Financial Greed Now Drives Incarceration

by Charles Picarella, PAR reader

Traditionally, incarceration has been used in the United States as a deterrence to incapacitate offenders from committing further crime, to extract a measure of retribution, and to promote methods of rehabilitation. More recently, incarceration is being driven by financial greed. For-profit companies, such as GTL, Securus, CoreCivic, Aramark, Keefe Group, and Bob Barker Company Inc., supply goods and services to the corrections-industrial complex as part of a business model that serves their desire to turn a profit. Corpo-rate profits as a motivation for incarceration should be concerning to those that bear the costs: taxpayers.

In Pennsylvania, $3.1 billion of the state’s budget has been allocated to corrections, the second largest item in the budget. That is money that will not be spent on education, healthcare, housing or infrastructure. Instead, those funds will go to rent-seeking prison profiteers, many of whom employ lobbyists to capture ever more government funding.

Many incarcerated people are not hardened criminals but are our family, friends and neighbors. Many of these people struggle with substance abuse issues and/or homelessness. A shockingly high percentage of incarcerated people have mental health issues underlying their criminal behaviors. Jails and prisons are not places in which these people will receive the help and rehabilitation that they need to break the cycle of incarceration. We simply should not continue to fund the cycle for the benefit of corporate interests.

Challenge your elected officials when they campaign as “being tough on crime.” Ask them what that means. Who will pay that cost? How exactly will the funds be spent? Who will reap the benefits – those incarcerated, the community, or a company looking for financial gain? Demand change. Let your elected representatives know that you don’t want to fund prison profiteering. Let them know that you’d like the money spent elsewhere. Incarceration has a place in contemporary society but surely that place is not to drive profits for private business.

Charles Picarella is a prisoner in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. He publishes a monthly newsletter. For a free copy, write to Charles at:
Smart Communication/ PADOC
Charles Picarella #MZ7013
PO Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL  33733

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *