Private Prisons and Politicians: Destroying Our Nation for $

Private prisons and politicians have turned the United States into a prison nation, simply for greed. The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur covers the story of Pedro Guzman who was detained for 19 months in prison over what amounts to bullshit and then dives into how the prison industry and politicians are in bed together.

Although the Pedro story is about immigration, every weedist should care because it’s an affront to democracy, a huge waste of our tax dollars, and the war on drugs feeds prisons the same as immigration.

“The U.S. is locking up more undocumented immigrants than ever, generating lucrative profits for the nation’s largest prison companies, and an Associated Press review shows the businesses have spent tens of millions of dollars lobbying lawmakers and contributing to campaigns. The cost to American taxpayers is on track to top $2 billion for this year, and the companies are expecting their biggest cut of that yet in the next few years thanks to government plans for new facilities to house the 400,000 immigrants detained annually.”

Private Prisons and Politicians Video Highlights

• Background and bio on Pedro Guzman [0:24 mark]
• Pedro spent 19 months in prison for missing a court appearance even though he’s here legally since he’s married to a US Citizen [0:54 mark]
• In 2011, 50% of the beds in the nation’s civil detention system were in private facilities with little federal oversight up from just 10% a decade ago [1:15 mark]
• In 2000, 3,300 criminal immigrants were sent to private prisons under two 10-year contracts the Federal Bureau of Prisons signed with CCA worth $760 million [1:44 mark]
• Today, the agency is paying the private companies $5.1 billion to hold more than 23,000 criminal immigrants through 13 contracts of varying lengths. [2:18 mark]
• The government plans for new facilities to house the 400,000 immigrants detained annually. [2:46 mark]
• The total average night cost to taxpayers to detain an undocumented immigrant, including health care and guards’ salaries, is about $166 vs just $80 per day in 2004. How are private prisons cheap? [3:13 mark]
• Cenk talks about how private prisons get away with unchecked profits and creation of a prison nation [3:40 mark]
• 2003 to 2012, state candidates and political parties in the 50 states received more than $5.32M from prison industry [3:50 mark]
• Corrections Corporation of America, The GEO Group, Management and Training Corp spent at least $45 million combined on campaign donations and lobbyists at the state and federal level in the last decade [4:23 mark]
• Cenk reminds viewers even if you don’t care about illegal immigrants, why do you think there are so many drug laws, to keep people in prisons “Oh my god marijuana, what a scourge… put them in prison!” [5:10 mark]
• 2012 cost to American taxpayers is $2 billion, funneling money from bought politicians to corporations. “This system is sick, it needs to be fixed, it’s crushing us, the average guy doesn’t stand a chance.” [5:33 mark]
• If “we allow private corporations to profit off of imprisoning our fellow citizens, what do you think was going to happen?” [6:40 mark]

For further reading on private prisons and politicians being in a bed of corruption together, check out this article from the Huffington Post.