The Prison System Is Becoming Big Business in America - The American Gulags

reply to post by ozmaoz47


I've never gotten a ticket or been in any trouble.............however my job of 16 years with 16 years of "exceeds expectations" got out sourced to India.

If it hadn't been me married to a man with a good job, I would be homeless.

Bush lied (probably arranged) for 911 and the war in Iraq leading to millions dead and orphaned - he retires with a generous medical and retirement package on a 100,000 acre ranch in Paraguay.

Molly prostitutes herself to feed her kid and gets jailed or Joe gets caught for two ounces of a weed we cannot name for ATS fears our government (and they help cart the frap in and grow it) and Joe goes to jail for seven years.

OJ almost slit his wife's head completely off and gets off because he had a "good expensive lawyer".

People like you simply don't research, and keep swallowing the corporate owned media and have no comprehension of how the real system works.......................wait, your kids, your grand kids will (unless you are one of the haves and have mores).

reply to post by ofhumandescent





Nice thread Human SnF.
As some have pointed out this has been big business for a long time. I can tell you that Bob Barker has for many years found supplying detention centers to be a most lucrative business. I would be hard pressed to find any records of the earnings but I know he supplys jailhouses nationwide. So every time they issue toilet paper Bob makes money.

reply to post by randyvs




Interesting and informative reply.

The purpose of prisons should be for rehabilitation, not for profits, for anyone, state or otherwise.
If your worried about the costs to the state, then the solution is pretty obvious.
Get rid of the useless laws that are taking away our freedoms that account for the majority of people in prison.

Originally posted by Pigraphia
I don't like the idea of a company running a prison and mandating 90% capacity.

What I do like is turning prisons into work houses.
They say a big problem with prisons is the prisoners are bored and that leads to violence.
Make the prisons produce to the point of making a profit for the states.
In California many prisons have open land near them that they can grow crops for their own food.
Wash laundry for local hospitals at a discounted rate.
Open the shops back up and manufacture.

As some has already stated this has being going on for decades in the U.S, I had a look around again and found this little gem, thanks for the offer of a star but i'm only posting someone elses work here and I dont want to take credit for something I didnt write. How on earth do people come up with this and sleep at night?


In the United States, prison privatization in its current form began in 1984 as a result of the War on Drugs. While crime rates otherwise remained steady dating back to 1925, the number of arrests quickly exploded. While the War on Drugs initially had a small impact on incarceration, it was President Reagan’s Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 that kickstarted the prison boom.

CCA houses over 80,000 inmates in more than 60 facilities across the US.
From 1970 to 2005, the prison population rose 700 percent, while violent crime remained steady or declined.Between 1990 and 2009, the populations of private prisons shot up 1,600 percent] Today, the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world – 754 inmates per 100k residents as of 2008. This is roughly 600% that of the rest of the civilized world, with England and Wales having 148, and Australia 126 inmates per 100k residents. As of 2010, private corporations house over 99,000 inmates in 260 facilities nationwide.

Corrections Corp. of America and other private contractors became members of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a non-profit 501(c)(3) association that advocates “tough on crime” legislation. In their 2010 report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Corrections Corp. of America discussed how drug policy reform threatens their business model:

'The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them”

To ensure those pieces of legislation aren't passed, Corrections Corp. of America spent $970,000 and GEO Group spent $660,000 lobbying Congress in 2010 alone. In Corrections Corp. of America’s Feb 2011 press release, CEO Damon Hininger stated, “...we are pleased our populations have remained strong, in excess of the 80,000 inmate milestone we surpassed late in 2010.” With the 3.2% increase in inmate population over the previous year, Corrections Corp. of America was able to make $511.26M profit, earning their CEO over $3,000,000 in compensation.

Private prison proponents claim that private corporations are able to provide the same service more efficiently than the government. However, according to the Department of Justice’s “Emerging Issues on Privatized Prisons” report, private prisons offer at best a 1% cost savings over their government operated counterparts, while at the same time having 49% more assaults on staff and 65% more assaults on other inmates

Corporations owning correctional facilities is not the only way that prisons and the War on Drugs have been used as a source of income. For instance, even in government-ran facilities, inmates and their families are regularly subject to price gouging by phone carriers. While the average cost of a phone call in the United States is 3 cents per minute, inmates and their families end up paying between 16 cents and $5.00 per minute. The profits are then split between the carrier and the government body who awarded the contract. In fact, it is not uncommon for the government body to receive a signing bonus from the carrier, like $17M in the case of Los Angeles County. Unlike the public, the Federal Communications Commission has no safeguards against price gouging when it applies to those behind bars.

In the federal prison system, all able-bodied inmates who are not a security risk are forced to work for UNICOR or another prison job. UNICOR, also known as Federal Prison Industries, is a government-created corporation that provides many products and services, including clothing, electronics, furniture, and data entry. UNICOR enjoys a “mandatory source clause” that according to US laws & regulations, forces all federal agencies with the exception of the Department of Defense to purchase products offered by UNICOR instead of the private sector. In fiscal year 2008, UNICOR generated $854.3M in sales – of which 4% went to inmate salaries. Much of this money later ends up in the hands of the local government, as the inmates use their salary to pay for phone calls home. In New York, inmates refusing work assignments have been known to be placed in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day until work is resumed. At the same time, it is illegal to import products made using prison labor into the United States

More proof..........another very good video.



Listen to the stats..............120% increase in Federal Prisons.

Read my location.

And one quote disturbed me, "Who knows what's next?"

We have become a police state...............read Nomi Wolf's books, "Give Me Liberty" and "The End of America".

Follow the money.

They will spend every dime they have to buy politicians and that is what TPTB have done.

Corporations are not human beings, they should not be allowed to spend a dime on our politicians............there is a solution and it is offered in this video.

reply to post by ofhumandescentMy crime was punishable by prison, I will not say i didn't deserve punishment, but i was sentenced way above the sentencing guidelines, seven years for a first offense non capitol crime which carries a one year maximum sentence. I had an ignorant, i mean indigent defender, who sold me out. and I would not provide evidence or testimony against a friend, which angered the D.A. so I feel I was sentenced rather overly harshly for my crime and there was personal animosity between myself and the prosecution who influenced the judge. I appealed the length of sentence, but The State Of Louisiana D.O.C. moved me around so much it was impossible to keep track of legal matters because they would transfer me to another prison before i ever got my mail. they call this riding the paper train in prison slang, another trick used to keep people from seeking legal redress of illegal sentence or appeals to court. I should have been sentenced by the sentencing guidelines according to severity of the crime, not personal animosity between myself and the prosecution. my crime was non violent, but drug related. I will not mention the particular crime because it could be against forum rules, but you can read between the lines.
For you who no longer posses it, freedom is everything, for us who do, it is merely an illusion.
Emile M. Cioran

*waves around the american flag and shouts* I'm free! I'm free! I live in a democracy! Yippee!!!

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million - mostly Black and Hispanic - are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don't like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, "no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens." The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world's prison population, but only 5% of the world's people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.

What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners?

"The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners' work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself," says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being "an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps."

The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. Rest of article and source: www.globalresearch.ca...

See also;

prisonmovement.wordpress.com...

www.npr.org...





Police have the upper hand................y'all better pray they are honest.

Just like our government is honest.

If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time and witness maybe something you shouldn't you too could end up a "inmate'.

Now, read Dean Koontz's "Dark Rivers of the Heart".

You have all been warned, either you serve on your knees or fight on your feet but tyranny is tyranny.

I would like to add that the people running these corporations for the sake of profits are not human beings anyhow. The ones that profit off other human beings misery. They are not human beings, but demons walking among us.

Originally posted by ofhumandescent
More proof..........another very good video.

Follow the money.

They will spend every dime they have to buy politicians and that is what TPTB have done.

Corporations are not human beings, they should not be allowed to spend a dime on our politicians............there is a solution and it is offered in this video.

edit on 9-3-2012 by ofhumandescent because: (no reason given)

reply to post by chopperswolf


Drug related..............my girlfriend who worked for one of the largest Pharma companies was able to buy a house in "the Canyon" in California right outside of Beverly Hills.

Her house last I heard was valued at 8.9 million dollars and she bought it by herself, no rich daddy, no husband - she was (may still be) a sales rep for Pfizer.........................but then they are a "legal drug company" and contribute nicely to the people really running this country.

Again, making you go naked was cruel and treating you like I wouldn't even treat my dog.

Now, wonder why ATS won't even allow discussion of drugs??????

Because we are not a free country.

We are now a Corporate Dictatorship / Police State.

People may think their vote will count this November

Best of luck to you......................stay clean, stay safe.

You at least admitted openly - so you're honest.

Why in the hell do you all think one of the reasons we are in Afghanistan are?



Distract, dumb us down and dope us up because we're so stressed out and enslave us.........yep that's the plan.

And most of you simply don't see it coming.

