The Business of Prison – The Profit of Despair

A couple of headlines caught my attention this week.  The CEO of Corrections Corporation of America, it was revealed, wrote to 48 state prison directors and made the following offer:  CCA will take over that state’s prisons if the state “guarantees 90% occupancy”, for 20 years.  States, caught in a deep budget crisis that will not let up (look at the soaring pension funding shortfalls in the states) and exploding corrections costs may be tempted to bite.  Not even considering the morality, the ethic, of a private firm holding people under color of law, imagine the effect this would have on prison reform.  States need to address sentencing, especially involving nonviolent felons. 

The truly ironic part of this story is that the CEO in question, Harley Lappin, was until a year ago the head of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.  He was forced out after his arrest for drunk driving in Annapolis, MD.  Funny, there are guys in here who did the same thing who weren’t named CEOs of any company.

The intent of the letter is clear:  CCA and the other companies who profit from the continued incarceration of people can see their blood money falling away.  As states grapple with the high cost of incarceration and end the three decade long “tough on crime” (“dumb on crime”) policies that led to an explosion in the number and cost of incarcerations, these prison profiteers see the writing on the wall.  Something has to be done to slow the spread of prison reform or their financial heyday is doomed.

Profiting from prisons is gaining a foothold as the moral issue of the decade.  Like divestment from companies doing business in Apartheid South Africa in the ‘70’s, divestment from companies profiting from the incarceration of men and women is a growing movement.

Known as the “National Prison Divestment Campaign”, this group seeks to not only convince ethical investors to divest their holdings in prison-profiteering companies, but also to raise awareness about an industry that not only profits from incarceration, but also drives local and national immigration and criminal justice policy.

In mid-February, the United Methodist Church Board of Pension and Health Benefits voted to sell nearly $1 million in stock from CCA and another prison profiteer, the GEO Group.

As the Pension Board’s Director of Communication so eloquently stated it, “We believe that profiting from incarceration is contrary to church values.”

And, as I have noted in this blog many times, it’s not just private prison ownership that needs to be challenged:  it’s any company that profits from providing a service with the prison.  Incarceration is a function of the state.  The state should not be allowed to outsource that function to avoid the actual costs of confining a person.

In Virginia, the GEO Group manages one prison – the level “3” facility at Lawrenceville.  How is it run?  It is over-run with cell phones, drugs and gang activity.  Prostitution rings operated by the female officers flourish.  Why?  It’s a private contractor with private employees.

Virginia DOC also outsources prison medical care.  If you incarcerate someone and deprive them of normal freedoms you are responsible for providing them a reasonably safe living environment, adequate healthcare, food and other daily essentials.  That’s not some “bleeding heart” theory.  That’s the law.  Private firms handling the state’s corrections responsibilities skirt that legal – and moral – responsibility.

Allowing states to outsource their responsibility is morally suspect.  Investing in companies that profit from the incarceration of fellow citizens is shameful and, in the long run, will not be financially beneficial.

It’s time to shed light on these profiteers and their blood money.