The Pros And Cons Of Privatization Of American Prisons

Since the end of President Jimmy Carter’s administration in 1981, the number of inmates in American prisons has more than quadrupled, with numbers reaching upwards of 2.3 million in recent years. Many politicians claim that this is the most effective way of lowering the crime rate in America, they state that with more inmates there will be less crime. However, these claims made about the implementation of tougher laws and the increase of sentences do not decrease crime. Instead these policies over-crowd prisons, promote the abuse of inmates, and decrease the ability of correctional facilities to provide legal alternatives to crime once a sentence has been served.
One of the main issues with American prison systems is the dehumanization of

A private prison is by definition a for-profit prison that is run by a third party contracted by the government. First it must be said that this practice is beyond unconstitutional and shows that the American government favors industry over its own citizens. This is only further supported by the fact that the Supreme Court ruled that prisoners of private prisons cannot sue the prison for constitutional violations. Meaning these third-parties can violate someone's inalienable rights with no oversight and without receiving any consequences. Moreover, these prisons make money through prison labor, that prisoners gain no benefit from. This is due to the fact that inmates are unable to unionize, and are effectively slaves to the company that runs the prison. This has lead to private prisons becoming multi-billion dollar corporations, that only care about making money. This creates a conflict of interest since if there are more people being incarcerated, there are more inmates that can exploited, that in turn makes these corporations more money. A private prison does not care about rehabilitating prisoners, as they provide prisoners with the bare minimum standard of living, at a cost that is completely offset by the massive profits made by what is essentially slave

These people believe that longer sentencing and harsher laws will decrease the crime rate. A belief that could not be further from the truth, and one that has caused prisons to no longer be seen as correctional facilities that provide alternate paths to crime. Instead, they are now perceived as either a center of inhumane psychological torture that goes unnoticed or a billion dollar enterprise. Those who argue this point forget that U.S prisoners are American citizens that deserve redemption. Moreover, this anti-rehabilitation mindset has caused prison recidivism rates to be increasingly high with 77% of released prisoners being arrested again in the five years following release. When combining those facts with the methods of private prisons it displays an image of extreme corruption. One where companies bank profits off of ex-inmates committing crimes once again, only to be exploited as slaves once put back in prison. It must also be stated that harsher laws don’t inherently mean that implementation is equal. For example, the number of white and black Americans who use or sell drugs is approximately equal, despite the fact that black Americans are 2.7 times more likely to be arrested on drug charges. This is on top of the fact that the population of federal prisons are disproportionately