Private prisons across the United States contract with the government and make huge profits.
Pak Sahafat News Agency – In 2013, a documentary called “Children for Cash” was released; this documentary deals with one of the scandals of the American judicial system in 2009.
According to CGTN, the documentary showed that two Pennsylvania judges received more than $ 2.6 million from private inmates to fill their capacity.
Many children who had committed very trivial crimes were transferred to prisons and exposed to nightmares; and this is just the tip of the iceberg of the tragedy of private prisons in America.
Private prisons are spread across the United States; In Montana and New Mexico, inmates in private prisons make up more than 30 percent of the state’s total prison population.
These prisons throughout the United States enter into contracts with the government.
The main source of income for these prisoners is the US government; in most cases, these incomes are based on the number of people incarcerated in these prisons; so for private prisoners, there is a clear logic; more prisoners, more money.
Despite the declining number of inmates in the United States in recent years, private inmates have had to perform tricks to avoid harm and prevent a crisis.
The first trick was to interfere in the American judicial system and imprison more people.
Because the “Children for Cash” scandal was exposed, private jails paid American judges to sentence offenders to life in prison for trivial offenses.
These detainees also exerted influence on judges, forcing them to serve longer prison sentences.
For example, a 14-year-old girl was sent to a juvenile prison.
The second trick was to fund support for the Republican Party.
Read more: Rising violence in US prisons / Installation of cameras on guards’ uniforms: https://www.paksahafat.com/en/?p=18412
Private prison corporations have long been loyal financiers of the Republican Party; Republicans are more in favor of private prisons than Democrats.
Geo and Corsewick are two companies running the US Private Prisons that have donated tens of millions of dollars to Republicans in total.
This is more than the amount of their financial aid to the Democrats.
The third trick is to suppress illegal immigrants; violent crackdowns on immigrants during Trump’s presidency have led to many of them being held in detention centers.
As more of these immigrants are imprisoned, these prisoners are collecting very high profits.
The greater the number of inmates in these prisons, the lower the operating costs for these prisons in order to be more profitable.
This has led to the disorderly management of private prisons and the low level of living conditions for prisoners.
When individuals face longer periods of imprisonment, when human rights are less guaranteed, and when the system fails to rehabilitate inmates, the tragic cycle of private prisons will fail only with strong laws and policies.
But when American politicians have been funded by these private jail companies for a long time, will they agree to such laws? They do not seem to be doing this.