Private prisons highlight the disposability of men.
This morning at 11:00 a.m., GEO Senior Vice President John Hurley spoke to shareholders in a conference call to report that the company, a private prison operator, had seen an incredible 56% spike in profits for the first quarter of 2013, and he was optimistic about continuing the trend. Why? Because “the Federal Bureau of Prisons continues to face capacity constraints coupled with a growing offender population.”
While it is statistically accurate that the prison population is has marginally increased in the past three years, the Bureau of Justice Statistics has shown that, for the third year in a row, the correctional population has actually been in a steady decline.
GEO, like any private prison company, sees everything in terms of dollar signs. As the prison bureau faces problems with their budget, Hurley believes this “will have no material negative impact on [their] business.” Why? Because they make money from selling “bed space” to the government. The more criminals sent to prison, the more will need to be “outsourced” to these private jails. These disposable men—for over 93% of prisoners are male—are not being housed or even secured. They do not matter—only the space they take up, because that space is rentable. Many private prisons have actually taken to becoming real estate investment trusts (REIT), allowing them to receive tax reductions for renting their space to the government.
But our government, with the world’s highest prison population, cannot handle all of the people that pass through its prisons, so they are sold to private companies like GEO, which is well known for inmate abuse, contract violations, and outright lying. And in an industry which, by definition, is about profit-making, the humane treatment of prisoners, inmate rehabilitation, public safety have no effect on a company’s bottom line—except of course, by ignoring regulations to save a buck.
The abuses of private prisons are well-known, but the conference call for GEO points to something just as dark: the companies profit from treating men like commodities, but there are people actively investing in those companies. Jailers may be the ones committing the crimes, but there are people out there who either condone this abuse or simply see men as disposable—and these people keep giving money to the private prison corporations.
What makes a person with money invested in GEO, for instance, better than John Hurley, who deals in living merchandise and human cages? What makes John Hurley better than the guard who rapes an inmate? If all it takes for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing, do we still consider them good men? Even investors who want prison reform, who want to make conditions better, may have no actual contact with these companies other than buying stock in the hopes that will fix things. Where do we draw the distinction between active evil and indifference or ignorance, and do we define either of these groups of people solely on this one issue?
Photo: Jumilla/Flickr
