The privatization of prisons has become a growing business in corporate America with stocks selling like pancakes on Wall Street. Players such as Corrections Corporation of America and Wackenhut Corrections, with over 264 privately owned correctional facilities across the country, are profiting from the imprisonment and misery of human beings. The human rights of prisoners are at stake when there are large profits to be made from their incarceration. Privately owned correctional facilities use their inmates as cheap labor, expanding their profitability through the exploitation of human beings. It is hypocritical for the justice system to punish people for crimes committed, yet they allow corporations to profit from such unfortunate events. In a nation where the almighty dollar has corrupted human values, the line has to be drawn somewhere.
In a country where we have a war on drugs, a war on crime, a war on terrorism, isn't it hypocritical on our part to profit from crime? American justice clearly states that we have zero tolerance for crime; of course tolerance is lowest when your skin is black or brown and have little money to afford a good lawyer. As Americans, we have to examine the values that we hold and see if profiting from misery is in fact, an American value.
The question shouldn't be how we can profit from social decadence, but instead, we should look for ways to repair our justice system and find smarter ways to deal with crime. It seems as if the U.S is selling every aspect of our lives to corporate hands; from social security to the mercenaries we are hiring in Iraq to fight our war, it's all in the name of money. As people who believe in democracy, we have to ensure that our rights are intact, even when we are being handed off to the corporate machine.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Wow, I didn’t even know that there was such a thing as privatization of prisons. It’s definitely a shock to find this out and of course I agree with the major points made in the article. It is hypocritical for America to declare a so called war on crime but yet allow others to profit from that same issue. It’s an incentive to place a greater amount of people in prison. Of course, it also adds to the never ending discrimination against minorities because—let’s be honest-- they are more prone to be sentenced to jail time. If anything, these corporations should seek out and fund groups that are making an effort to lower crime in their communities rather than make a coorporate profit out of it.
Post a Comment