This is the act of moving control of
prisons from the
government to
corporations. In the
United States incarceration is a
growth industry.
Corrections Corporation of America is the largest player in the market.
blah blah quality corrections blah blah blah lower cost to the taxpayer blah blah
Every corporation has a
contractual obligation to its owners to make as much
profit as possible. In this industry,
prisoners equal profits, so the corporations involved are required to somehow generate as many
prisoners as possible.
This isn’t very difficult: they
lobby Congress. They lobby for more
laws, stricter
enforcement, and stiffer
penalties. It turns out that passing these laws are in the interests of most politicians anyway since they don’t want to be seen as "
soft on crime". More laws appear. More people become
criminals. The prison industry earns more profits.
There are people out there whose
self interest lies in putting more people in prison. There are people whose livelihood depends on the continued existence of
crime. I have no problem with making sure people who deserve to be in prison end up there, but in order to maintain growth, people who don't deserve to be incarcerated eventually will be. The situation
scares the hell out of me.