Jon: When I say “CoreCivic,” what comes to mind?

 

Robin: Do the answer

 

Jon: What about “The Geo Group”?

Robin: Do the answer. Again.

Right? Kind of brings to mind some sort of civic minded group, or maybe even a global organization, working to better the world. It’s a pretty, modern, slick moniker for two businesses that are giants in an industry that, honestly, I do not think should exist. 

See, CoreCivic and The Geo Group are the two largest private prison companies in the United States. (Green & Hadavi, 2020) What does that mean? Well, in the United States there are two types of prisons: public and private. Public prisons are primarily funded with tax revenues and are completely owned and operated by government agencies, while private prisons are owned and operated by for-profit companies, such as the aforementioned CoreCivic and Geo Group. (Gale, 2019)

 

For private prisons, what usually happens is a state or federal governments seeks to outsource the operation and maintenance of one or more prisons, enticing the involvement of for-profit companies. Private enterprises purchase prisons from the government and become responsible for their staffing and upkeep needs. All staffing needs, from the warden to the correctional officer to the maintenance staff are employees of the company; contractors. The state or federal government provides funding to cover the costs of keeping the inmates incarcerated, and the company treats this funding like revenue and endeavors to run the prison at a profit. (Gale, 2019)

 

Listen, I’ve already outright stated that I don’t think private prisons should exist. I’m going to put my bias out there up front for everybody to see. I swear I’m going to try and tell this story and communicate this information as fairly and as best as I possibly can, but I have… strong feelings about it. For now, I’m not going to share much more of my opinions, because I don’t want to unfairly influence thinking on this (beyond what I already have by even saying this much).

So, now that we’ve put that up front, let’s get into this topic. How in the world have we managed to privatize… prisons?

A HISTORY OF PRIVATE PRISONS

In order to tell that story, we gotta go back. Way back. Not the 80s or even the 50s. The 18s. 1800s, that is.

 

Now nobody react to the bombshell we’re about to drop here, but...In early 19th century America, cotton was king. We were exporting more cotton than all other nations combined, and the ever expanding frontier opened more and more land on which to capitalize. And Louisiana, oh she was in the thick of it. Part of the economic powerhouse Cotton Belt, money flowed in from Northern and European investors.  At one time, New Orleans had the densest concentration of banking capital in the United States.

 

But the magic wouldn’t last. In 1837, following years of boom for the Cotton Kings, a reduction in the price of cotton, a catastrophic wheat shortage, and rising interest rates from New York’s banks combined to produce a nearly decade-long economic depression. And, it is in this environment that we encounter America’s first privatized prison.

 

In 1844, the State of Louisiana leased its penitentiary - and most importantly, all of its inmates - to a company called McHatton, Pratt, and Ward. The company took over responsibility for the operation of the prison, including feeding and clothing the inmates, and in turn was empowered to use inmate labor to further its own purposes. 

 

Inmates worked from sunrise to sunset in the penitentiary’s textile factory, with harsh consequences laid on those who could not keep pace. One prisoner wrote that, “these men laid aside all objects of reformation and re-instated the most cruel tyranny, to eke out the dollars and cents of human misery.

And, after the Civil War, this trend of privatization grew stronger. Prison populations were soaring - Black Codes and explicitly racist laws were driving significant numbers of black men into the system and essentially, back into slavery - and the states just couldn’t afford to run their penitentiaries on their own. 

 

But the 13th Amendment, provided a convenient loophole: The amendment abolished slavery except as punishment for a crime. So, instead of filling jails and large, expensive prisons, states sent their prisoners to private plantations and company-run labor camps. They picked cotton, built railroad tracks and levees, and mined coal all for the profit of private business owners. And this quest for profit led to stories of gut-twisting mistreatment and cruel punishments. I won’t get into them because discussion of torture makes me incredibly uncomfortable, but suffice it to say prisoners were subjected to torture to ensure their compliance and increase their “motivation” to work.

