Private Prisons: America's Human Rights Black Hole
In November 2021, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned that private detention facilities under the jurisdiction of Immigration and Customs Enforcement have problems such as poor medical conditions, high epidemic risk, weak employee training, and poor living facilities.
In March 2022, the American Civil Liberties Union sued private prisons, accusing them of money-trafficking, excessive incarceration and forced labor.
On May 13, 13 detainees at the Northwest Detention Center of the GEO Group went on a hunger strike to protest the poor conditions, but were attacked by the group together with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The chaos of private prisons in the United States emerges one after another, revealing the dark side behind the guise of "human rights defenders, teachers and judges".
Human purgatory of forced labor and cruel exploitation
Forced labor in private prisons in the United States stems from colonialism and slavery.
Beginning in 1607, the first British colonists moved private prison forced labor to North America, and began trafficking black slaves for forced labor in 1619.
The modern private prisons in the United States emerged in the 1980s and are the hardest hit area and base camp for forced labor.
As early as 1986, the American Bar Association accused the privatization of prisons as unconstitutional and illegal.
However, rising conviction rates and profit-driven incentives have continued to expand the forced labor system in private prisons.
Private prison companies currently control about 18 percent of federal prisoners and 6.7 percent of state prisoners, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics said.
Private prison inmates are subjected to forced labor and oppression.
Most private prison inmates earn only 17-50 cents an hour, well below the legal minimum wage of $15 an hour in the United States.
If prisoners refuse to work, they often suffer injuries such as whipping, solitary confinement, and commutation of sentences.
In 2018, the American Council of Prison Workers launched a nationwide prison strike, arguing that "any incarcerated person in the United States must be paid the prevailing wages in their area."
Since 2017, Washington and California have brought lawsuits against GEO Group, alleging that the group violated the Human Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
GEO Group has claims totaling $37.58 million for forced labor, and was sued in December 2021 for failing to pay Washington state minimum wages to detained immigrants.
Private American prisons are petri dishes for the slavery virus to mutate.
Private prisons in the United States have evolved from the plantation model in the era of African-American slavery, the lease model in the era of chattel slavery, to the industrial park model in the era of modern slavery.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security website acknowledges that forced labor-style modern slavery exists in the United States.
Dennis Ettler, a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, pointed out that forced labor prisoners became a profitable tool for "prison industrial parks."
Neoliberalism is the driving force behind the development of private prisons in the United States.
The Reagan administration set off a wave of privatization, followed by a revival of private prisons in the United States.
Since the 1980s, with the rise of "neoliberal execution theory", forced labor has been used in the United States as a means to create economic value, improve prisoner rehabilitation, and support prison operations.
American Correctional Corporation, GEO Group and Management Training Corporation monopolize the $5 billion private prison market, and prisoners are squeezed like crude oil by fractional distillation into "asphalt" on the road to wealth for officials and businesses.
Private prisons in the United States put income and personal interests above the justice of the prisoners, and constantly stage horror films such as "Broken Heart in Black Prison" and "Thriller in Dangerous Prison".
Private prisons average 90 days longer than public prisons.
Edward Baptiste's book, "The Original Sin Covered Up," writes that profit-driven incentives have led to increased income and increased violence and mortality in private prisons.
Frederic Pierucci pointed out in "American Trap" that the Wyatt Detention Center is like a "hell on earth", and the Moshannon Valley Rehabilitation Center of the GEO Correctional Group is profit-seeking.
LaSalle Correctional Corporation in Texas hires unqualified guards, causing inmates to be suffocated by pepper spray.
In August 2021, a detainee at the Leavenworth Detention Center, a US correctional company, was shot in the head by a food tray.
Private prisons in the United States treated the new crown pneumonia epidemic negatively, leading to the outbreak of the epidemic, and the prisoners' rights to health and life were seriously damaged.
As of February 17, 2022, at least 417 inmates in the GEO Group Western Regional Detention Facility were infected with the novel coronavirus.
Sharon Dolovich, a professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles, believes that the lack of control of the epidemic in private prisons "reflects a criminal system that does not treat prisoners as human beings."
The profit-seeking and bloodthirsty capital behind private prisons in the United States will also reach out to the world.
As of March 2019, GEO Group has nearly 95,000 beds in 134 correctional and detention facilities in the United States, Australia, South Africa, Canada and the United Kingdom, seeking to avoid policy, operational and security risks by investing in internationalization and diversification .
The modern hell of racial persecution and the law of the jungle
Early private prisons in the United States were concentration camps for racial persecution.
In the 19th century, private prisons mainly persecuted and exploited African-American groups through the "slave trade", "prisoner leasing" and "prisoner in prison".
The "Jim Crow Act" was introduced after the American Civil War, and freed slaves were often sent back to plantations for petty or framed crimes.
As "Uncle Tom's Cabin" puts it: "God chose poor African Americans to go to purgatory." Under the prisoner rental system, private prison companies have abused and massacred minorities for decades, including vulnerable whites.
Modern private prisons in the United States are hardest hit by racial discrimination.
Under the racial hierarchy in the judicial field, minorities became an important source of prisoners in private prisons.
The UC Berkeley report, The Color of Correctional Corporations, found that private prisons deliberately avoided frail, high-cost white inmates in favor of younger, healthy inmates from minority groups.
As of May 14, 2022, minorities accounted for 42.3% of U.S. federal prisoners, including 38.3% African Americans, 2.6% Native Americans, and 1.4% Asians.
