When it comes to prisons, people generally think that they are the country’s punishment execution agency and should be established and managed by the government. However, in the United States, private prisons are extremely popular. For the government, private prisons can solve the problem of lack of public prisons; for investment, private prisons are a business that only makes money but does not lose money; and for prisoners, the environment in private prisons is almost the same as that in public prisons. One in heaven and one in the open. However, private prisons also have many problems. During President Obama's administration, they encountered a cold winter, but after Trump became president, they ushered in spring again. Private prisons in the United States have become a big business with an annual revenue of 30 billion. Why does the U.S. government allow private prisons to exist? It’s because the U.S. needs to imprison too many people. According to statistics, the U.S. population accounts for 5% of the world’s population, but it imprisons 1/4 of the world’s criminals
So why does the United States have so many people who need to be imprisoned? This goes back to the 1980s. At that time, some countries in South America established drug systems, and the United States was regarded as an important sales market for drugs. Drugs were plentiful there. Drug trading was almost semi-open in the United States, which would inevitably lead to serious social security problems, which are often seen in movies and TV shows. Shots of gunfights and murders are common in American neighborhoods. The Reagan administration ordered a vigorous crackdown on drug crime and illegal immigration. According to the request, the police only needed to arrest suspicious persons when they saw them, and then stopped detaining them. Soon the public prisons were overcrowded. At this time, the issue of building a new prison is urgent. If a public prison is built, it will not only require government budget, but also require at least four years of complicated approval procedures. How to deal with emergencies? Tom, the then chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party, was at a loss, so he found two friends to discuss the matter, one was the lawyer Klontz, and the other was Hutto, the chairman of the American Correctional Association.
The final result of the discussion between the three people was to introduce private prisons. Of course, the benefits would not go to outsiders. They jointly established CCA, the first private prison company in the United States.
The Texas Immigration Department signed its first business deal with CCA, requesting them three months to process prison beds. It was definitely too late to build a new building, so CCA rented a motel, recruited prison staff and conducted training, temporarily purchased various equipment, and finally completed the contract.
The emergence of CCA not only helped the government solve the problem of insufficient number of public prisons, but also received subsidies. More importantly, they explored a business model that ensured profits without losing money.
Seeing that CCA began to make money, other companies or businessmen joined the ranks of investing in private prisons. At this point, private prisons have become an important part of the American prison system and have become a hot spot for investors. industries entered.
Private prisons in the United States are a big piece of meat. The government subsidizes each inmate, the inmates pay labor fees, and the operators also receive income from orders.
Because of this, the profits of many industries in the United States have declined significantly in recent years. It would be good to survive. However, the revenue of prison operation giant CCA has increased at a rate of 500%.
For every prisoner admitted to a private prison, the government provides a subsidy of US$58 per day per person. Excluding normal operating expenses, prison operators can make a net profit of US$18 per day per person. Therefore, this is a This is a business that only makes money but does not lose money.
In public prisons in the United States, there is no freedom, you cannot move around at will, multiple people are locked in one room, and there is no independent restaurant. In contrast, private prisons are quite different. Inmates themselves also prefer private prisons.
The accommodation conditions in private prisons look the same as single rooms in schools, but the fees are more like hotels. Beds are charged on a daily basis. Ordinary beds cost 40-60 US dollars per day, and luxury ones charge 70 US dollars.
There is a library here where you can read books and conduct distance education. You can also take the high school graduation test and graduate entrance examination in the prison; the sports equipment is also very complete, and you can play basketball, football, etc. You can play billiards, there are also badminton halls, yoga halls, etc.
Of course, if you want to enjoy these services, you have to pay. Without money, it is difficult to live in a private prison. For example, you need to buy headphones to watch TV, otherwise it will be silent, and you need to buy a cup to drink water... In short, There are various reasons for charging.
For private prisons, inmates are still low-cost labor and can be used to make money. Therefore, prison operators take over processing business from outside. Whether it is cooperation with small companies or large enterprises, as long as it is an order that requires human capital, they can be accepted here.
The products produced by American prisons include military supplies, electronic products and office supplies. However, detainees receive very low pay. They work 6 hours a day and receive a monthly salary of about US$20, which is lower than the hourly wage regulated by the government outside the prison. A large amount of profits are earned by private prison operators.
Thus, those who invest in private prisons say that prisons not only help the government deal with prisoner detention issues, but are also a business, and generating maximum economic benefits is the driving force for them to do this.
The United States’ high incarceration rate has fostered a highly profitable industry in private prisons. This is not based on saving taxpayers' money and maintaining social stability, but includes more economic benefits.
Therefore, investors engaged in private prisons must spend large sums of money to influence the decisions of the government and legislative bodies, hoping for stricter legal regulations and longer prison terms. For example, CCA is a long-term donor to the American Legislative Exchange Council, and the committee’s opinions can influence legislation in states and Congress.
The long-term existence of this situation will cause private prisons to obviously hinder judicial independence. The U.S. Attorney General publicly questioned this issue in 2016 and believed that prisons that should be run by the government should outsource The approach is wrong.
During the Obama administration, he announced that he would gradually eliminate cooperation between the government and private prisons. As soon as the news came out, CCA's stock price plummeted 50%. However, it is normal for the emperor to change his ministers once and for all.
When Trump was running for president and making political speeches, he made it clear that he wanted to privatize prisons. He believed that saving money was very important, and outsourcing prison operations could save a lot of money. At the same time, Trump also strives to promote "indefinite detention of illegal immigrants," which also provides an excellent opportunity for private prisons to develop.
On the second day after Trump took office, the stock price of CCA, the number one private prison company in the United States, rose by 43%.
Since Trump came to power in 2017, the situation of private prisons has been excellent, which is in sharp contrast to the depression during the Obama period. The stocks of private prison companies have generally risen sharply. According to relevant data, the private prisons in the United States have The prison's annual profits are as high as $5 billion, or more than $30 billion, making it once again a cash cow for Wall Street investors.
As the major financial backer behind Trump, there are currently a large number of criminals in private prisons in the United States. These people’s lives, work, study and other aspects have formed a complex and complete complex. The industrial chain has brought huge economic benefits to investors.