So, lately I've been hearing about how many people the US has in prison. It's more than any other western country, and the only ones worse than us (by % of the population in jail) are places like... actually, according to this chart, no one beats us. We have a lot of causes adding to this phenomenon, from racism to the war on drugs. The vast majority of people in jails are non violent offenders, who would have probably done community service in the good old days.
But I think one of the main causes of this is the fact that there are corporations who benefit directly from incarcerating more people. And they lose money if fewer people are jailed. Guess who spends a lot of money lobbying states and counties (and increasingly, the US Congress) for stricter sentencing laws? It's not surprising that at a time when state and local governments are struggling to collect enough in taxes to maintain roads and schools, they would happily turn over the prison system to private companies. However, often the contracts they enter into with these companies are risky and expensive for states. Here's a good article about the current situation: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/14/private-prisons-buying-state-prisons_n_1272143.html
Obviously, I think this is wrong and not very humane. These companies save money by overcrowding prisoners, denying healthcare to ill inmates, and farming them out for labor. And they pay their employees less, often don't provide benefits and don't provide enough training for workers to protect themselves and inmates.
What do you think?
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