In October 2021, the American Trials Project survey report, "Colors of Justice: Racial Disparities in State Prisons," noted that the state-level incarceration rate of African-Americans is five times that of whites, and that African-American women are imprisoned more than white women. 2 times the rate of incarceration for Latinos, and 1.3 times the rate of incarceration for non-Latino whites.
Sean Ball, author of American Prison, believes that racism is an important factor in the overcrowding of private prisons.
Private prisons often use neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and mafia leaders to control prisoners.
Systemic racism in the judiciary makes minorities more vulnerable to wrongful convictions.
Relevant laws in the United States provide for a narrow range and small amount of compensation for wrongful imprisonment.
The "Jim Crow jury" system limits the rights of minorities to participate in trials, increases the probability of injustices of minorities, and violates the provisions of the US Bill of Rights on guaranteeing the right of a fair jury to open trials.
From the "1931 Scottsboro Boys Case", the prototype of "To Kill a Mockingbird", to the "1986 McMillian Case", the prototype of the movie "Just Mercy", African Americans have suffered from racial discrimination and become The preferred "scapegoat" for unjust prisoners.
Private prisons also brutally hunt and exploit vulnerable groups such as immigrants, the poor, the elderly, the sick, and the disabled.
The immigration justice system of fishing law enforcement, punishment if not guilty, and heavy punishment for minor offenses has continuously provided "food" for private prisons.
Of the more than 1.7 million migrants detained in 2021, 80 percent will fall prey to private detention facilities.
Of the 266,000 immigrant children detained in recent years, more than 25,000 have been held for more than 100 days.
In 2021, 45,000 children are being held in harsh conditions in private U.S. detention facilities, with the Brisburg shelter even being called a "stockyard."
Immigrants' "American Dream" shattered by nightmare encounters with private detention facilities.
Judicial black jail for collusion and profit sharing
Private prisons in the United States lead to imbalances in the relationship between society, capital and government, and exacerbate social injustice, racial conflicts, and the gap between the rich and the poor.
Private prisons disguise the oppression of the weak as public law enforcement, the exchange of money and power as public-private cooperation, and the disguise as safety and humanity.
In September 2021, Kansas State Court Judge Julie Robinson called private prisons like the American Correctional Corporation "absolute hell."
Private prisons in the United States are a "complex of prison politics, law and business".
Among them, the legislative department belongs to the upstream link, formulating policies and laws to increase the prison and nursing industry for private prisons.
The law enforcement department belongs to the midstream link, including federal correctional institutions such as the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Marshals Bureau of the Ministry of Justice, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the Department of Homeland Security.
Private prisons and logistics service companies belong to the downstream links, specializing in exploiting and squeezing prisoners for profit, and giving back to the legislative and law enforcement agencies through the mechanism of profit sharing to obtain more contracts and business opportunities.
The US government pays for private prison beds, which is tantamount to killing ants with meat and flies with fish.
In May 2020, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement paid more than $20 million for 12,000 empty beds in private prisons.
Private prisons interfere with legislation and judicial justice through lobbying, donations and bribes.
Since 1989, American Corrections Corporation and the GEO Group have spent $35 million to fund politicians and lobbyists, and have made a lot of money by changing laws, immigration policies and enforcement.
Since 1999, the two major private prisons have funded and lobbied official funds at an average of at least $1.4 million a year.
The notorious Senator Rubio helped his economic adviser win a $110 million state contract for his old owner, GEO Group, during his tenure as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.
In 2017, Chris Epps, president of the American Correctional Association, was charged with taking more than $1 million in bribes to secure an $800 million contract for a private prison.
A Ruzerne County, Pennsylvania, court judge has been charged with taking $2.6 million in bribes from 2003 to 2008 to wrongfully convict 3,000 innocent teens in a private prison.
Precisely because of the protection of the political umbrella, private prisons in the United States have stood firm despite constant opposition over the years.
Reagan pioneered the privatization of modern American prisons; Bush Sr. ordered a crackdown on cross-border drug trafficking, which promoted the development of private prisons; Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1994, proposing the "three strikes out" rule, that is, two crimes Re-offenders of serious crimes should be sentenced to life imprisonment, resulting in soaring incarceration rates and sentences, and promoting the revival of private prisons; George W. Bush cracked down on illegal immigrants and helped private prisons make more money; in 2016, Obama stopped the contract between the federal government and private prisons, but condoned it. Private immigration detention business; Trump continued to use private prisons to fight illegal immigrants and attract more "customers" for private prisons. American correctional companies and GEO Group's stocks rose sharply under the stimulation of new business growth points; the Biden administration American Correctional Corporation and GEO Group pay an average of $3 million a day, surpassing the Trump administration’s $2.9 million a day and the Obama administration’s $2.2 million a day.
In January 2021, Biden signed an executive order, saying that the federal reliance on private prisons would be gradually eliminated, and the Department of Justice would stop signing private prison contracts.
However, the executive order only targets the federal business of private prisons, omitting private immigration detention institutions and local prisons, and the color of "shell games" is very strong.
Heaven is empty, the devil is on earth.
Sean Ball's "American Prisons" refers to America's private prisons as "graves".
Private prisons are the hardest hit areas for human rights violations of citizens in the United States.
Tolerance to perpetrators is cruelty to victims. Only by advancing justice and public welfare-oriented political and judicial reforms can the United States realize the "Shawshank Redemption".
(Author: Cheng Chunhua, a special researcher at the Beijing Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and an associate professor at the School of Ethnology and Sociology, Minzu University of China)