Private Prisons
Most people are unaware that a staggering number of prisons in the United States are run by privately held companies. Wikipedia says: “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.”
CCA currently is the largest private prison company in the country managing over 67 facilities. Among its risk factors listed in its 10-K annual report as required by the SEC, CCA includes the following:
“The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.”
CCA spent over 2 million dollars in lobbying and political contribution between 2003 and 2012
Is it any wonder that a 2014 report by Human Rights Watch, stated “war on drugs” laws adopted since the 1980s have filled U.S. prisons with mostly nonviolent offenders. 51% of the people in prison in the US are there for drug offenses alone nearly quadrupling the prison population in the US bringing it to over 2.4 million people (or 1 in 100).
