March 4, 2008
Prison Privatization in America: The Lost Children
Web Editor's Note: This is a long read but well-worth the effort. However you might feel about immigration laws and immigrant detention centers, it becomes clear by reading this story that CCA's continued prison for-profit campaign and management track-record paints an even worse picture of corrections in the public eye and increases distaste for correctional officers as a whole.
Private companies began making inroads into the detention business in the nineteen-eighties, when the idea was in vogue that almost any private operation was inherently more efficient than a government one. The largest firm, Corrections Corporation of America, or C.C.A., was founded in 1983. But poor management and a series of well-publicized troubles — including riots at and escapes from prisons run by C.C.A. — dampened the initial excitement. In the nineties, C.C.A.'s bid to take over the entire prison system of Tennessee, where the company is based, failed; state legislators had grown skeptical. By the end of 2000, C.C.A.'s stock had hit an all-time low. When immigration detention started its precipitate climb following 9/11, private prison companies eagerly offered their empty beds, and the industry was revitalized.
One complication was that hundreds of children were among the immigrant detainees…
LINK - NewAmerica.net
