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| Crime pays for U.S. prison companies |
| By AFP |
| Published: 03/10/2008 |
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WASHINGTON — Financiers, real-estate agents and car salesmen might be suffering from America's economic malaise, but bulging jails have triggered a profit boom for corrections companies. The United States leads the world in the number of people it incarcerates and government figures show the country's prison population grew by three percent to a record 2.3 million inmates in 2006. Harsher sentencing policies have put more criminals behind bars and prison management firms such as the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and The GEO Group are racing to build new jails or expand existing facilities to house more convicted felons. CCA, the largest US private prison operator, is spending 205 million dollars to build a new prison in Eloy, Arizona, to house 3,060 prisoners. It is also constructing a 105-million-dollar jail near Natchez, Mississippi, to hold 1,668 inmates. "As states struggle with overcrowded facilities, growing populations and no meaningful supply of beds coming online, they are finding that private correction companies, such as CCA, can deliver beds more quickly and less expensively than they can develop themselves," CCA's chief executive John Ferguson said in an email to AFP. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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Let's assume that the epidemic of bed shortages are a temporary problem. Unlikely, but not impossible. Much time and research is being spent on understanding what has created the current state of jail overcrowding. At some point, the decision will be made to release low risk, minor offense inmates to effect the bed shortage. This will undoubtly be written about and raise the public opinion toward concerns of public safety. Therefore, cheaper, less expensive, temporary solutions should be the order of the day to provide the necessary beds needed to correct the imbalance. There are companies in the marketplace that have used knowledge and understanding of the corrections industry and developed systems that can be leased, saving the taxpayers thousands, if not millions of dollars. These are the structures of the future and one solution that should be given strong consideration.