Prison in America: 'There are industries making money off of people losing their freedom'
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts” data-reactid=”14″>Listen on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts
Listen to the series here. ” data-reactid=”15″>This is part 2 of Yahoo Finance’s Illegal Tender podcast about the for-profit prison industry. Listen to the series here.
increased by 500% over the last 40 years.” data-reactid=”20″>Mass incarceration has proven to be a business opportunity as the U.S. prison population increased by 500% over the last 40 years.
almost 2.3 million people behind bars, with the prison industry generating upwards of $80 billion a year. Much of that money is made from incarcerated individuals and their families. ” data-reactid=”21″>There are currently almost 2.3 million people behind bars, with the prison industry generating upwards of $80 billion a year. Much of that money is made from incarcerated individuals and their families.
“There is a tremendous amount of financial exploitation and predation on the part of corporations on all people who are incarcerated and their loved ones, regardless of the facility operational structure,” Bianca Tylek, executive director of Worth Rises, said on Yahoo Finance’s Illegal Tender podcast.
Tylek explained that money is made in numerous ways within the prison system: construction, architecture, design, maintenance, telecommunications, healthcare, and more.
make approximately $0.14 an hour on average.” data-reactid=”45″>At the same time, people incarcerated make significantly less than minimum wage. Incarcerated individuals make approximately $0.14 an hour on average.
“There aren’t enough jobs for everybody,” Amy Fettig, executive director at The Sentencing Project, said. “People want to work. They want to make whatever small amount of money they can in order to buy shampoo or pay for a phone call so they can talk to their child. But these are all at astronomical prices because of the monopoly power, and because quite frankly, there are industries making money off of people losing their freedom in this country.”
document from the Board of Prisons.) Other essential items available at prison commissaries are also sold at relatively exorbitant prices.” data-reactid=”47″>At the same time, prisoners still have to buy things: At current prison wages, it would take roughly 40 hours of work to afford the price of two tampons at $5.55. (That’s was the price as of 2016, according to a document from the Board of Prisons.) Other essential items available at prison commissaries are also sold at relatively exorbitant prices.
“These are folks who make cents on the dollar,” Fettig said. “Women in Colorado were actually using two weeks of wages in order to buy a single box of tampons. … They are not given tampons. Now, more and more states are passing menstrual equity laws that recognize that government institutions, like prisons and jails and public schools and housing shelters should provide basic hygiene items because most of these people are completely indigent, and that they should be available on demand.”
In some prisons, people are charged $25 for a 15-minute call.
“Really, in a lot of ways, our incarceration system, mass incarceration is a tax on the poor, hidden in the many, many costs it inflicts on people,” Fettig said. “And quite frankly, a lot of these systems, the commissary systems that provide extra food or tampons or basic items, care items, they have monopolies. So, what you and I might pay on the outside, when you’re buying it on the inside, it’s astronomically more.”
Back in October 2019, while wildfires were blazing across the San Bernardino area of California, people incarcerated through the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation were put to work as firefighters, making just $1 an hour. The mean wage for firefighters in California, meanwhile, was $81,580.
a 2017 report from the Prison Policy Initiative. In states like Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Texas, most prison jobs are unpaid.” data-reactid=”76″>And prison wages have actually declined since 2001, according to a 2017 report from the Prison Policy Initiative. In states like Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Texas, most prison jobs are unpaid.
Listen to the series here. ” data-reactid=”77″>This is part 2 of Yahoo Finance’s Illegal Tender podcast about the for-profit prison industry. Listen to the series here.
The lack of investment in hygiene was already an issue prior to the coronavirus pandemic but has become more magnified now than ever before.
“Right before the COVID crisis, as more and more jails and prisons were becoming infected in March, I was in prisons in Arizona and the people there did not have soap if they did not have enough money to pay for it,” Fettig said. “Or they were given very small, thin, negligible amounts of soap, that wasn’t enough to keep washing their hands and washing their body and keeping clean in the midst of the epidemic, simply because they didn’t have enough money to pay for a larger bar of soap on the commissary That cost an enormous amount of money, especially because you don’t necessarily get a job when you’re in prison.”
aren’t given masks or hand sanitizer for themselves despite close working proximities. Staff and visitors don’t have face masks, either. (Coronavirus spread rapidly in U.S. prisons over the summer.)” data-reactid=”83″>At the Albion Correctional Facility, a medium-security women’s prison in New York, incarcerated women make $4 a day bottling hand sanitizer for essential workers but aren’t given masks or hand sanitizer for themselves despite close working proximities. Staff and visitors don’t have face masks, either. (Coronavirus spread rapidly in U.S. prisons over the summer.)
Listen to the series here. ” data-reactid=”84″>This is part 2 of Yahoo Finance’s Illegal Tender podcast about the for-profit prison industry. Listen to the series here.
And while private prisons are often singled out for poor conditions for the people incarcerated within them, Tylek stressed that they’re not the only offenders.
The Guardian. And, the report found, the mortality rate in state prisons was 275 for every 100,000 people in state prisons, which was the highest since data collection began in 2001. ” data-reactid=”106″>In 2014, nearly 5,000 people incarcerated within U.S. correctional facilities died, a 3% year-over-year increase, according to The Guardian. And, the report found, the mortality rate in state prisons was 275 for every 100,000 people in state prisons, which was the highest since data collection began in 2001.
“I don’t think it’s just about taking attention away from conditions,” Tylek said about the focus on private prisons. “It’s not understanding the scope of the problem. It’s really, really dwarfing the scope of the problem. It’s suggesting that there’s these two players, maybe three or four that dominate the market and as long as we can get rid of these three or four players, we’ve solved the crisis. And that’s just no way near the truth and yet there’s a tremendous amount of financial interest in the system but the rest of them are obfuscated and ignored and because of that, are worsening all the time.”
Private prisons are “easy to latch onto,” she stressed. “There’s an easy corporate villain that’s very public and that’s the other piece. These are publicly traded companies. And so people easily see these publicly traded companies, these CEOs and latch onto them as problematic. You also name them private prisons or for-profit prisons and have that narrative that attaches.”
@adrianambells.” data-reactid=”109″>Adriana is a reporter and editor covering politics and health care policy for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @adrianambells.
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts” data-reactid=”110″>Listen on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts
Listen to the series here. ” data-reactid=”111″>This is part 2 of Yahoo Finance’s Illegal Tender podcast about the for-profit prison industry. Listen to the series here.
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit.” data-reactid=”117″>Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit.
