The 'Sunk Costs' of a Profit-Driven Prison System Azadeh Shahshahani - Al Jazeera
go to original May 30, 2012

The US has the highest prison population in the world. Does the "lock 'em up and throw away the key" attitude to crime and punishment really work, or is rehabilitation a better way to go? Guests: Larry White, Tracey Velasquez and Charlie Sullivan. (Al Jazeera)

Over the past decade, there has been an alarming increase in the use of immigration detention in the United States. From 2001 to 2010, the number of immigrants held in immigration detention each year nearly doubled from 209,000 per year to over 363,000.

The increasing use of immigration detention is an unnecessary drain on government resources and taxpayer dollars. In 2012, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) maintained a record-high daily detention capacity of 34,000 beds, costing taxpayers $2bn. As of November 2011, the US government spent approximately $166 per day to hold one immigrant in detention. This is 18 times greater than the $8.88 per day it costs for more efficient, highly effective, and humane alternatives to detention.

The for-profit prison industry is the main beneficiary of the ever-expanding, unregulated immigration system in the US. Since 2001, private corporations have gained increasing control over immigration detention facilities in the US and continue to bring in record profits.

In 2010, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest owner and operator of privatised correctional and detention facilities in the US, grossed more than $1.7bn in total revenue. The GEO Group's contracts with ICE increased from $33.6m in 2005 to $163.8m by the end of 2010. These companies aggressively lobby DHS and Congress. CCA and GEO spent more than $20m on lobbying from 1999 to 2009.

In 2009, approximately half of the immigrant detainee population was housed in for-profit facilities as compared with 8 per cent of state and federal prisoners.

Private immigration detention facilities are also particularly ripe for abuse, because there is little federal oversight to ensure that applicable standards are enforced. The 2011 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention standards in place to guide operation of these facilities are not binding regulations and have not been applied to many for-profit detention facilities under contract with ICE. Without the threat of sanctions, compliance with these standards has been low and violations of these standards are pervasive.

Since 2003, there have been 24 deaths in immigration detention facilities operated by CCA. In May 2010, a CCA guard at the T Don Hutto Residential Center in Texas was convicted in state and federal court of sexually abusing female detainees while transporting them to the airport.

A major report recently released by the ACLU of Georgia confirms the problems inherent to keeping immigrants in for-profit detention centres.

Titled "Prisoners of Profit: Immigrants and Detention in Georgia", the report covers the four immigration detention facilities in Georgia, including the largest immigration detention centre in the country, the Stewart Detention Center. Three of the facilities are operated by corporations.

For purposes of this documentation project, the ACLU of Georgia interviewed 68 individuals who were detained at the Georgia immigration detention facilities, as well as detainees' family members and immigration attorneys. We also toured the detention centres and reviewed documents obtained from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies.

The report documents serious violations of detainees' constitutional and human rights as well as ICE standards. These abuses require immediate action.

Read the full story at Al Jazeera

Azadeh Shahshahani is the National Security/Immigrants' Rights Project Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Georgia.

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