117: Prisons for Profit

Nearly 2 million people are locked in US jails and prisons on any given day. That's a 500% increase in during the last 40 years. Mass incarceration fueled a move toward private prisons-for-profit as states ran out of space to house incarcerated people and money to build new prisons. Our contemporary system of private prisons -for-profit began in the 1980s. Today, private prisons make billions of dollars every year housing, feeding and overseeing incarcerated people who the state pays them to lock up. But making money off incarcerated bodies isn't a new idea. It's actually older than the United States.  For a great genealogical take on the contemporary prison system, check out Shane Bauer's book American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment. For more on the drug war, prison profits and CCA (CoreCivic), see Discourses of Deception: (Re)Examining America's War on Drugs. Support the show