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The Pros And Cons Of Private Prisons

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Oliver also touches the subject of race relating to drug convictions and he states that whites and blacks use about the same quantity of drugs. Oliver states that Blacks are nearly ten times more likely to be convicted than Whites for drug offenses. Since the 1980’s, drug offenses have tripled and of those arrests marijuana accounted for about half of those offenses (Mcelrath, Taylor, & Tran, 2016). In some states, the use of marijuana accounts for nearly 60% of those convicted for drug offenses (Mcelrath, Taylor, & Tran, 2016). Those convicted of using a lower classification drug like marijuana should not be in jail or prisons with those convicted of an egregious crime like rape or murder. In a study conducted in 2013, the research targeted …show more content…

Private prisons have exponentially expanded throughout the U.S. in the past decades and with the expansion of a corporation there will be setbacks. The YouTube video by John Oliver he enlightens the viewers about the negatives of private prisons and the companies who operates them like GEO group and the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Oliver states that in 2012, about 8.7% of inmates were held in private prisons. Oliver reiterates that GEO group and the CCA had a combined revenue of over 3 billion dollars. It’s unfathomable that some corporations that are supposed to be taking care of the inmates with healthcare and decent food are essentially profiting from inmates. Oliver also clarified that GEO group had a lawsuit against them because of the poor quality of food served to the prisoners which included maggots being found in the food, and rat contaminations. GEO group encountered various lawsuits in the past decade including one that involved rectal examinations and “inadequate medical care” which lead to a sexual assault (Riley, 2017). GEO groups main focus is to make money regardless of the well-being of

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Private prisons were constructed as a response to the overcrowding in federal prisons during the 1980s; many people speculate whether or not private prisons are good or bad. Critics argue that private prisons like any business are driven by profit, and prisons profit from the amount of criminals they are able to contain which gives the private prisons and their shareholders incentive to keep the prison population high and expenses low. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency estimates that over the next ten years state and federal expenditures on prisons will amount to $351 billion6. These government subsidies along with the support of private prison shareholders allow the prison industrial complex to keep their power and influence

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154 Words | 1 Pages

Ever since For-Profit prisons started, jails have been overcrowded and are distributing inmates into prisons in neighboring states, such as Arizona, Mississippi, and Oklahoma. Judges and the government only have one thing in mind. Profit. As a result of wanting more profit, judges are convicting more prisoners for petty crimes. Therefore, For-Profit prisons have more employees to make more products.

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1069 Words | 5 Pages

In the past 40 years, drug offenses have been on the rise as a priority offense. According to Prison Policy, 1 in 5 incarcerated inmates are locked up for a drug offense. At the same time, black people make up 40% of the prison/jail population, which is more than the white population of 39%. Considering that black people only make up 13% of the nation, this disproportionate rate of black people being arrested is quite evident. Conversely, when it comes to drugs, black people are the highest demographic arrested for drug offenses, even though all races and ethnicities sell drugs at very similar rates.

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1055 Words | 5 Pages

What are your thoughts about the prison system? Today 's prisons are so bad that prisons in the United States hold 5 percent of the US population. Many people get sent to jail cause of the 3 law strike because a lot of minorities are caught with drugs. Plus the government is wasting 75 billion dollars on these facilities instead of using the money in a better way like making programs for the prisoners that need help with mental health or other stuff.

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299 Words | 2 Pages

The United States has around four percent of the entire population world’s population and yet it locks up around twenty-five percent of the entire prison population. That is in large part because the prison industry is now made up of for-profit prisons. For-profit prisons are privatized prisons where the owners get paid to keep their inmates as long as possible. Many

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853 Words | 4 Pages

The private corporations do not care, and maybe they never will, for the inmates they are forcing into their facility. The use of private prisons are not the saving grace the government expected it to be; in fact it may be the devil itself. Private prisons are more relaxed with their safety and health guidelines. As a result, the inmates suffer the consequences of neglect. Private prisons are known to cut corners, and when forced to change they retaliate.

