Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money from Mass Incarceration

by Dashka Slater and Cleo Qian

Book Overview

"No country in history has ever handed over so many inmates to private corporations. This book looks at the consequences" (Eric Schlosser, bestselling author of Fast Food Nation). In Prison... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1595581677
• ISBN13: 9781595581679
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: New Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.9" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Prison Profiteers is a well written and concise book

Prison Profiteers is a well written and concise book that outlines and details the spiraling costs of incarceration today. The costs are many and more then they seem as future generations will be impacted by what is going on now with the Draconian sentences and policies being adhered too. Prisons run for profit, this is American right? A very good book.

Excellent and Important

In his 2005 article "Correctional HMOs and the Coming Prison Plague," author Will S. Hylton writes, "It occurs to me now that prisons are designed for keeping secrets, for holding inside not just men [and women] but also their lives and the details of those lives." In Prison Profiteers, Tara Herivel and Paul Wright chronicle hundreds of instances where prisons not only kept their secrets close, but let corrupt politicians and huge corporations make off with millions by doing so. The authors compile essays and articles dealing with the private prison industry from every angle -- mapping prison costs in low-income urban neighborhoods, the effect of prison construction on small-town America, the mega-corporations that run what passes for health care inside prisons and the politicians that shape laws to help themselves and their rich friends, with little care about those people who actually pass through the system. The bottom line in every article seems to be the bottom line. Much more energy is spent by public officials flossing the image of being "tough on crime" for public support so they can cut deals that will supposedly lessen budget deficits or fill their pockets than create actual rehabilitation services or safety within prisons. One of the most powerful advocacy pieces is Jennifer Gonnerman's article, "Million Dollar Blocks: Neighborhood Costs of America's Prison Boom." It looks at how much money is spent keeping prisoners behind bars, per person, added up per city block. The total is often over one million dollars for one block, mainly in some of the poorest neighborhoods in the country, where people -- usually people of color -- have little access to education and good jobs, and there is no other financial investment in their communities except keeping them in prison. By mapping these areas within cities, activists hope to show legislators that the money would be better invested in education, job placement programs and other opportunities for residents. Some of the most riveting essays were those that read less "academic" and were more personal accounts of investigative journalism, such as Hylton's piece on Correctional Medical Services, where he interviewed various personalities involved with the secrecy of prison health care. He opens the article with a visit to a prisoner with grotesque disfigurements due to health officials' lack of / botched care for his hepatitis, who dies only a week after his visit, reportedly from "unknown causes." He examines the numbers of inmates who have hepatitis -- which is highly contagious throughout a person's life -- and asks what is going to happen as they are continually un-treated and then leave prison with the disease. A pattern emerges as he talks to local prison activists, ex-nurses and an evasive public relations rep -- there is no real accountability for CMS's actions, beyond an occasional successful lawsuit. A nurse even admits as much: "We have no accountability. If I deny care, that's it. Y