 

Somehow, this system was even deadlier than slavery. Literally. From 1870 to 1901, roughly three thousand Louisiana convicts, most of whom were black, died while being forced to work for Samuel Lawrence James. Pre Civil War, very few planters owned more than a thousand convicts, and there are no records indicating any of these owners lost three thousand people. Records of such things were kept because, well, human chattel are valuable. Through this arrangement, the annual convict death rate in the South ranged form 16 percent all the way up to 25 percent. Simply put, there was no incentive for the lessees (the convicts were “leased” to companies or individuals to work) to not literally work convicts into the grave. (Bauer, 2018)

 

In 1883, one Southern man told the National Conference of Charities and Correction: “Before the war, we owned the negroes. If a man had a good negro, he could afford to take care of him: if he was sick get a doctor…But these convicts: we don’t own ‘em. One dies, get another.”

(Bauer, 2018)

 

The twisted, messed up reality is that, at least when slaves were bought and sold, the owners had to expend money in order to get them. They had inherent value represented by how much the slave owner paid for them, so there was some… small reason for slave owners to at least put a minimal effort into keeping their slaves alive. But once that cost was removed, why would the lesses care if they lost a convict?

 

But what benefit did this arrangement have for the states? Why would they allow their inmates to drive profits for private business owners rather than for the state? Well, of course, these companies gave a cut of their profits to the state to, uh, remind the state of the beneficial arrangement. From 1890 to 1904, profits from leasing convicts made up 10% of Alabama’s state budget. In 1886, the US Commissioner of Labor reported that in places where convict leasing was practiced the average revenues were nearly four times the cost of running prisons. 

 

But, by the 1920s the tension and torsion around private prisons took the forefront. Free workers protested - and even rioted - because convict labor was taking their jobs, labor reform advocates protested the working conditions, and states became jealous of the profit these private companies were seeing.  (Bauer, Anderson) These privatization deals were all but eradicated. 

 

Interjection: Yes, we know that convict leasing in the 18/1900s and today’s private prisons are VASTLY different systems. But those early practices are what laid the foundation for the private systems we have today, and established a culture in which it was not only acceptable but ideal to turn a profit from the penal system - to turn prison into an industry.

 

~TIME SKIP?~

 

One of the largest private prison precursors was run by Terrell Don Hutto, or “T. Don” as he’s listed online. Hutto ran a cotton plantation the size of Manhattan. Most of the convicts of this prison were black, and picked cotton from dusk until dawn for no pay. One popular field song they sang was “Johnny Won’t You Ramble,” and had lyrics like “Old Master don’t you whip me, I’ll give you half a dollar.” Hutto’s family had a house on the plantation, and a “house boy,” who was one of the unpaid convicts whose job it was to serve the family. (Bauer, 2018)

 

This was technically before the “official” beginnings of private prisons, but it shares all of the hallmarks of the industry. Now, this was a prison in the South. In some states, some inmates were given guns or whips, and given the authority to beat and torture any prisoner who didn’t meet labor quotas. (Bauer, 2018)

 

At the time, actually, most prisons in the South were plantations, so Hutto wasn’t really doing anything particularly unique in that regard. But he was effective. In fact, he did such a good job in Texas running this plantation, that Arkansas hired him to run their entire prison system, which was entirely plantation based. (Bauer, 2018) Hutto learned that corners could always be cut in service to the bottom line. Hutto specifically empowered some inmates to manage and punish other prisoners; giving them control of the prison’s living quarters. Conditions in these prisons bred cruelty, and sometimes these inmates would used knives to keep other inmates under control. The only reason for this arrangement? Hutton could save money that would otherwise be spent paying guards. (Bauer, 2018)

 

Hutto ran Arkansas’ prisons, putting money into the state coffer. His success with the program was such that he drew the attention of two businessmen with a new idea: to found a corporation that would run prisons and be publicly traded on the stock market. (Bauer, 2018)

 

The year Hutto was operating that Manhattan sized plantation, with black men singing field songs and picking cotton, while he and his family lived in a plantation with a house boy? 

 

That was 1967. The Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love” dominated the airwaves, setting a perfect background for the Summer of Love.

 

In the 1970s and 1980s, a push toward privatization of prisons began again.  In many cases, it began with individual services like food and medical care being brought into individual prisons as a cost saving or efficiency measure. But very soon, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and some states were outsourcing the operations for entire jails and prisons. (Anderson)

 

Hutto would go on to found the Corrections Corporation of America alongside two businessmen, Thomas W. Beasley and Robert Crantis, with investments from the Tennessee Valley Authority and Vanderbilt University. In 1984, the state of Tennessee contracted with Corrections Corporation of America to run its facility in Hamilton County and began the astronomic growth of prison as industry. 

