Were "Three Strikes" Laws & the Like Enacted to Funnel Profits to Prison Privatizers?

[Hannah Bell]

Surfing the net in search of a bit of trivia I ran across several pages touting prisons as a business opportunity & growth industry. Intrigued, I noticed:

1. There are 24 states (some sources say 28 or more) with "three strikes" laws. All but Texas wrote theirs between 1993 & 1996.

2. Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison operator, was founded in 1983. Wackenhut launched a subsidiary, GEO, in 1984 for the express purpose of managing prisons.

3. In 1990 there were just five privately run prisons. By 2000 there were more than 100, suggesting that the 90's were a huge growth era.

It seems fairly obvious that the "drug war" isn't about keeping drug use down -- it's become more widespread, & harder drugs more casually available, under the drug war (nixon to present). But it was a boon for police & prisons.

Is the whole "law & order" schtick a cover for private profit & rent-seeking?

Is "immigration reform" another boondoggle for prison operators? CCA's first contract was to run an immigration detention center.

More incarceration coming:

"Prison-policy experts expect inmate populations in 10 states to have increased by 25% or more between 2006 and 2011, according to a report by the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts.

Private prisons housed 7.4% of the country's 1.59 million incarcerated adults in federal and state prisons as of the middle of 2007, up from 1.57 million in 2006, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, a crime-data-gathering arm of the U.S. Department of Justice."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122705334657739263.html

Between 1987 & 2001, the number of prisoners incarcerated nearly doubled, but the number of private prison beds grew 4000%.

http://www.privateprisonreform.com/privatization.html

"Trends in Corrections Privatization:

Private prisons enjoyed another banner year in 2007. All levels of government expanded their use of private correctional services, sustaining the trend of rapid growth in prison privatization. And there were signs of far more sweeping policies, as some officials began looking beyond contracts for individual prisons."

http://www.stonesoflaw.com/trends.html

http://www.correctionsprivatization.com/costs.html

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=867

http://www.prop1.org/legal/prisons/970317itt.htm

[madokie]

1. I think that is a very big possibility

rec

[Fumesucker]

2. Follow the money..

Always excellent advice in the land of the free.

[whyverne]

3. They hate welfare but love prisons. Even though prison is much

more expensive.

[Starry Messenger]

4. I'm reading Kind And Usual Punishment by Jessica Mitford this week.

Prison is a fucking racket.

[blindpig]

5. Convenient

Where does business as usual end and conspiracy begin?

[Hannah Bell]

6. yeah, that line is pretty blurry a lot of the time.

[PA Democrat]

7. It would be interesting to track political donations from the privatized prison industry

to politicians supporting mandatory sentencing, three-strikes law and who adopt a "tough-on-crime" stance. I'd venture a guess that there is a very strong correlation.

Why are we paying judges if we prevent them from considering the unique circumstances of a crime when they impose sentencing?

[Odin2005]

8. of course they were.

In the name of "law and order" of course. :eyes:

[bemildred]

9. You bet, and it's "worked great" too. We have more prisoners than anybody. nt

[spanone]

10. it appears that everything in america is about profit