Here in Arizona, which is ground zero for private schools and private prisons, the legislature used to mandate an annual study that compared the costs and effectiveness of public jails with the newer for-profit variety. After all, the state now spends more on incarceration than education, tripling its prison appropriation over the last 30 years, so if we’re allocating more money to prisons that are owned by hedge fund managers, taxpayers should know if their investment is paying off.
Unfortunately for the industry, around 2010 the studies began to show that public jails in Arizona do a better job and cost less than private prisons. On top of that, newspapers were regularly reporting on escapes and other problems at large for-profit incarceration centers. Ooops!
Not to worry, though, because at the time the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), one of the nation’s largest for-profit prison companies, had a direct line to Arizona’s executive office: Gov. Brewer’s chief of staff and another key advisor were former lobbyists for CCA. Additionally, many Republicans legislators were owned outright by CCA, which doled out huge piles of cash every campaign season.
So, rather than fix the private prison shortfalls that were increasingly showing up in the annual report, or rather than shut down private prisons totally, the Arizona legislature had a better idea: In 2012 they just ended the requirement that the state undertake the annual comparison. Bingo, problem solved! Every year since then the prison budget has increased and more people have been jailed (who are disproportionately black or brown), at the same time Arizona cut education more than any other state.
You can bet if there’s a bill in Arizona that takes away people’s rights, the private prison industry will be a major contributor to the forces who want to turn more people into criminals. Heck, it’s more “customers” for them when governments lock up undocumented immigrants or pot smokers. Look under the covers of SB 1070, for example, the “papers please” law, and you’ll find CCA cash supporting the bill. Check out the donors to this year’s anti-pot campaign, and there’s CCA and their contractors.
We’ve been dealing with the privatization bullshit for decades, and now Arizona on steroids is about to go national. With Trump’s stance on deporting immigrants, AG Jeff Sessions’ “coming war” on states that legalized weed, or even something approaching the old Sedition Act, you can bet the for-profit prison sector is pushing the new restrictions and salivating over all the new business—and the stock market reflects their glee:
Although CCA’s stock dipped over the summer after the Justice Department announced plans to phase out the use of private prisons, Donald Trump’s win caused the company’s share price to skyrocket 43 percent on election day alone.
Just like Blackwater changed its name to Xe,* probably so most people wouldn’t know they’re the same despicable, murderous company, CCA is also rebranding itself to CoreCivic, so maybe people won’t connect them to all the nasty shit in CCA’s past. But make no mistake, they’re the same costly, ineffective bunch who enrich themselves while trampling human rights. So what do they say about their record when confronted publicly?
They do what Donald Trump does every day: They lie, baldfacedly, as in this CNBC interview with the head of CoreCivic, Damon Hininger:
“We’re providing a great service!” the CEO insisted. “We’re making sure these individuals once they’re released, they can support themselves and their family and not come back into the criminal justice system. That’s great value to the government.”
That “great service” must be why they changed their name to CoreCivic, because they’re such a civic-minded industry. Of course, like Trump, Hininger is lying his ass off. Private prisons routinely keep inmates locked up longer in order to boost profits. Their recidivism rate is also higher than traditional jails, despite what their reports say; and the cost savings they brag about are either negligible or nonexistent.
Along with Big Oil and Big Pharma, the for-profit prison industry maintains one of the biggest and most aggressive lobbies in Washington DC, and all of their jobs just got a lot easier. Bleh.
*Xe’s CEO, Erik Prince, is the brother of Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Education. Given her controversial history in Michigan schools, she’ll do for education nationally what Prince did for the security industry: privatization, scandal and terrible results, all the while earning millions for the CEO.