Police Officer: “License and registration”
Typical stoner: “Right here officer.”
PO: “Smells like marijuana in here. Have you been smoking the reefer?”
TS: “No officer, I swear to high I’m not God!”
PO: “I see an ounce of OG Alien Diesel in your backseat. Is that yours?”
TS: “I don’t know how that got here….”
PO: “You need to step out of the car son, you are in the possession of illegal narcotics. You have the right to remain silent….”
If federal law were followed down to the T, this typical stoner (25 years of age) would be arrested and face time in prison for the simple possession of an illegal substance. For a maximum of a full year, if it was a first time offense, this typical stoner could share a jail cell with violent criminals such as rapists, serial killers, armed robbers and an assortment of other violent criminals with a thousand dollar fine. But is this fair socially, politically and economically? How can we prevent overspending on prisons that are subsidized by taxpayer money? Why do incarceration rates stay the same or rise when crime rates decrease? Is incarceration along with strict drug laws the way to address non-violent drug offenders? These are a lot of questions that directly relate to the prison topic but a full series of novels could be written on any particular question. As a group we are going to focus primarily on privately owned prisons and solutions on how to keep non-violent drug offenders out of prison.
I assume that most of you have never heard of a “privately owned prison.” Just like a Home Depot makes money bringing household goods and construction supplies to the public market, privately owned prisons earn a profit housing prisoners. Although federal, state and county prisons still exist; the privately owned corrections sector is growing at an alarming rate imprisoning roughly 10-15% of US inmates. The Corrections Corporation of America, the largest of the privately owned prison companies had a successful 1st quarter in 2006 with $21.3 million in profit. And that was in 2006! This is becoming a billion dollar industry in today’s market. The Economic gain from keeping people in chains and having them work for essentially nothing…. Sound familiar? We are still in the beginning stages of research (my apologies for the outdated fiscal statistics) but I have compiled a simple list of pros and cons for privately owned prisons that we will be diving into more in the coming week.
Pros:
· Less bureaucracy (minimal red tape since it is not a government agency)
· Build prisons quicker and cheaper
· Cheaper staff
· Ability to test new incarceration philosophies (again, without the red tape)
· Less liability in suits brought by prisoners and prison staff.
In theory it should be a less expensive method of punishing criminals but that is a shaky claim.
Cons:
· Potential to profit from incarceration (major conflict of interest)
· Minimum occupancy clauses: in each contract these private corporations signs with the state they have it legally stated that the prison must be stocked to a certain percentage at all time. This number usually ranges between 80-90%.
· Less competent staffers with less training.
· Possible unconstitutionality of delegating prisons to private entities.
Just so I can provide some research that is relevant for the class, what questions do you guys have about privately operated prisons?
Typical stoner: “Right here officer.”
PO: “Smells like marijuana in here. Have you been smoking the reefer?”
TS: “No officer, I swear to high I’m not God!”
PO: “I see an ounce of OG Alien Diesel in your backseat. Is that yours?”
TS: “I don’t know how that got here….”
PO: “You need to step out of the car son, you are in the possession of illegal narcotics. You have the right to remain silent….”
If federal law were followed down to the T, this typical stoner (25 years of age) would be arrested and face time in prison for the simple possession of an illegal substance. For a maximum of a full year, if it was a first time offense, this typical stoner could share a jail cell with violent criminals such as rapists, serial killers, armed robbers and an assortment of other violent criminals with a thousand dollar fine. But is this fair socially, politically and economically? How can we prevent overspending on prisons that are subsidized by taxpayer money? Why do incarceration rates stay the same or rise when crime rates decrease? Is incarceration along with strict drug laws the way to address non-violent drug offenders? These are a lot of questions that directly relate to the prison topic but a full series of novels could be written on any particular question. As a group we are going to focus primarily on privately owned prisons and solutions on how to keep non-violent drug offenders out of prison.
I assume that most of you have never heard of a “privately owned prison.” Just like a Home Depot makes money bringing household goods and construction supplies to the public market, privately owned prisons earn a profit housing prisoners. Although federal, state and county prisons still exist; the privately owned corrections sector is growing at an alarming rate imprisoning roughly 10-15% of US inmates. The Corrections Corporation of America, the largest of the privately owned prison companies had a successful 1st quarter in 2006 with $21.3 million in profit. And that was in 2006! This is becoming a billion dollar industry in today’s market. The Economic gain from keeping people in chains and having them work for essentially nothing…. Sound familiar? We are still in the beginning stages of research (my apologies for the outdated fiscal statistics) but I have compiled a simple list of pros and cons for privately owned prisons that we will be diving into more in the coming week.
Pros:
· Less bureaucracy (minimal red tape since it is not a government agency)
· Build prisons quicker and cheaper
· Cheaper staff
· Ability to test new incarceration philosophies (again, without the red tape)
· Less liability in suits brought by prisoners and prison staff.
In theory it should be a less expensive method of punishing criminals but that is a shaky claim.
Cons:
· Potential to profit from incarceration (major conflict of interest)
· Minimum occupancy clauses: in each contract these private corporations signs with the state they have it legally stated that the prison must be stocked to a certain percentage at all time. This number usually ranges between 80-90%.
· Less competent staffers with less training.
· Possible unconstitutionality of delegating prisons to private entities.
Just so I can provide some research that is relevant for the class, what questions do you guys have about privately operated prisons?