Inside Private Prisons by Lauren-Brooke Eisen

    I, personally, don’t like the idea of private prisons. I think they’re an excuse to pawn off government responsibility to people who aren’t qualified. They of the Brady Bunch episode where Bobby gets appointed (not elected) to be the school hall monitor and proceeds to play policeman. We had the same thing when I was in grade school, and it annoyed me silly for a whole bunch of reasons. First, I wasn’t going to take orders from a little kid, and second, why would the principal appoint a little kid to rat out other kids? Isn’t it the principal’s job to take care of discipline? I see a similar thing happen in a lot of wealthy families; the parents hire someone else to make their children behave, usually a nanny from Latin American or the West Indies. All over the USA, parents are subcontracting their duties to other people, and now the same thing is happening with government service. What happens if the government subcontracts law enforcement and prisons? Will it be effective, or will the lunatics run the asylum? Private prisons (henceforth referred to as PP) are increasing in the USA, and this book explores their use, importance, and their prospects for the future.

    In the book’s introduction, Reik Raemusch becomes head of corrections for the state of Colorado and tries out the solitary confinement cell. It’s horrible, he goes crazy after 23 hours, and he wants to end the practice. Next, the author cites experienced correction officers who dislike private prison, for reasons that include mass incarceration or the possibility of mass layoffs. Eastern State Penitentiary is also discussed here, because for many years the prison used solitude and prohibited speech. The program made the prisoners worse, with no chance of living a crime-free life on the outside. Then the War on Drugs tripled the number of prisoners, and the prison systems were on the lookout for a cheap solution (just like the parents looking for a quick fix.)

   Eisen points out some benefits to privatization, like the homeowner associations who take responsibility for their block, and that has benefits. Privatization happens in the legal profession too, where lawyers can hire a judge to settle the case quickly and split the fee. I’ve also seen Air National Guard bases that hire private security because there aren’t enough full-time personnel. In the business of logistics, you can use the USPS or pay for fast shipping with UPS, FedEx, or DHL. But what happens when the government hires a private company to manage a prison? It’s one thing to hire contractors to maintain police cars and handle the repairs, but here we’re talking about privatizing public safety.

    Several chapters of this book are devoted to the profit motive (known as the Prison Industrial Complex), where an entire town may depend on prison jobs. We have “prison products” like special pens that can’t be used to stab, or the toilets that don’t have seats, or showers that run on timers. One of the reasons for the huge profits in the PP is that they can hire the unqualified and pay them less (even felons). Phone companies can charge prisoners four times the usual rate, and PP can even charge visitors for the security checks, parking, and package screening. The prison commissary can charge huge markups for the junk food and toiletries, and since the prisoners can be paid less than minimum wage, local businesses can profit too. All the while, the correction officers in the private prisons make a crap wage. They can be recruited from all the applicants who were rejected by the state’s corrections department. More common in the Midwest, thanks to industry loss – also covered in this book – having a prison in the town means money;  jobs in corrections, more business for local food suppliers, visiting relatives staying at local motels, and you can charge them for parking. The future is bright for the operators; private prisons are now being used as immigrant detention centers.

    I expect private prisons to increase, unless state legislatures vote against them. Ever since the early 80’s, you’ve had industries shutting down and whole towns out of work. It’s hard to attract technology to your town when you lack skilled people, and prisons don’t require much in the way of skill. Training a correction officer is easier than training a police officer, and far easier than training a technician. As for the issues like fair wages, unionization, and civil rights, there are plenty of job-desperate red states whose politicians couldn’t care less.