For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country.

The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: From less than , inmates in , the jail population grew to 2 million by the year In it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2, inmates; now, there are , with 62, inmates.

It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit ,, according to reports. Prisons depend on this income.

The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors.

According to reports by human rights organizations, these are the factors that increase the profit potential for those who invest in the prison industry complex:. Jailing persons convicted of non-violent crimes, and long prison sentences for possession of microscopic quantities of illegal drugs. A sentence of 5 years for cocaine powder requires possession of grams — times more than the quantity of rock cocaine for the same sentence.

Most of those who use cocaine powder are white, middle-class or rich people, while mostly Blacks and Latinos use rock cocaine. Here in New York, the Nelson Rockefeller anti-drug law provides for a mandatory prison sentence of 15 years to life for possession of 4 ounces of any illegal drug.

One of the most disturbing cases resulting from this measure was that of a prisoner who for stealing a car and two bicycles received three year sentences. The passage of laws that require minimum sentencing, without regard for circumstances. A large expansion of work by prisoners creating profits that motivate the incarceration of more people for longer periods of time.

Prison labor has its roots in slavery. In Mississippi, a huge prison farm similar to the old slave plantations replaced the system of hiring out convicts. The notorious Parchman plantation existed until During the post-Civil War period, Jim Crow racial segregation laws were imposed on every state, with legal segregation in schools, housing, marriages and many other aspects of daily life. At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons.

The list of such companies contains the cream of U. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets. A company that operated a maquiladora assembly plant in Mexico near the border closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California.

In Texas, a factory fired its workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq. The prison privatization boom began in the s, under the governments of Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr.

City of Philadelphia: Philadelphia Department of Prisons

Private prisons are the biggest business in the prison industry complex. About 18 corporations guard 10, prisoners in 27 states. Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one. Profits are so good that now there is a new business: When a federal judge ruled that overcrowding in Texas prisons was cruel and unusual punishment, the CCA signed contracts with sheriffs in poor counties to build and run new jails and share the profits.

According to a December Atlantic Monthly magazine article, this program was backed by investors from Merrill-Lynch, Shearson-Lehman, American Express and Allstate, and the operation was scattered all over rural Texas. Ninety-seven percent of , federal inmates have been convicted of non-violent crimes. It is believed that more than half of the , inmates in municipal or county jails are innocent of the crimes they are accused of. Of these, the majority are awaiting trial. Two-thirds of the one million state prisoners have committed non-violent offenses.

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