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The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?

The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?
Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells. There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. What has happened over the last 10 years? “The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. . . . Prison labor has its roots in slavery. Who is investing?

Private Prisons:Profits of Crime By Phil Smith from the Fall 1993 issue of Covert Action Quarterly Private prisons are a symptom, a response by private capital to the "opportunities" created by society's temper tantrum approach to the problem of criminality. At Leavenworth, Kansas, within a perimeter of razor wire, armed prison guards in uniform supervise hundreds of medium- and maximum-security federal prisoners. Welcome to one of America's growth industries- private sector, for-profit prisons. Imprisonment is an ugly business under any regime, but the prospect of a privatized prison system raises difficult and disturbing questions beyond those associated with a solely state-operated prison system. Illustration by Eric Drooker Prisons for Profit Surprisingly, private prisons are nothing new in U.S. history. Three Trends Converge But as the twentieth century stumbles to an end, the hard lessons of a hundred years ago have been drowned out by the clamor of free market ideologues. Illustration by Eric Drooker

United States incarceration rate The incarceration rate in the United States of America is the highest in the world. As of 2009[update], the incarceration rate was 743 per 100,000 of national population (0.743%).[2] While the United States represents about 5 percent of the world's population, it houses around 25 percent of the world's prisoners.[3][4] Imprisonment of America's 2.3 million prisoners, costing $24,000 per inmate per year, and $5.1 billion in new prison construction, consumes $60.3 billion in budget expenditures. Prison population[edit] The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world, at 754 per 100,000 (as of 2009[update]).[2] As of December 31, 2010, the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS) at King's College London estimated 2,266,832 prisoners from a total population of 310.64 million as of this date (730 per 100,000 in 2010).[5] The imprisonment rate varies widely by state; Louisiana surpasses this by about 100%, but Maine incarcerates at about a fifth this rate.

ACLU report blasts US private prisons ACLU report blasts US private prisons A report released Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union criticizes the private prison industry for profiting at the expense of a growing prison population. The report, titled "Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration," accuses private prison companies of lobbying for laws that result in higher incarceration rates. Higher incarceration rates result in more government contracts, which, according to the report, are the primary source of funding for these companies. texastribune.org The federal government is in the midst of a private prison expansion spree, driven primarily by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency that locks up roughly 400,000 immigrants each year and spends over $1.9 billion annually on custody operations. Two leading industry companies, Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group, received a combined $3 billion in annual revenue in 2010.

Incarceration in the United States Sentenced USA prisoners under jurisdiction of State and Federal correctional authorities, as a Percent of Population. 1925–2003. Does not include prisoners held in the custody of local jails, inmates out to court, and those in transit.[3] 6,977,700 adults were under correctional supervision (probation, parole, jail, or prison) in 2009.[4][5] A graph showing the incarceration rate under state and federal jurisdiction per 100,000 population 1925–2008. Does not include prisoners held in the custody of local jails, inmates out to court, and those in transit.[3] The male incarceration rate is roughly 15 times the female incarceration rate. Inmates held in custody in state or federal prisons or in local jails, December 31, 2000, and 2009–2010.[6] According to the U.S. In addition, there were 70,792 juveniles in juvenile detention in 2010.[12] Although debtor's prisons no longer exist in the United States, residents of some U.S. states can still be incarcerated for debt as of 2014.[13][14][15]

State will seek private prison plans, but ... The Department of Corrections said Thursday it will solicit proposals from private companies seeking to operate 30 prisons and work camps in an 18-county region of South Florida. But the state won't award a contract until an ongoing lawsuit is resolved. A brief statement from the prison system, distributed to media outlets at 5 p.m., said the agency would "reopen the procurement process" because Attorney General Pam Bondi appealed a circuit court decision declaring the privatization plan unconstitutional. The statement said the appeal "had the effect of staying the circuit court's order in accordance with Rule 9.310(b)(2), Florida Rules of Appellate Procedure." Proposals are due at the prison system by 2 p.m. next Thursday, Nov. 10. Three firms could submit proposals to run the prisons: Geo Group of Boca Raton, Corrections Corp. of America of Nashville and MTC Corp. of Utah. -- Steve Bousquet

The Dirty Thirty: Nothing to Celebrate About 30 Years of Corrections Corporation of America | Grassroots Leadership Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s oldest and largest for-profit private prison corporation, is commemorating its 30th anniversary throughout 2013 with a series of birthday celebrations at its facilities around the country. Over the last 30 years, CCA has benefited from the dramatic rise in incarceration and detention in the United States. Since the company’s founding in 1983, the incarcerated population has risen by more than 500 percent to more than 2.2 million people.[1] Meanwhile, the number of people held in immigration detention centers has exploded from an average daily population of 131 people to over 32,000 people on any given day.[2] CCA has made profits from, and at times contributed to, the expansion of tough-on-crime and anti-immigrant policies that have driven prison expansion. This report highlights only 30 incidents in the company’s history, but could have been much more expansive. Acknowledgments 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Private prison A private prison or for-profit prison, jail, or detention center is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with governments that commit prisoners and then pay a per diem or monthly rate for each prisoner confined in the facility. Today, the privatization of prisons refers both to the takeover of existing public facilities by private operators and to the building and operation of new and additional prisons by for-profit prison companies. Private prisons in the United Kingdom[edit] Development[edit] Privately run prisons are run under contracts which set out the standards that must be met. A competition is in progress to run 9 prisons in England and Wales. Private prisons in the United States[edit] Early history[edit] The partial transfer of San Quentin prison administration from private to public did not mark the end of privatization.

Private prison A private prison or for-profit prison, jail, or detention center is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned by a third party that is contracted by a government agency. Private prison companies typically enter into contractual agreements with governments that commit prisoners and then pay a per diem or monthly rate for each prisoner confined in the facility. Today, the privatization of prisons refers both to the takeover of existing public facilities by private operators and to the building and operation of new and additional prisons by for-profit prison companies. Private prisons in the United Kingdom[edit] Development[edit] Privately run prisons are run under contracts which set out the standards that must be met. A competition is in progress to run 9 prisons in England and Wales. Private prisons in the United States[edit] Early history[edit] The partial transfer of San Quentin prison administration from private to public did not mark the end of privatization.

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