#1Jun 27th, 2011
Private prison companies have helped fuel government policies which lead to an increase in prison population and boost their profits, according to a recent report.Some other figures to note. Since 2000, the number of prisoners held in private federal facilities is up 120%, the number held in private state facilities is up by 33%, while the total number of prisoners, in all types of facilities is up only 16%. Since 1997, corrections spending is up 72%.
The private prison population has grown 353.7 percent in the past 15 years, according to a -- by the Justice Policy Institute. Major private prison companies have an incentive to encourage policies which keep that number on the rise.
"Steady increases in the number of people in private prisons, especially those cominPrivg from federally contracted beds, translate into increased revenues for private prison companies," the report says.
"Since private prison companies are in the business to make money, policies that maintain or increase incarceration boost their revenues; from a business perspective, the economic and social costs of mass incarceration are 'externalities' that aren't figured into their corporate bottom line," it says.
Some of the biggest names in the private prison industry have given $835,514 to federal candidates since 2000 and a stunning $6,092,331 to state politicians in the last five elections cycles, according to data in the report.
The breakdown for political contributions is 59.1% to Republican candidates, 31.8% to Democrat candidates, and 8.7% to ballot measures. They have actively lobbied on many bills too, such as a bill which would have required all prisons with a Federal contract to disclose information just as Federal facilities are required to make available. That bill died in subcommittee. They also lobby hard for more minimum sentences, which obviously has a beneficial impact on these private corporations bottom lines, while producing no tangible benefits to society at large. Minimum sentences increase the risk of re-offending, and there is no benefit produced in terms of public safety.
What about the costs? Glad you asked, a 2008 National Institute of Justice report compared a Bureau of Prisons study with estimates from Abt Associates, and found that Abt Associates did not include overhead or indirect costs in their accounting, making private prisons look artificially more cost effective. In 1996 the General Accounting Office compared public and private prison costs in five states, Texas, California, Tennessee, New Mexico, and Washington, and found little difference in costs. A meta-analyses in 2009 by the University of Utah found minimal cost savings associated with private prisons, and also found that there was no guarantee that there would be any cost savings. Finally, Arizona Department of Corrections found in 2007 cost savings for medium security private facilities $954,069, but this was outweighed by losses in minimum security private prisons $1,297,308.
