A serious reevaluation of the criminal justice system appears at the top of every progressive’s priority list. From increasing police accountability to reimagining the role of prisons, a plurality of opinions emerges from a shared desire to end mass incarceration. One aspect of criminal justice reform which progressives have particularly championed is the end of private prisons. Private prisons are an example of the criminal justice system’s outsourcing to private companies in the form of public-private partnerships.
The American Civil Liberties Union reports that private prisons “were virtually nonexistent until the early 1980s.” The population of incarcerated persons in private prisons also rose 1600% between 1990 and 2009 and increased at five times the speed of the net prison population between 2000 and 2016. Federal and state governments’ increasing reliance on private prisons over such a short period of time is startling and the era of mass incarceration further problematizes this trend.
About 2.2 million people are in American prisons and jails and 60% of them are people of color, even though the United States is predominantly white. Moreover, 1 in 17 white men, 1 in 3 black men, and 1 in 6 Latino men born in 2001 are likely to become imprisoned at some point in their lives. The racial disparities translate to incarcerated women as well, as 1 in 18 black women versus 1 in 111 white women born in 2001 are estimated to become incarcerated. More people of color are also housed in private prisons than public prisons, substantiating the argument that private prison corporations exacerbate, capitalize on, and profit from the era of mass incarceration. Consequently, proponents of racial justice have identified the industry as a malignant force and opponent of meaningful criminal justice reform.
The Justice Department and the Obama administration stated in August 2016 that they aimed to eliminate the use of private prisons. This followed a government report which found that private prisons’ rate of inmate-on-inmate assaults was 28% higher than that of public prisons and more than two times as many inmate-on-staff assaults occurred in private prisons than public prisons. However, the Trump administration revoked the move towards phasing out private prisons in February 2017, thereby enabling their growth.
The amount of private facilities dedicated to detaining immigrants has also grown. For-profit facilities detained 4,841 immigrants in 2000 and this number increased by 442% in 2016 to 26,249, before the advent of President Trump. However, as of May 2019, the Trump administration has overseen the population rise to 52,398. The ballooning number of private facilities under the Trump administration counters the Obama administration’s aim to cease their use. The increase of detainees reveals that the federal government is displacing its responsibility for them and incarcerated persons onto private corporations at a quickened rate. Considering that private prison corporations such as CoreCivic and the GEO Group are thriving in the era of “crimmigration,” it is natural for them to ensure that their existence is perpetuated.
CoreCivic and the GEO Group are active in lobbying and donating to political candidates. CoreCivic has spent $26.1 million on lobbying since 1998 and $3 million on campaign contributions since 1990 in favor of harsher sentencing laws and private prisons’ continued existence. These groups’ partaking in the electoral and legislative processes to enact laws that benefit their profit becomes suspect when juxtaposed with mass incarceration. Lawmakers whom corporations like CoreCivic donate to consequently become invested in the perpetuation of private facilities as well as the racial and economic inequities that perpetuate mass incarceration.
The federal government’s commitment towards an inimical public-private partnership model demonstrates its unwillingness to address some of the ills of the American prison system. Because a private model necessitates incarceration to perpetuate its growth and funding, the American public should therefore denounce private prisons and seek avenues to prevent their growth and ultimately abolish them. One may join efforts to abolish private prisons on the state and federal levels in addition to voting for local, statewide, and federal officials invested in altering the course of the criminal justice system. Only together may we hope to effect lasting change in the United States and ensure that corporations cannot profit from incarceration.
Andrew Shkreli is a rising senior at Hunter College majoring in English Literature with a Certificate in Human Rights and minor in Public Policy. He is interested in criminal justice reform, civil rights, and accountable government. He aims to ultimately attend law school and become a public defender who advocates for equitable policy and legislation.
