There is obviously a problem with the existence of an ineffective private (or public) prison industry, but what should raise even more eyebrows is the involvement private prison corporations have in illegal immigration.
Private prisons, most notably the Corrections Corporation of America, have started making shocking amounts of money by detaining illegal immigrants with contracts from the government. According to Mother Jones, the Department of Homeland Security has provided CCA with millions of dollars worth of contracts in return for the detention of illegal immigrants.
It is important to keep in mind that these illegal immigrants have not been charged with a crime, but are simply being detained until the government decides what to do with them. Although these immigrants are not criminals, an objective observer would not be able to tell the difference between the treatment of these immigrants and the treatment of prisoners. Immigrants are expected to cook and clean, are limited in their rights to speak with family, and are subjected to violence and disease, according to Graeme Wood’s 2011 Bloomburg Businessweek article, “A Boom Behind Bars.”
There have also been reports of abysmal health care and horrible food. Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones reports that, “… detention centers have been sued for providing inadequate health care, food services and education … [immigrants] were kept in cells 11 to 12 hours a day, forced to wear prison garb, fed ‘unrecognizable substances, mostly starches,’ and denied toys, bathroom privacy and access to medical care.” There have been multiple reports of people dying in detention, usually due to health care issues or violence amongst detainees.
These corporations have a tendency to spend as little as possible to increase their profits. Wood reports that “when contract prisons do save money, they often do so at the expense of their labor” and because of this, “the rate of escapes, violence and contraband in the private facilities tends to be higher than in their public counterparts.”
After the violence, inadequate health care, lack of education and absence of food with any noticeable nutritional value are taken into consideration, there should be a great deal of concern regarding the fundamental human rights violations taking place. These violations are particularly troubling, because the lack of proper funding by the corporations to provide an adequate living environment for detainees is simply an attempt to cut costs in order to increase profit.
CCA has also had significant involvement in writing new legislature that would create even more illegal immigrant detention and further increase the already high prisoner population.
NPR reported that the model bill for SB 1070 was written, “… almost word-for-word … behind the scenes by the Corrections Corporation of America, which stands to make lots of money locking up thousands of illegal immigrants.” Arizona’s SB 1070 requires police officers to do an identification check of any person they deem might be an illegal immigrant. The penalties for being an illegal immigrant in Arizona (and states that have passed similar legislation in the last year) can include up to six months in prison.
CCA lobbied legislatures to write SB 1070 in an attempt to create more prisoners and detainees. It has already been established that CCA and other private prison corporations stand to make millions of dollars of profit on the detention and imprisonment of immigrants. It also has been established that these facilities are inadequately staffed and do not provide the proper essentials to those who occupy these facilities. How is it that these corporations have such lobbying power and influence in the writing of legislation?
According to NPR, a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council gets special interest groups connected with legislatures to write model legislation. ALEC proposed the legislation and as the report states, wrote a version of the bill that was almost word-for-word equivalent to the version that passed.
Wood explains that CCA has spent, on average, between $1 and $2 million a year lobbying for this kind of legislation. This kind of lobbying has led to a problematic cycle: CCA and others are under contract with the government to imprison criminals and detain illegal immigrants. Then, these corporations spend a significant amount of money lobbying for legislation that creates longer sentencing and more criminals in an attempt to put more people in their facilities, which in turn makes these corporations more money. It is evident that this legislation is not an attempt to fix the immigration problem or solve societal problems as it is so purported.
The existence of private prison corporations in the United States raises multiple human rights concerns. The motivation for private prisons is not social reform, as was the original intent of the prison system. Immigration and Naturalization Service, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement are no longer fulfilling their original duty of assisting immigrants in their attempts to move to the United States, but are adopting a law enforcement role and creating contracts with private prisons for the detention of illegal immigrants. In turn, private prison corporations such as CCA pay government legislatures in an attempt to create even stricter laws that send more people to prisons or these immigrant detention facilities, like that of SB 1070.
In addition, for-profit prison corporations also have a vested interest in cutting costs and providing inadequate resources and personnel, creating hazardous and unsafe environments for prisoners and immigrants that have resulted in multiple deaths amongst detainees (due to both poor health care and violence). When prisons are run privately, and are run with the intent of making money and not providing a social service, fundamental human rights violations occur. Besides this, it has been shown that prisons are ineffective in implementing social change anyway.
Due to the far-reaching and adverse consequences of (ineffective) private prisons, it is crucial that corporations like these be deemed illegal and it be stated that social policy is the exclusive concern of public institutions like the United States government.