On March 1, a broad coalition of public interest organizations wrote to the governors of every state, urging them to decline a bid from Corrections Corp. of America to buy up public prisons and turn them into private facilities. Significantly, this proposal from the largest for-profit prison company in the country did not come without strings attached. It stipulated that the seller must have a minimum of 1,000 beds, agree to let CCA operate the institution for no less than 20 years and guarantee to keep the prison at least 90 percent occupied. In light of the mass incarceration epidemic — with 5 percent of the world’s population, our nation confines 25 percent of all prisoners — the last thing we need is to expand an industry invested in maximizing the number of inmates. The past three decades have seen a proliferation of private prisons. During this time, their advocates have failed to make the case for handing an archetypically public function over to profiteers. The governors ought to heed the letter’s advice: CCA’s offer is one that can, and should, be refused.
A few statistics (drawn from the American Civil Liberties Union’s 2011 report Banking on Bondage) will indicate the extent to which private companies stimulate, and benefit from, the burgeoning incarceration phenomenon. Such institutions house a total of 6 percent of state prisoners, 16 percent of federal ones and almost half of immigrants detained by the national government. Between 1990 and 2010, the number of inmates in private facilities grew by 1,664 percent. CCA and the second-place The GEO Group Inc. earned almost $3 billion in 2010; their chief executives received compensation in the millions. The anti-government impetus prevalent in many sectors undoubtedly has fueled the industry’s exponential growth.
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