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The profits of private prisons drive an insidious force that has become an increasingly controversial issue in recent years. Human rights activists, legal experts, and the general public have all raised their voices in opposition to this system that incentivizes the cutting of costs at the expense of providing necessary and quality programs and services to inmates and staff. The War on Drugs and the subsequent overcrowding of prisons have been major challenges for federal, state, and local governments, leading them to look for solutions that would minimize the costs of providing housing for such a large population. The privatization of prisons has been rapidly increasing as budgets for criminal justice are shrinking and governments are now incentivized to cut their costs. The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ mission is to confine offenders in a controlled environment that is safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure. Unfortunately, private prisons fail to create such an environment and have numerous harmful effects on inmates and facility staff.

Private prisons are a profit-driven system in which the interests of private companies conflict with the well-being and basic human rights of prisoners and workers. This profit focus tends to lead to extreme cost-cutting measures that weaken security and endanger those on the inside. A 2017 NAACP report shows that private prison companies employ significantly less staff and

Against

by NITYA UPADRASTA STAFF WRITER

implement fewer adequate training programs than public prisons. Private prisons are also not subject to the same level of oversight and scrutiny or held to the standards of public prisons, making it difficult to monitor internal conditions and ensure that prisoners are being treated humanely. Implementing sufficient consequences for mismanagements and abuse that occur within the private facilities is difficult. In addition to this, private prisons are motivated to keep their facilities full at all times in order to maximize profits, leading to longer sentences and an increased likelihood of reoffending. There are also higher levels of violence in the private sector. A U.S. Department of Justice study shows that violent attacks by inmates on correctional staff were 163% higher in private than in public prisons, and inmate-on-inmate assaults were nearly

30% higher.

Despite the notion that private prisons are cheaper for taxpayers, research suggests that private prisons do not actually save money and may even cost more in the long run.

A 2016 study by the University of Illinois at Chicago found that the housing cost for an inmate in a private Chicago prison was $164 per day compared to $143 in a public Chicago prison. Private prisons are not incentivized to reduce the prison population through implementing quality rehabilitation programs and alternatives to incarceration.

As a basic principle, justice should not be administered through the prism of profit. The companies that control and operate private prisons have a vetted financial interest in the growth rather than the reduction of mass incarceration. Private prisons are inherently corrupt enterprises that have no place in a safe and equitable criminal justice system. Policymakers should instead focus on implementing reforms based on evidence to reduce recidivism and improve life outcomes for prisoners.

The government should invest in rehabilitation and reentry programs to reduce prison populations, and address the underlying racial and socioeconomic prejudices that contribute to mass incarceration.

In 2016, the U.S. government announced its plan to phase out the use of private prisons; under the Trump administration, this plan was revoked, then reinstated under

Biden’s government. Biden’s executive order pushing for a non-renewal clause of the Justice Department’s contracts with privately managed prisons only applies to Bureau of Prison (BOP) facilities. However, the majority of privatized establishments are involved with the seemingly untouchable U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers. This back-and-forth legislation on the issue of private prisons makes it seem like these prisons are a moral or humanitarian issue; it is the opposite. Private prisons were created during the War on Drugs to assist the overflowing government facilities and continue to serve as an assistant to our system. Private prisons only financially impact the U.S. prison system, nothing else. According to writer Andrew Coyle, privatization takes on one of these three structures: private companies providing services to government-owned and operated prisons, private companies manage government-owned prisons, or private companies owning and operating their own jails while charging the government per inmate housed. Those against the allowance of private prisons turn to the conglomerates who run them, such as CoreCivic, GEO Group, LaSalle Corrections, and Management and Training Corp, to depict a capitalist, money-hungry system. There is no denying that these companies make money off of their facilities. How-