For-Profit Prisons Create Worlds Highest Incarceration Rates While Providing Cheap Labor

The Republican obsession to reduce the size of government by privatizing all non-inherent government functions comes from a false belief that private enterprises can be more costeffective than what they deem as inept government. Their quest to privatize Medicare and Social Security, education, and other public sector services is good for corporations, but certainly not for society. case in point, in !"#$ a Republican controlled Senate passed legislation that allowed for-profit prisons. %ut the pursuit of profit only created an incentive to &eep people behind bars, which have turned the privatized prison system into a multimillion-dollar industry. 'ot surprisingly, today, prison populations have increased to the e(tent that the )nited States has higher incarceration rates than any other country. *ncreasingly over the last +, years, things have been golden for private prisons. -ails are now bursting at the seams with two-thirds of prisoners returning to prison within three years. The incarceration industry has been successful lobbying .ongress for greater and stiffer conviction guidelines and reducing opportunities to earn probation and parole. *t/s their imperative because without prisoners these industries would be out of business. 0rofessors Steve 1raser and -oshua 1reeman attributed the rise in prison populations to prison privatization, which 2has meant the creation of a small army of wor&ers too coerced and right-less to complain.3 0risoners produce military equipment, paints and paintbrushes, body armor, home appliances, headphones4microphones4spea&ers, office furniture, airplane parts, medical supplies, provide equipment assembly services, and they raise seeing-eye dogs5 they wor& in call centers, ta&e hotel reservations, wor& in slaughterhouses, ma&e te(tiles, shoes, and clothing. ll of this while being paid between "+ cents and 6$.7+ per day. Moreover, in their pursuit of profit, private prison companies solicit state governments for contracts that include occupancy guarantees. They charge states if they don/t meet contracted loc&up quotas. This essentially leaves ta(payers to pay for empty beds if there are decreases in crime rates. *n any case, to 28 prosecute or incarcerate our way to becoming a safer nation3 is un- merican, immoral, and simply wrong. *t has not wor&ed nor will it ever wor&. rticles by 9oratio :reen on ;ahoo< http<44contributor.yahoo.com4user4"$=7,#4horatio>green.html