Profits For Punishment

(Arnold Hamilton, editor of The Oklahoma Observer, has published an insightful article about the Voter ID issue in Oklahoma.)

(In addition, prison privatization pushes ordinary citizens away from keeping tabs on some of the most important institutions in the country. Private prisons, in particular, represent a horrid example of skewed values in The Corporate Age. It’s like something from a Dickens’ novel. When you put the profit motive in punishment, do you get more punishment or less punishment? You don’t need a MBA to answer that question.)

When you put the profit motive into the country’s prison system and each new inmate represents increased profits, then obviously some politicians will make sure corporate interests are rewarded with higher incarceration rates.

One would be naïve not to believe this. The use of private prisons in this country is yet another method to transfer taxpayer money to big corporations, not save taxpayer money. Both Republicans and Democrats have participated in this scam against the American people. How have private prisons affected the number of people who end up incarcerated? We do know America leads the world in incarcerating people. (More than 1 in 100 or approximately 2.3 million people are incarcerated in this country.) What we don’t often talk about is how the private prison system is so obviously dependent on harsh sentences, tough drug laws and an increasing prison population.

Note this paragraph from CorpWatch, for example, about how low incarceration is a “drag on profits” in a 2000 article about private prisons:

To be profitable, private prison firms must ensure that prisons are not only built but also filled. Industry experts say a 90-95 per cent capacity rate is needed to guarantee the hefty rates of return needed to lure investors. Prudential Securities issued a wildly bullish report on CCA [Corrections Corporation of America] a few years ago but cautioned, "It takes time to bring inmate population levels up to where they cover costs. Low occupancy is a drag on profits." Still, said the report, company earnings would be strong if CCA succeeded in ramp(ing) up population levels in its new facilities at an acceptable rate".

But just like the housing bubble, this country and Oklahoma, in particular, face a “prison bubble” that is unsustainable. As our prisons continue to swell, judges, prosecutors and politicians need to look for ways to reduce the incarceration rate, not look for new ways to expand privatization. Obviously, this could affect the bottom line for private prisons.

All this is somewhat obscured in the recent “discussion” about closing some state prisons in Oklahoma.

State Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee, according to a news report, apparently asked the Oklahoma Department of Corrections to tell him how much it would cost to close prisons in Oklahoma. The DOC then gave him a study, according to the report, on the costs on closing prisons in Granite, Stringtown and Helena, which added up to $23 million.

The report described Coffee as a “longtime proponent of utilizing more private prison beds to deal with inmate overcrowding.” This is the most important sentence in the article.

The Republican leadership denied, according to the report, there were discussions about closing specific prisons, but understandably state Sen. Tom Ivester (D-Elk City) expressed concern. The prison in Granite is in his district.

But the issue transcends the politics of the moment.

The issue, as I put it earlier, is the prison bubble. Oklahoma is often highest in the nation per capita in women incarceration. It ranks fifth in the nation, at least for now, in total incarceration. More privatization is definitely not the answer. The answer to reduce costs is to reduce the number of incarcerated non-violent offenders. Privatization only fuels the ongoing drug war, which has been an abject failure. Many non-violent drug offenders should be placed in the probation and parole system, which would save the state money.

Will Coffee, an Oklahoma City Republican, push for prison privatization this year or perhaps next year? Let’s hope not. In fact, in the past, Oklahoma’s per diem rate for inmates discouraged the state’s use of private prisons.

The privatization of our country’s prison systems is just another example of how corporations, which hold the most political power in this country, are setting social policy. (The largest private prison corporation is Corrections Corporation of America. It's in the same right-wing nomenclature as "Bank of America.") The underlying problem here is that large corporations (think of the recent problems with AIG, Citigroup, Bank of America) operate without appropriate regulatory oversight and profits are their only motive for existence. This has happened in our health care system as well. Corporate executives become instant millionaires and buy political power; ordinary taxpayers pay more for less and their political voices remain marginalized.

In addition, prison privatization pushes ordinary citizens away from keeping tabs on some of the most important institutions in the country. Private prisons, in particular, represent a horrid example of skewed values in The Corporate Age. It’s like something from a Dickens’ novel. When you put the profit motive in punishment, do you get more punishment or less punishment? You don’t need a MBA to answer that question.