The Private Prisons: Re-Entry Program Keeping a Low Profile
In 1865, at the end of the Civil War, the U.S. Senate passed the 13th amendment. Under its terms, slavery was not abolished, it was merely reformed. Anybody convicted of a crime after 1865 could be leased out by the state to private corporations who would extract their labor for little or no pay. According to the Harvard International Review, in some ways this created worse conditions than under the days of slavery, as private corporations were under no obligation to care for their forced laborers – they provided no healthcare, nutritious food or clothing to the individuals they were exploiting.
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Private prisons have been in existence for the last 38 years. The privatization of prisons came in with Reagan’s ‘War on Drugs’ in 1984. Because his WOD included harsher sentencing incorporating mandatory minimum sentences, it fueled the rapid and sudden rise in prison populations. This expansion placed a burden on the state and its prisons became overcrowded. In answer to this problem, for-profit private prisons sprang up in many states in the U.S.
Between 1980 and 2013, the total number of federal inmates increased by 800 percent, according to the Bureau of Prisons. This increase far exceeded the Bureau of Prisons' capacity, and privately-run correctional institutions stepped in to house and absorb the overflow of convicted persons. Even so, by 2013, both federal and private prisons became over-populated with about 30,000 inmates in a privately-run prison.
The federal Bureau of Prisons said then [name date] that approximately 195,000 people were incarcerated in the bureau's or private-contract facilities. Today, [name date] there are nearly 152,000 people incarcerated federally, with 14,000 housed at privately-managed facilities, according to The Associated Press. citation???
In 2019, private prisons in the United States imprisoned 115,428 individuals, accounting for 8% of the total state and federal prison population. The number of individuals held in private prisons has grown by 32% in the last 21 years,, compared to a 3% growth in the general jail population.
However, this is due to change. At the beginning of this year, President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order that will begin to phase out the Department of Justice’s use of private prisons.
This Executive Order mirrored efforts to disband private prisons in the Obama era, but Obama’s policy was cancelled by the Trump administration in 2017. Biden’s Executive Order went further than Obama’s by applying the Executive Order to the U.S. Marshall Service as well.
As a result of Biden’s Executive Order, private prisons, including Geo Group and CoreCivic have both experienced serious drops in investors. When the President announced his intention, stocks for both companies fell dramatically. While Geo Groups fell 55% in 2021, CoreCivic fell 61% during the same time period.
Private prisons pose a Constitutional problem for the U.S. Since the U.S. and state governments are entirely responsible for incarceration, benefiting from mass incarceration is prohibited by the United States Constitution. The government is the only entity that has the authority to contract private prisons. Prison corporations spend millions of dollars on lobbyists and political candidates to promote their industry, advocating for harsh sentencing policies and opposing criminal justice reforms (including legislation that would subject prison corporations to public information laws).
CITY OF POMONA
Geo Group, nestled in the city of Pomona, California a series of questions regarding funding, length of time Geo Group has operated in Pomona, corporate structure, partnerships with any local agencies, and the reason why there was no visible company signage. Vice President of Communication, Monica Hook only answered one of my questions, which was the length of time the re-entry program has been open. Ms Hook declined to answer all other questions and provided me with a general description of the reentry program which can also be found on GEO Group’s Website:
“The Pomona Day Reporting Center (DRC) opened in 2013 in partnership with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). CDCR Parole Agents assign moderate to high-risk parolees to the DRC for evidence-based programming and services to assist them with long-term behavior change. Our programs are located in communities where they are most needed and offer a cognitive behavioral change curriculum focused on meeting each participant's risks and needs.
“Through the assessment-based program, participants learn the life skills and coping mechanisms needed to successfully reintegrate into their communities and reduce the likelihood of returning to the criminal justice system. The center offers extensive reentry services designed to provide each participant with the necessary tools to establish a positive lifestyle, take responsibility, and become self-sufficient. At the Pomona DRC, community connections play an important role in helping participants search for jobs or identify community support for a productive reentry. Programming includes substance abuse treatment, anger management, parenting skills, and additional services to promote a pro-social lifestyle in a safe and secure environment.”