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Kanye West recently tweeted out an excusable pseudo-quote from a fictional depiction of Harriet Tubman, “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” The problematic quote accurately implies that there are many people who do not realize that they are victims of societal injustice. Indeed, the United States of America was founded during a time of common prejudice and palpable pain for many minorities; unfortunately, this systemic oppression remains even in modern society. In particular, the American prison system can be closely associated with a modern day slavery.

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1218 Words | 5 Pages

Months after publishing Bauer’s story, Mother Jones reported on the effects that their article had in the private prison community. The more significant of these changes include, an independent DOJ investigation of private prisons, a decision by the DOJ to stop using private prisons, etc. (Andrews). If Mother Jones had not pursued this story, it is fair to say that CCA and Winn Correctional Center would have gone on operating the way they had for years: understaffed and putting profit over humanity. The conditions at Winn were dangerous for the prisoners, as they were abusing and neglecting them.

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“Most of us think prison is a place where bad people go which is what I thought for a long time until you really start to look inside the system and you see, this is not right.” ~Ava Duvernay. In the prison system they are getting paid for people that’s in prison, the more people in cells the more money they make. They give people a life sentence for little things like drugs so I just think the system is really messed up. The U.S Prison system is really unfair, and two of the most important aspects to understand about it are the war on drugs and private prisons.

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721 Words | 3 Pages

The Immigration and Naturalization Service, now ICE, actually gave GEO its first private prison contract and gave CCA its first contract which led those two groups to be the most successful and largest private prison corporations/companies in the world (Mason, “Dollars and Detainees”). At the time GEO and CCA got their first contracts, USMS was contracting private companies to hold detainees in detention services which are usually used to hold illegal immigrants. The rate at which USMS and ICE held detainees in privately run facilities was actually higher than the rate at which state and federal prisoners were being held by private prisons in the last ten years (Mason, “Dollars and Detainees”). In 2010, the number of detainees held by ICE and USMS was about the same as the number federal level prisoners held by private prison facilities (Mason, “Dollars and Detainees”). Like private prisons are run by private corporations, the same ones that run private prisons.

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1617 Words | 7 Pages

Though this may not seem like a massive number compared to the 2 million+ Americans in jail/prison, the second largest private detention company, The Geo Group, Inc., made around $1.6 billion total revenue in 2011. This much money was made by the 65 correctional facilities that The Geo Group, Inc. owns. Like slaves, prisoners are sent to these private prisons where they are seen as less than human while an outside source profits off of their struggles. Private prisons should be abolished from society. Their existence is immoral because the fact that people are being seen as subhuman and private prisons are profiting off the incarceration of people.

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1512 Words | 7 Pages

Around the world, when someone commits a crime of any sort, this person is been judged and placed in a prison. This method has been used for thousands of years. Although in the past, killing was also used as punishment against some crimes that were consider unforgivable. As people evolved, killing someone for a crime became and felt inhuman, so as result, death sentence has become less popular and some can say even rare. In exchange, more prisons were built and this became a norm.

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842 Words | 4 Pages

The use of private corrections does have benefits however; it should not be at the cost of the inmates that are being housed there when their basic rights are being violated i.e. medical care, educational needs and rehabilitative needs. It seems as if these facilities try to cut corners when it comes to saving money, even at the expense of their own officers that are

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887 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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1359 Words | 6 Pages

Justin Jones, director for DOC, reported that private prisons in Oklahoma are all medium- or minimum-security prisons, and that stay completely away from maximum-security prisoners. These costly prisoners are shipped back to public prisons, sticking taxpayers with the cost, while the private prisons profits earn off the “easier” prisoners. This is more money out of the average American taxpayer's pocket, while the rich prison business owners make more money. However, there are still people who believe there is nothing wrong with the private prison

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