Why are American prisons private? Can you talk about it?

4% of the world's population holds 22% of prisoners. You can sleep with a piece of bubble gum and sell yourself for toilet paper ... the rich live like a holiday, and the poor are squeezed in the dark. Privatization of American prisons is the embodiment of darkness and corruption. "Free America, gun battles every day", the ridicule of netizens is not unreasonable. In this country with a population of 300 million, the crime situation is surprising.

1, let's take a look at the data released by the three networks first, and everyone has a bottom in mind.

The first data: in 20 18, the prison population in the United States was 2.3 million. Whether it is the number of criminals or the crime rate, the United States says second, and no one dares to say first. The second data: in 20 19, the number of shooting deaths in the United States was as high as 39,052. 365 days a year, shared by 107 people every day. It seems that gun freedom is really a disaster. The third data: in 20 19 years, the drug abuse rate in the United States was 8.2%. The number of serial crimes caused by drugs may be even more alarming than that caused by shootings. In addition to shootings and drug crimes, there are illegal immigrants and violent crimes in the Trump era. The pace of prison construction can't keep up with the growth of crime.

Such a horrible crime has brought a very real problem-where should criminals be held?

At first, the United States adopted a simple and rude method, that is, increasing beds. For example, the original two rooms have now become 20 rooms. Right here, there is a group of people waiting to stuff something into it. By adding an extra bed, the problem was solved temporarily, but the sequelae were very troublesome. The United States is a country that flaunts "human rights" and criminals also have the right to "enjoy". After increasing the number of beds, the prison became crowded and the quality of life decreased obviously. Therefore, many criminals ask for better accommodation. What should we do? We should not add extra beds at will, but open more prisons. But in this way, taxpayers will be unhappy-we pay taxes to improve education, medical care and people's livelihood, not to improve the accommodation conditions of these "scum".

For a time, many state governments were in a dilemma. What shall we do? Americans with no bottom line soon came up with a way, that is, prison outsourcing. 1986, Tennessee took the lead in establishing private prisons. The first private prison didn't have time to build, so I rented a hotel temporarily. The security guards are all hired waiters, and the prison is completely run as a hotel. Subsequently, more and more States began to outsource prisons, and even prison giants such as CCA and GEO appeared.

3. How can we increase profits?

Earn government subsidies, and the state government will increase subsidies according to the number of detainees. Private prisons in Texas subsidize $30 per person per day. This means that the more prisoners held, the more government subsidies. How can we imprison more people and earn more money? The solution is simple-expand the scope of imprisonment. For example, on 20 1 1, several judges in Pennsylvania took bribes and sent 3,000 innocent high school students to prison. In order to reduce expenses, many private prisons withhold government subsidies, leaving only a small part to keep prisoners alive.

Improve the service level. Same prison, different treatment. If you want to live happily and eat fat, you have to add money to "upgrade" and enjoy VIP treatment. For example, a rich man in Los Angeles was sentenced to eight years in prison, and he was given $65,438+000 a day in prison to enjoy a single room, Simmons and a small color TV. Living in prison is like a holiday. In order to highlight the advantages of VIP, all kinds of things in prison are charged. Drinking water costs money, adding vegetables costs money and even listening to TV sounds costs money. This level of service is enjoyable for the rich, but bad news for the poor.

Driven by profits, several listed private prison companies were born in the United States. Among them, the largest CCA company had an annual profit of nearly $2 billion before 2000. You can imagine how much money private prisons make. Some writers describe American private prisons as "a paradise for rich prisoners and a hell for poor prisoners", and prisons that should be public welfare undertakings have become tools for businessmen to make money. In the face of interests, private prison companies are losing their bottom line step by step, and I am afraid that they will become more and more deformed in the future.