A for-profit prison is a privately owned establishment that is outsourced by the government. For-profit prisons are run by big corporations such as CoreCivic (formerly known as Correction Corps of America), GEO Group Inc. and Management and Training Corp. with CoreCivic being the largest in the country. Private prisons hold about 12% of the nation’s federal prisoners which equals out to about 22,000 inmates.(Reilly) Although private for-profit prisons give the government a cheaper option to house prisoners, private prisons care more about making money then the inmate safety and living conditions, these prisons should be outlawed.

The companies that run for-profit prisons make the majority of their money from stipends given by the government. Most of the time the stipend is based on how many prisoners the prison has, but can be based on numerous different factors. To give you an example on the way this works, say a private prison can host a prisoner for $100 a day with all included expenses but they tell the government they will house them for $150 a day. Most of the time the government will take the offer because $150 a day is either less than what they can do a day for a prisoner or to be frank it takes the burden of the business aspects of a prison off them. After the government signs to the agreement all they have to do is supply the prisoners and oversee the prison. If the prison wants to make extra money they can cut down on services, such as cut out cleaning or get cheaper food services. Eliminating these services could bring down the cost to house a prisoner to $85 or $90 a day per prisoner. If the prison holds 1,000 inmates and gets paid $150 per day per prisoner but their cost is only $90 a day per prisoner, thats is a $60,000 profit per day for that prison.

Private Prisons also have a lot to do with politics. GEO Group donated $250,000 to the Trump Inauguration and for good reason. When Donald Trump was running for president one of his main points was enforcing immigration laws. When more laws are created or enforced the incarceration rate is higher, making private prisons more money. To put this into perspective, in August 2016 GEO Group’s stock was at $19.51 a share. When Donald Trump was elected into office on November 8, 2016 the GEO Group stock was at $23.88 a share and at the end of Trump’s first month as president their stock was even higher at $47.75 a share. Within 6 months the GEO Group stock more than doubled because of Trump’s election and will only rise because of his immigration laws.

Often for-profit prisons have substandard accommodations. One Mississippi private prison when going through trial to be closed was described by a federal judge as “paints a picture of such horror as should be unrealized anywhere in the civilized world.” (Williams) This specific prison was full of corrupt prison guards who most were gang members themselves. The guards would organize “gladiator style fights between prisoners” they would also bet money on who would win these fights. When investigating the facility one investigator said the smell of marijuana was so strong he was scared of getting contact high. There was also an outstanding number of reports of younger inmates being raped by older inmates, many of the offenders being let into the victim’s cell by guards who knew what was about to happen. Unfortunately this isn’t just the case in this one facility. Many privately owned prisons have below standard conditions.

In a radio interview with Fresh Air, Seth Freed Wessler; an investigative journalist who spent 4 years investigating the conditions of private prisons, told the listeners about his experience in one Texas private prison. He said the entire prison was made up of “Kevlar tents” and each tent housed about 200 men in rows of bunk beds. The tents usually only had one guard overseeing the 200 men. Many of the prisoners complained about how hot it got in the tent and the odor caused by the heat and excessive amount of people in one space. Wessler said that the property was “rows of these massive Kevlar domes that stretched for a couple of football fields.”

Wessler also told Fresh Air listeners that a very common complaint among inmates at private prisons is the health care they receive, well don’t receive. Wessler said that many of the facilities he investigated “had no medical doctor at all” and they “significantly understaffed their nursing departments for months and months at a time”. Wessler said he often saw men with curable illnesses or injuries who ended up dying because of the prisons substandard medical care. Many men in these facilities contract HIV and have never been tested or treated resulting in their untimely deaths.

Private for profit prisons help save the government money but they do not provide the same standard living conditions that any human needs. These companies can more about making money than they do about the prisoner’s safety and health. Private for-profit prisons should be not only shut down but outlawed.

Works Cited

Bryant, Sean. “The Business Model Of Private Prisons.” Investopedia, 22 June 2015, http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/062215/business-model-private-prisons.asp. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.

“Investigation Into Private Prisons Reveals Crowding, Under-Staffing And Inmate Deaths.”NPR, NPR, 25 Aug. 2016, http://www.npr.org/2016/08/25/491340335/investigation-into-private-prisons-reveals-crowding-under-staffing-and-inmate-de. Accessed 9 May 2017.

Margulies, Joseph. “This Is the Real Reason Private Prisons Should Be Outlawed.” Time, Time, 24 Aug. 2016, time.com/4461791/private-prisons-department-of-justice/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.

Reilly, Ryan J. “Damning Report Finds For-Profit Prisons Are More Dangerous.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 11 Aug. 2016, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/for-profit-prisons_us_57acafe7e4b0718404101f14. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.

Schouten, Fredreka. “Private Prisons Back Trump and Could See Big Payoffs with New Policies.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 23 Feb. 2017, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/02/23/private-prisons-back-trump-and-could-see-big-payoffs-new-policies/98300394/. Accessed 2 May 2017.

Williams, Timothy. “Privately Run Mississippi Prison, Called a Scene of Horror, Is Shut Down.”The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Sept. 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/us/mississippi-closes-private-prison-walnut-grove.html. Accessed 9 May 2017.