 

By 1996,13 states had outsourced some portion of their penal systems. By 2004, 34 states had some level of privatization. These facilities included not only prisons, but juvenile centers and other correctional facilities under contract with federal, state and local governments. In 2019, 30 states and the federal government incarcerated 115,428 people in private prisons run by four major corporations: Geo Group, CoreCivic (formerly Corrections Corporation of America), LaSalle Corrections, and Management and Training Corporation. (Anderson) 

 

And when we say major, we mean big time economic players. CoreCivc generated $1.91 BILLION in revenue in 2020. Geo Group brought in $2.35 B in 2020, 

 

*General Wrap up chat*
Hit points about what we’ll talk about next time:
Secondary effects of private prisons

Majority of the prison population

How Private prisons compare to public prisons

 

PLUG

 

GOOD NEWS

 

This is… probably subjectively good news. Jon thinks it is good news, at least. But in January of this year, the Biden Administration ordered the Department of Justice to end its reliance on private prisons and acknowledge the central role government has played in implementing discriminatory housing policies. In remarks before signing the orders, Biden said the U.S. government needs to change “its whole approach” on the issue of racial equity. He added that the nation is less prosperous and secure because of the scourge of systemic racism.(Hey our very first episodes cover that topic, if you’d like to know more.) The order to end the reliance on privately-run prisons directs the attorney general not to renew Justice Department contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities. The move will effectively revert the Justice Department to the same posture it held at the end of the Obama administration. (Madhani, 2021)

Whether or not this will have any impact on CoreCivic or GEO Group remains to be seen, and this is only an executive order; the next President could decide to reverse it. Further, it only applies to federal contracts. States can still choose to contract out to private prisons if they want.

Bibliography

Anderson, L. (2010). Kicking the National Habit: The Legal and Policy Arguments for Abolishing Private Prison Contracts. George Washington University Law School. Retrieved May 6, 2021, from https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=22402701702209611706908102809510612003408808508203300711302011700002211510410403010600503811510404601003502006600609910203010312101402402206110712206601606409401308703604905508808212101400212000312400506510612711

Bauer, S. (2018, September 19). The Straight Line From Slavery to Private Prisons. Literary Hub. Retrieved May 6, 2021, from https://lithub.com/the-straight-line-from-slavery-to-private-prisons/

Bauer, S. (2018, September 25). The True History of America's Private Prison Industry. TIME. Retrieved May 6, 2021, from https://time.com/5405158/the-true-history-of-americas-private-prison-industry/

Bauer, S. (2020, February 26). 5 ways prisoners were used for profit throughout U.S. history. PBS. Retrieved May 6, 2021, from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/5-ways-prisoners-were-used-for-profit-throughout-u-s-history#:~:text=In%201844%2C%20the%20state%20privatized,labor%20toward%20its%20own%20ends.

CoreCivic, Inc. (2021, February 10). oreCivic Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Financial Results. Intrado GlobeNewswire. Retrieved May 6, 2021, from http://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2021/02/10/2173566/0/en/CoreCivic-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2020-Financial-Results.html

Gale. (2019). For-Profit Prisons. Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Retrieved May 6, 2021, from https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/AVXFOZ399375811/OVIC?u=fairfax_main&sid=OVIC&xid=4edfb603

Green, D., & Hadavi, T. (2020, Jan 2). Why big banks could be killing private prisons. CNBC. Retrieved May 6, 2021, from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/02/why-private-prisons-geo-group-and-corecivic-are-struggling-under-trump.html

Madhani, A. (2021, January 26). Biden orders Justice Dept. to end use of private prisons. Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-race-and-ethnicity-prisons-coronavirus-pandemic-c8c246f00695f37ef2afb1dd3a5f115e

The Sentencing Project. (2021, March 3). Private Prisons in the United States. The Sentencing Project. Retrieved May 6, 2021, from https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/private-prisons-united-states/

Shane, B. (2018, September 25). The True History of America's Private Prison Industry. TIME. Retrieved May 6, 2021, from https://time.com/5405158/the-true-history-of-americas-private-prison-industry/

Wessler, S. F. (2016, February 15). SEPARATE, UNEQUAL, AND DEADLY. Nation., 12-21.