I think prisoners should be required to work in prison if they are capable. They should get very little pay because of the cost of their stay. In the end they should get a little money so they can return to society without a need for crime. There should also be a program that monitors these people and if they become a positive influence in the community their record should be removed except for situations where it applies. (You don't want to give a person who has deceived others a job in a bank). This policy should apply to all prisons including federal prisons where those who have committed big crimes live. Seems like the rich and powerful don't have the same quality housing as the regular guy under current policies. The ones who make the laws don't want to have it hard if they get caught doing something deceitful.

I remember when prisoners worked on the prison farm and also made license plates. Big business got rid of this practice because they saw opportunity for other businesses to form who are then supportive of their big brother who gave them the opportunity. I can't see what kind of punishment that is when you don't have to get a job and get free room and board. For some people it is better than from where they came. I had to work to make a living, why shouldn't they.

Our prison system creates many jobs. Can't we find a better way to create jobs? What about factories?

reply to post by jacobe001


One man's "demon" could very well be a off world trader, other dimensional entity or even from another universe.



However, you very well, at this point could be right. I admit something is going on, but exactly who the wizards behind the curtain are I don't know.

Yeah, I see it coming. That's why I'm glad I'm on the winning side. I'll be on the outside of those bars.

In all seriousness, all I see is fear mongering. While it's rather effed up to want to fill the jails for reasons A, B, and C, I can see where it would be helpful. Do you know how many criminals that commit a crime that could easily land them in jail, but instead they're let go because what they did wasn't worth doing all that paper work over? Quite a lot more than you would expect. Shocked the hell out of me when I first found out. Made me question, once again, the justice system. But, thinking about it now, with this wanted increase, these minor offenders that could be sent to jail, probably will. Is that bad? No. Not bad at all. You commit the crime and get caught, you're going to pay for it. Simple enough.

reply to post by jacobe001


I know there must be punishment for violent offenses and I agree with it even. But you do suffer being away from the ones you love in there. Yes I speak from experience. I have no arrests for violence and no violent arrests but have managed to chalk up a solid year of detention in my life. I think it's wrong. even tho I do value the experience I've gained it really doesn't need to be that way. But the system is made to put you away. I've seen full grown men who had no business in jail what so ever ( meaning he couldn't get with program ) so they end up getting beat down because of the stress they are enduring being away from their wife or girlfriend. It's called hard timing and when you see some one going thru this inside. Everyone knows not to mess with them and all races can't help but feel for the guy. It's a cruel joke.

reply to post by jacobe001


And what % of people do you think that will remove from the prison system?

Prison isn't for rehabilitation it is to "pay your debt to society" and it's time they do start paying that debt.

If anything the idea I proposed would rehabilitate them because it would get them working and trained for jobs outside.
The ability to control their food, their luxury items etc... will teach them responsibility.

I find it hilarious that your solution to prisons is to release everyone in prison.
Are their BS laws that need to be changed yes, but that doesn't do anything to actually help the prisons.
The same issues would exist only with less inmates, and even then the population would eventually climb back up.

My ideas would 1 act as a deterrent and 2 decrease repeat offender rates.

reply to post by rickymouse
I completely agree, the prison system should make you work, it could almost be self sufficient if ran correctly, and the hard labor should go toward raising food crops to feed prisoner, whatever may be left should go to the homeless or needy, this could be applied to textile crops for prison uniforms and such also. To an extent this is what state run facilities do before one of the corrupt ones come along "Burl Cain,God of the Rodeo, evaporated milk scam". the private prisons use inmate labor for personal profit, which is slavery, and illegal.

reply to post by Pigraphia


I would also add, that prisoners who opt into the harder labor can earn sentence reductions.
As much as 1/2 of their time can be shaved off.
Have it day by day though, only days that they work count as double time or days in "school" so the days off are normal time.

That could even be a level of control if you mess up your reduction % is reduced.

Keep them working and let them be paid as well as paying back the victims and eventually the prison system and repeat rate will change drastically.

Comparing US population to China's is erroneous at best.

Many of the offences that inmates are in prison for in the USA (such as drug offences) carry an automatic death sentence in China, no imprisonment required.

In USA death penalty cases last 20 years or more, in China, it's less than a week.

Does Chinese prison population figures include those who are in hard labor camps, or just in prisons? I bet if you include those in labor and political reeducation camps the Chinese numbers would be far greater.

It costs America billions of dollars a year to keep the Federal prison system.

You realize that if it went private, with Federal oversight, it would free up those billions of dollars, with which would help the government help more people, don't you?