Another Prison to Add to the American Gulag

 

It has been brought to my attention that an agenda item for the Moapa Town Advisory Board is to consider the offer by a private corporation to build a prison in this area soon in order to house inmates from the state of Hawaii (other potential sites include Pahrump and North Las Vegas).  I've spent more than 25 years researching, writing and teaching about the subject of crime and criminal justice and my conclusion is simple:  more prisons, especially those built by private corporations, are no guarantee of less crime and an economic boom to the areas where they are built.

During the past several years we have consistently seen reports in the news media about the falling crime rate.  What we are not told, however, is that the recent drop in the crime rate brings us back down to the level it was in the early 1980s.  Even this is misleading, for when examining crime rates on a state-by-state basis, as I have recently done (and which any citizen can do be merely visiting the local library), reveals that in the past 15 years crime has fallen in some states, and risen in others; in some states violent crime has risen, while property crime has dropped; in other states just the reverse has occurred.  Meanwhile, without exception the incarceration rate in every state has risen.  The reason behind this increase has been the increasing willingness of states to send more and more convicted criminals to prison, especially those convicted on drug charges.  In fact, drug convictions accounts for the bulk of new prison inmates during the past two decades and accounts for the billions of taxpayer dollars spent on construction and operation of new prisons.  Meanwhile, for the average citizen, fear of crime remains a major concern, according to recent polls.

One conclusion we that can be made is that "crime pays" - for both big business and the criminal justice system.  A multitude of businesses, ranging from small "mom and pop" security businesses to huge corporations listed on the New York Stock Exchange, have found it profitable to "invest in crime."

We have witnessed in the 20th century the emergence of a "criminal justice industrial complex."  The police, the courts and the prison system have become huge, self-serving and self-perpetuating bureaucracies, which along with corporations, have a vested interest in keeping crime at a certain level. 

            A big part of this complex is the prison industrial complex.  A close look at the modern American prison system suggests a form of "Gulag," roughly the equivalent of the Russian Gulag.  Indeed, the American prison system has many of the same characteristics of Gulags.  Prisons are literally found in just about every part of the country, with the bulk of them (especially those built during the past 20 years) in rural areas.  There is also a great deal of human rights abuses in American prisons (and also jails and juvenile correctional facilities) such as cruel and unusual punishment (e.g., long periods in solitary confinement) and extreme brutality and violence.  Moreover, there is much forced (and cheap) labor, much of which produces great profits for corporations.

One can clearly see the size of this complex by first noting the annual expenditures (taxpayer dollars of course) of the three main components of the "criminal justice industrial complex": police, courts, and prisons.  Since 1980 these expenditures have increased by more than 200%, with the largest increase being for prisons, which has risen by more than  250% (the federal prison system alone went up by over 300% during this time). The most recent estimates indicate that the total expenditures now exceed $100 billion annually (with the correctional system leading the way with more than $40 billion per year). During this period of time annual payrolls went up 142% (up 183% within the federal system), while employment increased by 44% (prisons and jails led the way with an increase of 96%).  It now costs about $20,000-40,000 per year to house one inmate in the U.S. prison system!

Just look at the latest figures on American prisons.  As of December 31, 1997 there were more than 1.7 million people behind bars in America.  The overall incarceration rate (prisons plus jails) at that time was 630 per 100,000 population, which placed the United States second only to Russia. Between 1986 and 1998 the incarceration rate increased by 124% between 1986 and 1998, and by 307% between 1975 and 1998.

The actual number of prisons has also increased, along with, in some cases, the capacity within the prison - some "megaprisons" can hold from 5,000 to 10,000 inmates.  In 1990, there were a total of 1,287 prisons (80 federal and 1,207 state prisons); by 1995 there were a total of 1,500 prisons (125 federal and 1,375 state prisons), representing an increase of about 17 percent.  The federal system experienced the largest increase, going up by 56 percent.

A recent development in the criminal justice field, related specifically to the prison system, is the trend toward what is known as privatization.  This is where a private corporation takes over the operation of a jail or prison. Private profit is obviously the driving force in the privatization of the correctional system.  A report by Equitable Securities in March, 1996 called "Crime Can Pay,"  issued a "strong buy" advice to investors.  The report concluded:  "We consider the industry very attractive.  There is substantial room for continued private-prison growth."  The potential for profits has not escaped Wall Street.   A Prudential Securities vice president, who is part of a "prison-financing team," is quoted as saying that "We try to keep a close eye on all the crime bills."  Wall Street is indeed eager to back the growth in "crime control stocks" with such companies as Merrill Lynch, Prudential Securities, Smith Barney Shearson and Goldman Sachs among the leaders in support of privatization.