Private prison began booming in the 1980s, under the presidential terms of Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr., however, it slowed down in 1990. When prison sales began to slow down in the 1990's, Clinton who was the acting president, wanted to cut the program but the Justice Department took over and began contracting private prison out to corporations again. Private prisons are the largest business in the prison industry. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states.
Current policy allows government agencies to fund private, non-profit correctional facilities (also referred to as private prisons). While new policies to end federal contracts with private prisons have been issued, government agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), continue to work with private prisons now known as immigration detention facilities. The continued support of private prisons by government agencies for the last four decades has sparked public debate. “Conflict over the direction of government policy” on private prisons has resulted in the use of private prisons to be an unresolved public policy issue (1). Modern private, for-profit correctional facilities emerged in the 1980s that allowed private corporations to have full operational control for the first time.
“Made In America”, should be connoted with patriotism, independence and liberty, conversely, “Made In America” accurately signifies the abuse of prison labor. It is an obligation for those who have committed crimes to owe a debt to society, but owing a debt should not be accompanied by the maltreatment of prisoner workers. The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a term used to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems. The prison industrial complex has its roots in slavery and has spread its branches across American society, letting its leaves fall into pools of injustice and inequality.
Federal prisons fail in providing rehabilitation services to undocumented immigrants. This becomes a rising issue, as the United States is composed primarily of immigrants. The federal Bureau of Prisons mission is to, “provide work and self-improvement opportunities to assist offenders in becoming law-abiding citizens.” (cite) The BOP just skips over undocumented immigrants and restricts their use of prison resources. Some of which are essential job training and drug counseling.
INTRODUCTION The United States incarcerates a greater percentage of the population than any country in the world (CBS, 2012). According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 2.3 million adults were incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and county jails in 2013. There are an additional 820,000 people on parole and 3.8 million people on probation (Wagner & Rabuy, 2016) Jail and prison differ primarily in regards to the length of stay for inmates.
Kalief Browder was an African American man who was arrested for allegedly stealing a backpack. While waiting for his time to go to Trial, he was held on Rikers Island where he spent most of his time in solitary confinement. Also during his stay at Rikers Island he was constantly beaten and starved. Three years after he was released out of prison he committed suicide. In this case like most, being locked up and treated inhumane later on drove him to take away his own life.
developed—the first institution in which men were both “confined and set to labor in order to learn the habits of industry” (LeBaron, 2012, p.331). Although prisons had been designed to enforce and promote punishment, retribution and deterrence, they have also fallen into the conceptual belief that they were in many instances, nothing more than a sweat shop for the socially-undesired. At this point in history, there was very little reform and an immense lack of regulation for prisons or for the proper way they should be ran. Finances. In modern-day calculations, prison labor has been rather beneficial to the U.S. government, bringing in an average of 1.6 billion dollars in 1997.
Just imagine the city of Houston being populated with nothing but prisoners. This is how badly the prison system has gotten overcrowded since the 1980's, and it is only going to get worse. Overpopulation has affected the lives of prisoners inside and outside of prison with a plethora of reasons that cause more harm than good. The only way to solve these problems is to reform the programs inside prisons and to reform the laws in the justice system. Prison reform is needed in the current rehabilitation programs inside of prison since little effort is used to implement a correct recovery for the convicted.
he Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines controversy as, “a discussion marked especially By the expression of opposing views’’ (“Controversy”). There are many controversies that affect society today. Controversy can cause fights, destroy families and intimate political strife. Some of the major controversies affecting America today are racism, killing, and how kids just sit in a class all day.
The 2016, presidential election posed many opinions from our candidates as to the efforts taken on prison reform. With Donald Trump being elected the fate of our country's prison system was held in his hands. Trump argued the true problem of incarceration in our country; is that we don't do enough to raise our rates and clear our streets from crime. With obama out of office and new officials being appointed, congress has developed new forms of ideals when pertaining to our countries prisoners. 2017 was said to be a unknown year, walking in blind Trump administration dismembered the plans drawn up by the expired congressional party.
Inmates are no different in this aspect. Inmate labor was designed with the purpose of “offsetting the cost of incarceration” (Derrick, Scott, & Hutson, 2004, p. 74). The operational cost of prisons, and jails for that matter, is exponential. Tax-payers have the burden of monetarily contributing to the overwhelming cost of housing criminals.
The US prison population makes up 25% of the world’s prison population while the rest of America only makes up 5% of the world population. The cost of keeping these 2 million people in the US behind bars is an astonishing $80 billion. With such a gargantuan price, politicians, economists, and concerned taxpayers are struggling to find ways to reduce costs. Two ways have been identified as the most promising: privatize the prison industry or put inmates to work. There have already been successful implementations of both around the country, yet inmate labor is likely to be stifled and greatly discouraged due to its association with slave labor.
However, penal labor provides some benefits to prisoners. It instills within them practical and social knowledge which they can take advantage of upon release from prison. Unfortunately, this still occurs at the expense of the general population of the US. Perhaps if prisoners were employed to make the prison self-sufficient by only manufacturing goods for the prison and the US military, with no corporations involved, penal labor would be devoid of the more harmful consequences that have not yet been
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
Open prisons are usually for prisoners who were moved from closed prisons for rehab purposes. There are no external protection to an open prison. The prisoners with good conduct in the work force belong in this kind of prison area. Enforcement officers can go out under the supervision and protection, and also it is possible to discuss freely with visitors. Prisoners in the open prison are required to work hard labor for the government, it can also be community service.
