Immigrants—a booming business for private US prisons

United States, 3rd August: US prison companies are making hey by locking up an increasing number of undocumented immigrants.

As per a recent review by the Associated Press, private prison firms in the US have already spent nearly $32 million since the year 2000 to get more funding for aiding functioning of private US detention centers.

Significant growth in private US prisons—The fact that private US prisons are a lucrative business becomes evident by keeping in view a big rise in the number of private detention facilities in the US in the past couple of years.

Another fact worth notable here is that just three firms are controlling these private prisons in the US.

Private players grabbing a bigger pie--On an average, American taxpayers will have to shell out as much as around $2 billion this year. Number of undocumented immigrants detained in private US prisons has gone up considerably despite a noteworthy decline in undocumented immigration in the US in the last few years.

As per the report by Associated Press, about 200,000 out of 400,000 immigrants kept in detention are in private prisons despite reiterations by the federal government that private US prisons are not a cheaper option.

The beneficiaries are none other than the private companies controlling private jails. They are quick to keep their cash registers ringing by getting funds from subsidiary firms providing transportation as well as health care facilities.

Figures show an increase from 10 percent to nearly fifty percent in the number of beds in private facilities. That’s because they are housing more and more undocumented immigrants found to be guilty of crimes in their private prisons.

Reasons behind privatization of US prisons—Now the question that comes to many minds is what exactly led to a fast privatization of detention system in the US. One of the facts is the laxative attitude of the US government to introduce much required reforms to the US immigration norms. And the private industry giants-namely the Management and Training Corp., The GEO Group and the CCA(Corrections Corporation of America) successfully increased their share in immigrant detentions by spending to the tune of a minimum of $45 million at the federal and the state level in the past ten years time.