to the Duke Law Journal.
Privately-owned prisons are also more motivated to cut costs than public prisons. This results in the cutting of nonessential programs such as libraries, rehabilitation, educational programs and recreational activities. They cut labor costs, as well, resulting in fewer guards and less qualified staff. Cost-cutting has resulted in more violence in privately-owned prisons opposed to their public counterparts.
James Kilgore, author of “Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key Civil Right Struggle of Our Time,” writes that The Reeves Detention Complex in Pecos, Texas, is an example of the dangers of cutting back on costs. There have been two major prison rebellions as a reaction to poor medical care and other issues. The death of 32-year-old Jesus Manuel Galindo prompted one of the rebellions. Galindo had a history of epilepsy, but the prison medical staff would offer him only Tylenol.
According to a lawsuit filed on his behalf Galindo was placed in solitary confinement after complaining about the lack of good medical care, where he later died after having a seizure. Galindo’s death was the fifth one at the Reeves Detention Complex within a two-year period.
The third problem with privately-owned prisons is that there is no effective way to monitor what happens in these facilities. If private prisons were effectively monitored, it would require accrues.
Some may argue that incarceration rates were unprecedented in the 1980s, before the implementation of privately owned prisons. They say privately-owned prisons are the answer to the soaring incarceration rates and ultimately save the government money. Prison isn’t supposed to be fun, they point out.
Even so, a majority of people serving hard time are not murderers or rapists, they’re drug offenders. There are more people serving time now for drug-related offenses than the total of prisoners in 1980. These are good people who simply made bad decisions. We’ve all done that, although not with such dire consequences.
So stay informed on the issue and vote for politicians that create compassionate changes. On an individual basis, get involved with your local ACLU, which is leading the way to making private prisons safer, more fair and accountable.