Making Crime (And Mere Accusations Of It) Pay

By Rob Schofield

Giant corporations rake in big money in the corrections and detention business

It’s perhaps the ultimate irony of the modern move to downsize and privatize government that two of the major ills that the effort is supposed to eradicate – corruption and “cronyism” – are actually two of its principal side effects!

Confused? Well, consider the following:

Anti-government conservatives are forever lamenting the supposedly terrible effects of “big government.” According to this narrative, so-called big government naturally breeds corruption and “cronyism” while private enterprise is inherently efficient and bottom-line driven. Therefore, goes the argument, we must “downsize” government and turn numerous core functions over to the private sector.

The only problem with such a model, of course, is that there is an obvious and unavoidable Catch-22 in heading down such a path: Doing so requires transferring vast amounts of public tax dollars over to private “vendors” or “contractors.”

Conservatives can argue all they want that it’s more “efficient” to hire Halliburton or Blackwater to staff the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but ultimately, there’s no getting around the fact that the owners of the companies that win such contracts stand to make boatloads of money. And when this is the case, the notion that these businesses will be selected pursuant to “free market principles” becomes laughable.

The hard truth is that when private actors are competing for public dollars – especially really big dollars –a level playing field between competitors is almost impossible to maintain. That’s why companies hire high-priced lobbying firms (ideally affiliated with the political party in power) and make big campaign contributions: the returns on their “investments” can be enormous. And that’s also why many corporations quickly devise ways to provide their “services” in such a way that the demand (and the size of government payments) never seems to abate.

The private corrections racket

Here’s a classic case in point: The private prisons or “corrections” industry. If you doubt it, check out this recent online post by North Carolina Council of Churches Program Associate Chris Liu-Beers.

As Liu-Beers points out:

“Did you know that the detention of immigrants is big business?

Over the last several years we’ve witnessed the disturbing trend of private, for-profit prison corporations benefitting from new anti-immigrant laws. These prisons operate like hotels, where each and every bed that is filled provides profits for the company. Every empty bed, on the other hand, costs money. These companies have a financial incentive to detain as many immigrants as possible, and they have poured millions of dollars into lobbying efforts ensuring maximum profits.”

Liu-Beers also links to a damning Associated Press article from this past summer entitled “Profiting from migrants” and a brief (two minutes-plus), must-watch video entitled “Immigrants for sale.”

This is from the AP article:

“The U.S. is locking up more illegal immigrants than ever, generating lucrative profits for the nation’s largest prison companies, and an Associated Press review shows the businesses have spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying lawmakers and contributing to campaigns….

In 2011, nearly half the beds in the nation’s civil detention system were in private facilities with little federal oversight, up from just 10 percent a decade ago.

The companies also have raked in cash from subsidiaries that provide health care and transportation. And they are holding more immigrants convicted of federal crimes in their privately-run prisons…even though federal officials acknowledge privatization isn’t necessarily cheaper….

The industry’s giants —Corrections Corporation of America, The GEO Group, and Management and Training Corp. — have spent at least $45 million combined on campaign donations and lobbyists at the state and federal level in the last decade, the AP found.”

But the private corrections racket is not limited to the jailing of immigrants. Giant companies like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group (formerly a part of the Wackenhut security firm) have also been in the business of locking up (and, at least in theory, providing services to) domestic prisoners for some time.

Just yesterday, the Center for American Progress highlighted a recent investigation into a CCA facility inOhio that found it sorely lacking. According to an Ohio newspaper report:

“A recent audit of the Ohio prison bought by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) found the private prison is only meeting 66.7 percent of the state’s standards. The report found a total of 47 violations in the CCA-owned prison, which the state government sold to CCA last year as part of a privatization push set out in Ohio’s 2012-13 budget….

The local fire plan had no specific steps to release inmates from locked areas in case of emergency, and local employees said “they had no idea what they should do” in case of a fire emergency.

The audit also found all housing units provided less than the required 25 square feet on unencumbered space per occupant. It found single watch cells held two prisoners with some sleeping on the floor, and some triple-bunked cells had a third inmate sleeping on a mattress on the floor.”

Infiltrating North Carolina

While North Carolina has, to its credit, mostly resisted the trend toward corrections privatization, this doesn’t mean North Carolinians have been unaffected. Two of the main facilities to which detained North Carolinaimmigrants are usually sent (both of which are located Georgia – the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin and the North Georgia Detention Center in Gainesville) are owned by CCA. Meanwhile, the GEO Group runs a federal prison in northeast North Carolina.

And in another troubling development, the GEO Group was recently awarded several new contracts from the state of North Carolina to provide community services to criminal offenders. This is from an update provided by the criminal justice advocacy group, Carolina Justice Policy Center:

“$8.6 million in contracts have finally been awarded in 76 counties for the Treatment for Effective Community Services program. This program replaces the Criminal Justice Partnership Program that has been operating successfully in many of the 90 counties that have operated the program…. Approximately 20% of the $8.6 million appropriated for these community based services has been awarded to just one contractor – Geo Care [i.e. GEO Group]….Consolidating so many services with one provider is a clear departure from the Criminal Justice Partnership Program which placed a high priority on strong local involvement and support.”(Emphasis supplied).

It also seems worth noting that since 2010, GEO Care has employed one of Raleigh’s most influential lobbying firms.

Going forward

So what to do? Is this trend toward privatization of core public services and the cronyism it inevitably breeds something that can be resisted?  Evidence suggests that it will be a tough fight. The combination of conservative, corporate-funded politicians working in concert with far right think tanks to preach about the “genius” of private enterprise is a formidable force – especially when combined with a fleet of well-heeled lobbyists and the almost irresistible temptation for companies immersed in this business to milk the public coffers for all they are worth.

Truth and sunlight, however, can be powerful antidotes to both mythology and corruption. Let’s hope that, as a good first step in such an effort, progressive voices begin to stand up and push back against the myth that giant, for-profit corporations are somehow naturally more efficient and better stewards of public resources than a straightforward and well-organized public program.