Prisons in the United States: Inmates, Policies, and Profits

In October 2015, a program crafted by the independent U.S. Sentencing Commission allowed about 6,114 federal prisoners convicted of drug trafficking early release, reducing their sentences reduced by a ‘minus two’ recalibration of the Drug Quantity Table used to determine offense level. Another 8,500 prisoners may be released by November 2016, and over time a total of 46,000 federal prisoners could benefit from sentencing adjustments.

Local news accounts of the initial release of about 6,000 caused some citizen concern and fear that the former inmates would increase crime in areas to which they returned, social and economic problems following in their wake. To be more precise, however, of the first cohort of returning former federal prisoners, about 1,000 will go directly back to their home state, about 3,350 left for halfway houses or home confinement, and 1,763 will be turned over to the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for possible deportation hearings. Of this group, 24% are white, 34% African American, and 38% Hispanic (See The Marshall Project, DOJ Bureau of Justice Statistics, ACLU, NAACP, Federal Register, and Global Research for additional information).

To give some sense of proportion to the prison population, in 1972 the U.S. population was 209.9 million with less than 300,000 inmates in federal and fewer state prisons. Today the population is about 320 million with about 2.2 million inmates in federal, state, local, and private prisons. Several dynamics embed within the description above, for example the war on drugs, urban deindustrialization, privatization policy, globalized economy, vanishing community public investment, superpredator theory, and the creation of the ‘dangerous’ youth of color, and race-based justice. The harsh drug sentencing policies began during the Nixon administration in response to the spike in drug trafficking and associated crimes particularly within the African American and Hispanic communities which, in part, emerged from deindustrialization, loss of jobs, increased poverty, race-based housing and employment practices, and decreased community investment. In some ways, the enormous growth in the U.S. prison population can be seen as a 2.2 million-person indicator of the disorder of a system, providing the system is framed around human rights, social justice, needs met, and opportunities available.

From one point of view, the limited release plan can be seen as a beginning from which a larger correction of former sentencing practices can build. In fact, H.R. 71 – Federal Prison Bureau Nonviolent Offender Relief Act of 2015 – has been referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations and could provide early release for a wider swath of nonviolent offenders. The sentence reduction program could also be seen as a federal recognition of the high cost to the federal as well as state governments. On the other hand, the policy of reduced federal workforce and the subsequent privatization of prisons, begun during the Reagan administration but seriously expanded during the Clinton administration, provided the opportunity for corporations to move into the prison business, staffing all aspects of the day-to-day administration as well as security. The profit derives from spending less than the state or federal guaranteed amount for each prisoner, essentially reducing inmate services and assigning fewer guards to more inmates. The private prisons and the corporations that run them also import inmates with longer sentences in cases of federal or state prison overcrowding, guaranteeing a long-term source of revenue. Another source of prison-based earnings comes from private contracting of prisoners for work. At least 37 states legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations, with operations inside state prisons. Hourly payment for inmate labor ranges between $0.23 and $1.25 depending upon the prison and the nature of the work. The federal government also profits from prison labor. In 1934, Congress allowed the formation of a United States Government-owned corporation, Federal Prison Industries (FPI), also known as UNICOR. UNICOR supplies prisoner-made (described as ‘Factories with Fences’) furniture found in most university classrooms and as well as more formal office furnishings. The wage scale for UNICOR also ranges between $0.23 and $1.15 per hour worked. So, on the other hand, if the construction of the system (privatization, low-wage slave-like labor, corporate dividends, increased stock prices, inexpensive products) depends upon a large number of incarcerated individuals, then the system is functioning properly and everyone benefits, at least according to federal and state documents that support the prison-labor scheme.

The stark difference in system view depends, perhaps, on whether or not we can ‘see’ the effects of incarceration on individuals, families, communities, and the nation and whether or not we would care if we did see. Prisoners are by default separated and unless we have a relative or friend that we visit, the horrific reality of prison life remains out of sight and out of mind. Setting aside the claims from UNICOR that the focus is on preparing prisoners for life outside of prison, it could be strongly argued that the billions of dollars spent on prisons could be much better utilized in communities, schools, and assisting individuals and families to gain access to skills for a better life. This would require a much higher-level recalibration of policy and resourcing than the "minus two" of the Drug Quality Table used to reduce some drug trafficking sentences. It would demand a vision of a system that moved away from old patterns (think slave labor, draconian punishment, systemized oppression) and toward ending homelessness, resourcing mental health services, strengthening early childhood education, and so on. In other words, citizens and policy makers would be required to acknowledge social, political, and economic problems for what they are, and stop attributing these problems to individual bodies and to make it all go away removing those bodies from sight.

This article briefly explores entrenched aspects of the prison system in the United States, the disposal of millions of individuals for the sake of perceived security, the palliative of mass incarceration, and the profits available from disposal and punishment. Working to change these patterns, policies, and practices can engage scholars, researchers, activists, and practitioners for years to come. 

### Photo: Riot Training at West Virginia state penitentiary by Flickr user macwagen.