The American Cash Machine: Legislation To Fuel Recidivism Economy
American prisons hold one out of every four prisoners in the entire world
, according to Roy Walmsley of the International Centre for Prison Studies -- and only has one of every 20 people on Earth. Douglas B. Weiss of the University of Maryland, and Doris L. MacKenzie of Pennsylvania State University agree that rising crime did not cause this. "The more than 2.3 million people incarcerated in this nation," they write, "largely reflect policy choices that have been made at all levels of government in the United States." Loic Waquant, an international prisons expert, specifies American incarceration as responsive " not to criminal insecurity but to the social insecurity." Waquant cites that in 1975 the U.S. imprisoned 21 people per 10,000 crimes, and by 2005 imprisoned 125 people per 10,000 crimes. "This means that the country has become six times more punitive."Beginning in 1979 private contracting for prisons became a growth industry. Corrections Corp. of America alone carries contracts in 19 states. It had 87,000 beds in 2010, when Hawaii audited its prisons. For those who wonder how private enterprise can operate prisons more effectively for profit than a government can without profit, it can't. When Arizona audited its prisons it found, "the State paid more per inmate in private prisons than for equivalent services in state facilities." If that extra per inmate cost were all, it might be worth an extra seven dollars a day for states to avoid the hassle -- but that is only the beginning.
The public covers the hidden costs of privately profitable. Rent-a-prisons reach distressed communities with promises of jobs, community safety, and more money in the local economy. Jobs constructing facilities and later staffing them go outside the community when local workers don't qualify. The tax revenue paying the commercial incarcerator does not compound by getting spent in the community -- because the workers live somewhere else.
That all happens before corner cutting and lawsuits start. While this happens everywhere in a predictable cycle, one of the better studies was by Caroline Isaacs of the American Friends Service Committee(AFSC) in Arizona. It seems that the state which incarcerated one in every 749 of its citizens in 1980 and one in every 170 in 2008 had never monitored private prisons in 20 years.
Since Arizona spent 11 percent of its budget on prisons, and 13 percent of its prisoners were held in private facilities, in 2010 it seemed about time. AFSC found that in just the prior two years the state had paid $10 million too much for prison services. Security flaws allowed a prisoner to escape, who killed two people.
Since every business depends on return customers, it may be no surprise that commercial prisons seem to welcome recidivism. AFSC found they would not even track it. Because commercial prisons call their bottom line the top dollar, if expenses cut into capital, they cut expenses. They can cut back on inmate services and staff -- which means further reducing inmate services as well as security. They can cut back on maintenance.
These cutbacks inevitably translate into injury or death -- and this has happened in New York, Texas, California, Colorado, Arizona, Florida, and anywhere using commercial prisons. Inmates get shorter rations. Their health and sanitation suffer, and they get sick. Female inmates get sexually assaulted by guards.
Prisoners who do not manage to escape through lax security keep their lawyers and the ACLU busy. Judgments raise expenses. Insurance payouts raise premiums. The commercial prison rates go up until local governments cannot afford to renew contracts. Then the commercial company pulls out and leaves a municipality to take over with few local staff and facilities badly needing repair.
So how do such companies get contracts? They hire expensive lobbyists. They donate to individual campaigns, to parties, and to PACs. They build up a lot of goodwill among the right people so they can stay in business. They do not just lobby for contracts, but for stricter laws, and more enforcement. The more punitive they help American society become, the more business they can get -- whether it helps reduce recidivism or not.
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