Incarceration nation: how U.S. prisons make crime pay

By Charles Saunders

Pic of Saunders CRIME PAYS ... but not for the criminals who get caught and
incarcerated. The real money in breaking the law these days is being made
by the private corrections industry or, as a story in the October issue of
Emerge magazine calls it, the "correctionalindustrial complex."

Under the headline Caged Cargo, writer Joe Davidson claims that
"AfricanAmericans are grist for the fastgrowing prison industry's money
mill."

Davidson is a criminaljustice reporter for The Wall Street Journal. His
story indicts the prison system.

"The correctionalindustrial complex is a very fastgrowing segment of our
economy. It is growing quickly because of policies, programs and laws that
put many people in jail for long periods of time," he tells Emerge. "A high
percentage of these people are young black people. No one in the black
community wants society to be soft on criminals. But at the same time, I
think black people should be suspicious of corporations and companies that
earn money off the misery of others."

Not many people would have much sympathy for the "misery" of murderers,
rapists or drug kingpins. But Davidson says nonviolent offenders are the
ones who are filling U.S. jails. For them, life among hardened criminals
can be miserable indeed. If the bottomline mentality of a profitmaking
private institution is added to that, the result can be a punishment worse
than the crime.

This matter is of special importance to blacks because of the growing
incarceration rate of black men and women. According to the U.S. Bureau of
Justice Statistics, the number of imprisoned black men rose by 130 per cent
between 1985 and 1995. In that same decade, the number of black women in
the prison system jumped by 200 per cent.

American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Mohamedu Jones told Davidson: "When
you go through these prisons, and I've been through prisons in 10 states,
you are forced to come to one of two conclusions: either that young black
men are naturally criminals or that there is something seriously wrong with
the system." The first conclusion is, of course, pure racism. And it
doesn't explain the quantum leap in black incarceration. Where was the
"natural tendency" to crime years ago, when black men comprised a small
proportion of the prison population rather than the nearly 50 per cent they
do now?

What, then, of Jones's second conclusion? Davidson writes: "Criminal
behavior, combined with a system biased against the poor and black,
provides the industry with a steady stream of human cargo. The war on drugs
sweeps thousands of young black people off the streets and into crowded
prisons." Those who are skeptical about the existence of racial bias in the
system think it's obvious that more blacks commit crime, thus more blacks
end up in prison.

Actually, more blacks are arrested and convicted for crimes. How many
crimes committed by others go unsolved because of a disproportionate focus
on catching and jailing young black men? Meanwhile, doing time marches on.
Fuelled by a "lock 'em up and throw away the key" mentality, the
privatecorrections industry, which didn't exist a decadeanda half ago,
is growing like Microsoft. Not only is there money to be made in
constructing new prisons (the U.S. is now building more prisons than
schools); there are also opportunities that range from providing health
care for inmates to selling them chewing gum at the commissary, not to
mention plenty of job openings for guards. Without a steady stream of
convicts, the private prison industry does not make money. And profit, not
rehabilitation, is the bottom line.

Does this madeinAmerica prison story have any relevance to Canadians?

Yes. U.S.based private correctional entrepreneurs are already making
inroads north of the border. Recently, New Brunswick backed out of a
privateprison deal with Wackenhut, one of the larger U.S. correction
firms. But if at first they don't succeed, they are certain to try again.

As for effects on minorities, Ontario may be incarcerating blacks at a
disproportionate rate in urban areas such as metro Toronto. The prisons of
the Prairie provinces house more than their share of native inmates. And if
the black and native communities of Nova Scotia were larger, there's a good
chance minorities would make up a more noticeably disproportionate amount
of the province's prison population.

Led by the strident rhetoric of the Reform party, the lock'emup mentality
is gaining ground in this country. And that mentality can lead to prison
privatization.

Want to save for your retirement? Invest in correctionsindustry stock. But
be sure you stay out of jail.