I live in California, home of privatized prisons in America. These prison corporations have lobbyests in place with all kinds of ill gotten corrupt dollars waiting for laws to be made/lifted to the advantage of making a profit from putting PEOPLE in cages. Where the hell is PETA, are we NOT animals. One example; The Three strikes laws in California, aided and abetted by the private prison corporations to be made law. Why? Too many prisoners being released after their sentence was complete, reducing profit margins. These corporations needed a way to keep prisons filled.
When your business makes a profit from putting people in cages, it matters not what crime they have commited, as long as you can keep them it is money in the bank. The Government is not against this. Why? The Government gets to collect more revinue from your wallet via taxes. If you won't be a productive member of society and pay your dues, thats ok, "THEY" will put you in a cage and charge your neighbors with the bill.
I got this from wikipedia, Oh wait is that cheating? Am I supposed to know every fact from memory? Most people cannot even remember what they had for lunch yesterday, let alone remembering to water their house plants... speaking of which
Private prisons in the United States today.
Private companies in the United States operate 264 correctional facilities, housing almost 99,000 adult offenders. Companies operating such facilities include the Corrections Corporation of America, the GEO Group, Inc, Cornell Companies, and Community Education Centers. The GEO Group was formerly known as Wackenhut Securities.
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) has a capacity of more than 80,000 beds in 65 correctional facilities. The GEO Group operates 61 facilities with a capacity of 49,000 offender beds, while Cornell Companies has 79 facilities to service 19,226 adult and juvenile offenders in secure containment and community-based corrections.
Most privately run facilities are located in the southern and western portions of the United States and include both state and federal offenders.
Development of private prisons in the United States
Private sector involvement in United States prisons is not new — federal and state government have had a long history of contracting out specific services to private firms, including medical services, food preparation, vocational training, and inmate transportation. The 1980s, though, ushered in a new era of prison privatization. With a burgeoning prison population resulting from the “war on drugs” and increased use of incarceration, prison overcrowding and rising costs became increasingly problematic for local, state, and federal governments. In response to this expanding criminal justice system, private business interests saw an opportunity for expansion, and consequently, private-sector involvement in prisons moved from the simple contracting of services to contracting for the complete management and operation of entire prisons.
The modern private prison business first emerged and established itself publicly in 1984 when the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) was awarded a contract to take over a facility in Hamilton County, Tennessee. This marked the first time that any government in the country had contracted out the complete operation of a jail to a private operator. The following year, CCA gained further public attention when it offered to take over the entire state prison system of Tennessee for $200 million. The bid was ultimately defeated due to strong opposition from public employees and the skepticism of the state legislature. Despite that initial defeat, CCA since then has successfully expanded, as have other for-profit prison companies. As of December 2000, there were 153 private correctional facilities (prisons, jails and detention centers) operating in the United States with a capacity of over 119,000.
