June 27, 2011 | 12:06 PM | By

Report: 3 ways private prison industry expanding

FILED UNDER: Corrections, Justice Policy Institute, Private Prisons

A new report by the Justice Policy Institute (JPI) outlines how private prison companies have pushed punitive policies over the last few years–policies, the report says, aimed at increasing the demand for private prisons.

According to JPI, in 2009, there were about 129,000 people in private correctional facilities in the United States–a number that’s jumped 120 percent in federal and 33 percent in state facilities since 2000 . And while private prison companies ”may try to present themselves as just meeting existing demand for prison beds and responding to current market conditions, in fact they have worked hard over the past decade to create markets for their product.” A lucrative product: in 2010, revenues for the top two companies, Corrections Corporation of American and GEO group, exceeded $2.9 billion.

JPI reports on three strategies these two companies, which account for the majority of the market, have used to grow business:

  • Campaign contributions: Since 2000, GEO and CCA have given $835,514 to federal candidates and $6,092,331 to candidates for state offices. The political donations, JPI says, are aimed at securing two types of policies: “pitching private prisons as a lower cost alternative to building or maintaining state facilities; and fighting policies that might reduce the use of incarceration.”
  • Lobbying: According to JPI, CCA spends about $900,000 a year on federal lobbying. GEO and CCA have about 30 lobbyists working for them in Florida. And GEO spent some $120,000 on lobbying efforts in Florida in the first three months of 2011.
  • Connections: JPI points to list of ties between policy makers and the private prison industry, intended to demonstrate that the industry has friends and believers in high places. High-level officials have moved from public to private correctional institutions, and former industry workers have become politicians and helped introduce the companies to new markets.

The report ends by recommending that instead of turning to private prisons to save money, states look to the front end–the door into prison–and invest in prevention. Full report below.

  • Anonymous

    The JPI report is excellent, but neglects to mention the powerful and substantial influence of the Koch brothers.

    Best known to Californians as the funders of the opposition to global warming mitigation, they have contributed to think tanks which are little more than propaganda factories, that tout the imaginary benefits of prison privatization. Chief among them are  the Reason Foundation, which accepts funding from the for-profit prison industry as well, and the Cato Institute.

    The Kochs are also prodigiously opposed to the democratic process. Privatization of prisons serves that strategy as well.  They have been the initiators, through the secretive, right wing, American Legislative Exchange Council, of the laws that have sought to end collective bargaining, public employee benefit funds, dues and political contribution payroll check-offs, all intended to suppress the collective participation in the electoral process by the working and lower middle classes. Their “Real I.D. Acts,” and similar legislation are designed to reduce voter turnout of the poorest citizens.

    Arnold Schwartzenegger was elected in no small part due to attacks on Governor Gray Davis by the for-profit prison industry, and thanks to  campaign contributions from the privateers. In turn, he gorged them with business, making a GEO Group insider his state finance director. He disregarded state law in order to send over ten thousand California prisoners to chaotic prisons outside the state, far from families and friends, churches and support systems, with a consequent incredibly costly, virtually guaranteed, major increase in the recidivism rate.