Roosevelt Institute
For-Profit Prisons in the United States
A private prison, jail, or detention center is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned
by a third party that is contracted by a local, state or federal government agency. Private prison companies
typically enter into contractual agreements with local, state, or federal governments that commit prisoners and
then pay a per diem or monthly rate for each prisoner confined in the facility. Today, the privatization of prisons
refers both to the takeover of existing public facilities by private operators and to the building and operation of
new and additional prisons by for-profit prison companies.
Brief History: With a burgeoning prison population resulting from the War on Drugs and increased use of
incarceration, prison overcrowding and rising costs became increasingly problematic for local, state, and federal
governments in the 1980s. Today, approx. 27 states with private prisons.
General Statistics:
1.6 million: Total number of state and federal prisoners in the United States as of December 2010, according to
the Bureau of Justice Statistics
128,195: Number of state and federal prisoners housed in private facilities as of December 2010
37: percent by which number of prisoners in private facilities increased between 2002 and 2009
217,690: Total federal inmate population as of May 2012, according to the Bureau of Prisons
85,604: Number of adults (3.7% of the total US prison population) now housed in 107 privately operated
facilities.
33,330: Estimated size of detained immigrant population as of 2011, according to the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security
Corrections Corporation of America
66: number of facilities owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America, the country’s largest private
prison company based on number of facilities
91,000: number of beds available in CCA facilities across 20 states and the District of Columbia
$1.7 billion: total revenue recorded by CCA in 2011
$17.4 million: lobbying expenditures in the last 10 years, according to the Center for Responsive Politics
$1.9 million: total political contributions from years 2003 to 2012, according to theNational Institute on Money in
State Politics
$3.7 million: executive compensation for CEO Damon T. Hininger in 2011
132: recorded number of inmate-on-inmate assaults at CCA-run Idaho Correctional Center between Sept. 2007
and Sept. 2008
42: recorded number of inmate-on-inmate assaults at the state-run Idaho State Correctional Institution in the same
time frame (both prisons at the time held about 1,500 inmates)
The Geo Group, Inc.
(U.S.’s second largest private detention company)
$1.6 billion: total revenue in year 2011, according to its annual report
65: number of domestic correctional facilities owned and operated by Geo Group, Inc.
65,716: number of beds available in Geo Group, Inc.’s domestic correctional facilities
$2.5 million: lobbying expenditures in the last 8 years, according to the Center for Responsive Politics
$2.9 million: total political contributions from years 2003 to 2012, according to the National Institute on Money
in State Politics
$5.7 million: executive compensation for CEO George C. Zoley in 2011
$6.5 million: damages awarded in a wrongful death lawsuit against the company last June for the beating death of
an inmate by his cellmate at a GEO Group-run Oklahoma prison. An appeal has been filed and is pending.
$1.1 million: fine levied against the company in November 2011 by the New Mexico Department of Corrections
for inadequate staffing at one of its prisons
In a 2010 Annual Report filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA) stated: “The
demand for our facilities and services could be
adversely affected by...leniency in conviction or
parole standards and sentencing practices...”
Case Study: Arizona Corrections Report (2007)
Daily Cost per Inmate:
Contract Prisons:
State / Local Prisons:
(5% Cheaper)
$48.86
$51.39
Case Study: Maranatha Private Corrections
LLC
-Victor Valley Medium Community
Correctional Facility in Adelanto, California -a privately owned prison -- adopted the
NEWSTART model for its inmates in 1997.
-NEWSTART: Nutrition, Exercise, Pure Water,
Sunlight, Temperance, Fresh Air, Rest, Trust
in God (created by the Weimar Institute)
-After this model was adopted, the prison saw
only a 2% re-incarceration rate, compared to
the 70% across California
States with the highest occupancy requirements include Arizona (three prison contracts with 100 percent
occupancy guarantees with one of the nation’s lowest recidivism rates ~26%) and Oklahoma (three contracts with
98 percent occupancy guarantees). Private prison companies have supported and helped write "three-strike" and
"truth-in-sentencing" laws that drive up prison populations.
Claims for Private Prisons:
• Lower rates of recidivism as a function of housing “low risk prisoners”
• By the state working with private prison facilities, it can cap the limit on headcount at their own facilities,
therefore allowing a more accurate prediction of the actual cost to support each inmate per day.
• Private prisons could create more jobs within local communities, strengthening the local economy.
• It takes the government over two years to build a prison compared to a private prison corporation that can
build a prison in 18 months
• Lower operating costs e.g. private prisons have the ability to negotiate item costs and purchase in bulk
(Perrone & Pratt, 2003).
Questions:
• Are there better ways of solving the problems facing public prisons (overcrowding, underfunding), rather
than private prisons? Or is the private prison model and acceptable alternative?
• Is it possible to have private prison systems without adopting a full crime & punishment approach?
• To what extent does privatization mean the government abrogate its responsibility? How can we ensure
transparency?
• Can the government encourage private prisons to adopt policies that decrease recidivism (reincarceration) while not conflicting with its profit driven business model?