Saturday, March 26, 2011

A Boom Behind Bars: Private jail operators like the Corrections Corporation of America are making millions off the crackdown on illegal aliens

The private prison system runs parallel to the U.S. prisons and currently accounts for nearly 10 percent of U.S. state and federal inmates, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Those numbers rise and fall in response to specific policies, and CCA has been accused of lobbying for policies that would fill its cells—such as the increase in enforcement of regulations like the one that snagged Cardenas. Tougher policies have been good for CCA. Since the company started winning immigrant detention contracts in 2000, its stock has rebounded from about a dollar to $23.33, attracting investors such as William Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management, which is now its largest shareholder.
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You always hear Republicans complaining about public employee unions. But look what happens when you privatize. The corporations who provide the privatized service get organized to influence the political process.

Now...where have we seen that happen before?

2 comments:

Inspector Clouseau said...

Interesting, very interesting.

Nice work. I came across your blog while “blog surfing” using the Next Blog button on the blue Nav Bar located at the top of my blogger.com site. I frequently just travel around looking for other blogs which exist on the Internet, and the various, creative ways in which people express themselves. Thanks for sharing.

Fred Pilot said...

Most everywhere. Governing at nearly all levels has become a labor-management negotiation writ large rather than determining public priorities and allocating public resources.