Going Backward: A Look at Private Prisons

Stephanie Hutson

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Feb 25, 2017 · 5 min read

Remember not too long ago when the United States Government told the nation that America was not going to be a place where businesses and private citizens profited off free and forced labor? No, I’m not talking about the abolition of slavery with the 13th, 14th and 15th amendment, I am talking August 18th, 2016, when the Department of Justice told law enforcement that at the end of their contracts with private jails, they needed to either decline to renew or “substantially reduce its scope”.

Admittedly, those words sound weak, and to be honest, it kind of is. It reminds me of when Tyrion from Game of Throne gives the city of Meereen 7 years to abolish slavery. Diplomatic, strategic, and tiresomely not enough for the people that have experienced (or were at the time experiencing) slavery themselves.

Last summer I heard a fair amount about private prisons, somewhat from the news sources I read, but also a lot from Facebook, from friends that have been politically active longer than just the last month (starting with the current administration). Private Prisons was one of those things that I didn’t really hear about it being a problem, until it seemed like people were fixing the problem. I am a bit ashamed to admit it, but it didn’t really seem like a real thing to me — not that I believed it was fake, but like giant sequoias, you don’t really internalize how big they are (or how real the problem is in this case) until you actually seem them. It really wasn’t until I was fooling around on my Robinhood app, looking for geothermal stocks and index funds I may be interested in investing in when I came across Geo Group (GEO), a correctional facility company. I felt dirty for even looking at it, for accidentally coming across it, but that was the moment that private prisons, where people can invest their money to incarcerate people and earn significant profit, became real to me.

By that time however, it seemed like everything was going in the right direction. Only a couple weeks later, Yates sent her memo, and I patted myself on the back for not letting an enticing PE ratio and dividend yield circumvent my values, which at the time wound up being a smart investment choice as well. There was that feeling that “the good guys” were winning.

I can hear my conservative friends, and the comment section of so many newspapers argue that private prisons are fine, they cost the state less money, and create jobs and add to tax payer money and get people off the street that are breaking the laws. If you look at it from a fiscal standpoint, sure, that makes some sense. But just as businesses are not people, people are not the property of business. Without going into the statistics of the matter, or the anecdotes (check the links for those) take a second and think about if you were a business, who profited off free labor from incarcerated individuals, what decisions would you make, and how would you try to maximize the profitability of your business?

First thing, is you would need people incarcerated in your facility. How would you make that happen? Potentially you would go directly to the source and bribe judges to send young men and women your way, or potentially you would take the legal road, and bribe your politicians. We know now that private prisons were also major donors to a Donald Trump super PAC.

What do donations to politicians get you? Often harsher penalties for people that are already underrepresented in places of power. That’s right, I’m talking about race. Until 2010, the penalties for cocaine — a drug predominately used by white people — and the penalties for crack — a drug predominately used by black people — were so disparate you needed to have 100x the weight in coke as you did crack for the same sentence.

So what about today? Looking at a recent survey, to reduce crime, the majority (58%) of black people want better education and job training, while 35% of white people. Alternative options were money for police and prisons (10% white, 1% black), both equally (45% white, 35% black) and neither (9% white and 6% black). To do the numbers, 93% of black americans and 80% of white americans want more money to go into job training and education to reduce crime. That is a resounding majority of people who know and believe that education is key to reducing crime, and recognize that the people who have been sent to prison at alarming rates are not getting the education they need as young adults.

It is true that in the constitution, well an amendment of the constitution, we allow that involuntary servitude may be dolled out as punishment for a crime.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Wether you agree with the principal or not is irrelevant when you consider the racial make up of people that are currently in involuntary servitude. By encouraging private prisons what incentive do people with power have to reduce the number of people in jail? Already we are seeing the defunding of public programs which are designed to bring free and equal education to people that may otherwise be unable to afford those benefits.

When people say that incarceration is modern slavery, you may think they are being over dramatic, or forced labor is simply the punishment for breaking the law, but pay attention to who benefits, who is harmed, and when private money is involved which choices are being made for the benefit of society, and which are made for the benefit of someone’s bottom line.

I understand that there are opposing viewpoints and arguments, but I hope I can entreat you to consider the lives of people you may not know, or ever come in contact with, but whose value to society can be so much more than free and forced labor.