by Mike Hall, May 6, 2011
After the November elections, with its raft of new Republicans in governors’ seats and in control of state legislatures, we’ve seen many of those states implement a corporate agenda that includes attacks on workers rights, new corporate tax cuts and privatization of state services.
Some of the biggest privatization prizes are state prison systems. A new report from AFSCME follows the money from corporations to the lawmakers who are now pushing lucrative prison privatization contracts in several states.
According to, “Making A Killing: How Prison Corporations Are Profiting From Campaign Contributions and Putting Taxpayers at Risk,” the three largest private prison companies are The GEO Group, Inc., Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), and the Management & Training Corporation (MTC). Each election cycle, according to the report, these corporations
pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaigns of governors, state legislators, and judges, in the hopes f advancing their political agenda—establishing more private prisons and reducing the number of public ones.
November’s Republican victories provided the private prison industry with new friends on the state level.
The upshot is a broad network of powerful private prison companies and pro-privatization legislation and budget initiatives linked by thousands of dollars in political donations to the party in power. This year, the industry is betting on these newly-elected allies to deliver the contracts they were losing under former state leadership.
Here are two examples from the report.
Florida: The Miami Herald reports that since 2001, the Florida GOP has received more than $1.5 million from the two largest prison contractors and their affiliates. Over two thirds of that total can be traced to the GEO Group of Boca Raton, which manages two of the state’s private prisons. The Florida Senate is now pushing to outsource corrections facilities to private companies in 18 additional counties.
Texas: In Texas, private prison companies and their PACs have given over $130,000 to candidates for public office since 2006. Texas has more privately operated correction facilities than any other state in the country. Harris County—the most populous county in the state—is now deliberating a plan to privatize the state’s largest jail.
The AFSCME report also points out that private prisons “routinely experience more inmate escapes and higher rates of violence due to chronically lax security and poorly trained minimally paid staff.” It also notes that there is no
conclusive evidence showing that private prisons save states money. Policy Matters Ohio, a state think-tank whose report on prison privatization was released earlier this year, stated: “While debate over prison privatization has been heated and divisive, there is little or no consensus on whether it actually saves money…” In fact, in some cases, the opposite is true.
Click here for the full report and check out this report from the Teamsters (IBT) on the move to privatize prisons in Florida.
