The Privatized Prison: A Look at Mass Incarceration and How it Came to Be
ISN’T AMERICA THE “BEST”?
By many accounts, the United States is considered to be the most advanced nation and one of the most civilized societies in the western world. We are among the best in terms of our educational and legal systems; however, according to Wendy Sawyer, Research Director of the Prison Policy Initiative, there are over 2.3 million people locked away in jails and prisons nationwide…
To put this number in perspective, the United States incarcerates more people than any other country on the face of the planet — even China, who has a population of over one billion people! (This shows that we incarcerate at a highly disproportionate rate compared to other countries.)
Naturally, we associate the word “prison” with “crime” and “corruption,” but if the U.S. is so advanced, why are so many of our people incarcerated?
As this article explores, this question illuminates the socioeconomic issues present in our prison system and how mass incarceration aggravates these inherent flaws.
My goal in writing this article is to educate and to leave you with a better understanding of the American Prison System (APS). To better understand mass incarceration in the United States, I will the information of article into 3 different sections: “what?”, “why?”, and “who?”. We will be defining:
WHAT mass incarceration is;
WHY mass incarceration exists/why it’s a relevant socioeconomic issue;
and WHO mass incarceration affects/who funds the prison system
WHAT IS MASS INCARCERATION?
According to renowned sociologist and professor at Cornell University, Christopher Wildeman, mass incarceration has been defined as “a social phenomenon wherein extreme rates of imprisonment are specifically concentrated among minority groups.”
Professor Wildeman has also stated that the American prison system, or the APS, is a $74 billion industry funded majorly by the government who gets the money from American taxpayers… you and me. The APS is a massive industry that not only generates revenue for the prison system, but for the American economy as a whole. With this being said, there are major economic incentives to increase the prison population via mass incarceration: According to a 2018 article entitled: “The American Prison System: It’s Just Business,” published by Fordham University’s Corporate and Financial Journal, the number of bodies within U.S. prisons serve as a source of revenue for the private sector with each inmate garnering $6,000 to $14,000 in income.
Mass incarceration is a social phenomenon with extreme rates of imprisonment fueled by economic incentives. Now that we’ve covered what mass incarceration is, we’ll discuss how it works and why it’s an issue.
WHY: THE PRISON BOOM OF THE 1980s
In the past (like, 40 years ago), mass incarceration didn’t exist. It has come into existence in the past 30-35 years and has only worsened up until now. To understand why mass incarceration continues to exist, we have to understand how the prison industry is owned and how that ownership has been transferred over time.
Before mass incarceration became an issue in the U.S., prisons were not privately owned — they were owned by the government: the public sector. This means that government resources were used to fund prison institutions, which was only possible because prison populations were small enough to not burden government funds.
In the 1980s, however, there was a rapid expansion of the prison population due to the War on Drugs campaign (launched by the Reagan administration) coupled with new legislation that mandated for minimum sentences to be served by criminal offenders, the goal being to reduce the illegal drug trade within the U.S. This was known as the prison boom of the 80s.
Because so many people were now targeted for imprisonment, there was a subsequent increase of the prison population which led to an overwhelming burden on the public sector to house the influx of people. This burden led to the emergence of for-profit (this term is important because it explains why mass incarceration is economically viable), private prisons to fill the gaps. As prisons were privatized (meaning they were now controlled by private businesses), there were economic incentives to incarcerate people in mass. How does this work? Private prisons get their funding from government contracts that are based on the number of inmates and the average length of time served in a prison. As you can see, these contracts are incentives for prisons to house as many people as they can and to detain them for as long as possible in order to maximize the amount of government funding received.
As we’ve seen, the issue of mass incarceration is a very recent and very relevant social issue, and the transfer of ownership from the public to private sector has economically incentivized mass incarceration. Now we’re going to examine who the system targets (as proven by empirical data), and who pays for the funds that private prisons receive.
WHO: MINORITY GROUPS are among the most significantly affected and targeted populations to be funneled into the prison system.
There is a stark over-representation of minority groups within the APS, many being charged and jailed for minor/non-violent crimes. According to a Feb. 2020 article written by professor Christopher Wildeman, published at Oxford Bibliographies.com, the prison boom of the 80s resulted in comparatively high rates of imprisonment concentrated among African American males living in disadvantaged communities.
What’s important to remember is that the prison boom affected all racial groups, as members from all racial groups were incarcerated at higher rates. However, following the prison boom, minority groups, especially those already considered economically disadvantaged, were incarcerated at higher rates compared to their white counterparts.
Additionally, as published by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the “Criminal Justice Fact Sheet” details the racial disparities that exist specifically among the African American and Hispanic communities compared to their white counterparts; for example, although they make up only 32% of the U.S. population, combined, they accounted for 56% of the prison population in 2015. Moreover, the recent opioid epidemic further exemplifies the racial disparities within the APS: 17 million whites reported having used an illicit drug within the last month compared to 4 million blacks, yet blacks are disproportionately arrested and convicted for the same crime.
One reason for the alarming racial disparities within the APS is due to the criminalization of racial minorities which makes them more vulnerable to being incarcerated at unequal rates. How are minority groups are portrayed in the media? How do you tend to perceive minority groups, based on your implicit biases?
A brief recap: mass incarceration is a socioeconomic issue that carries dangerous implications for minority groups within America. The privatization of prisons during the 1980s made mass incarceration an economically viable solution to the rapid expansion of the prison population, leading to the creation of a behemoth $74 billion industry funded by U.S. taxpayers… you and me.
“Criminal Justice Fact Sheet.” NAACP, www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/.
Gotsch, Kara, et al. “Capitalizing on Mass Incarceration: U.S. Growth in Private Prisons.” The
Sentencing Project, 2 Aug. 2018, www.sentencingproject.org/publications/capitalizing-on-mass-incarceration-u-s-growth-in-private-prisons/.
Sawyer, Wendy. “Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie 2019.” Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie
2019 | Prison Policy Initiative, 19 Dec. 2019, www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/youth2019.html.
Wildeman, Christopher. “Mass Incarceration.” Mass Incarceration - Criminology - Oxford
Bibliographies, 20 Feb. 2020, www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396607/obo-9780195396607-0033.xml.
Wright, L.B. “The American Prison System: It's Just Business.” Fordham Journal of Corporate
and Financial Law, 9 Dec. 2018, news.law.fordham.edu/jcfl/2018/12/09/the-american-prison-system-its-just-business/.
