Non-White Prisoners are more Profitable for Private Prisons [View all]

[The Straight Story]

Non-White Prisoners are more Profitable for Private Prisons


Private prison companies know exactly what kind of inmate they want to make their operations profitable: minorities.

A study (pdf) out of UC Berkeley shows people of color—who make up the majority of the U.S. prison population—are even more overrepresented in private correctional facilities, compared to state-run prisons.

This is not by accident. Companies like The GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), two of the industry’s leaders, want black and Hispanic prisoners because they tend to be younger than white inmates, due to the passage of mandatory sentencing laws in the 1980s that targeted drug offenders (who tended to be minorities).

Younger prisoners are cheaper to care for than older ones, due to medical costs, which is why private prisons want more minorities.

“Based on historical sentencing patterns, if you are a prisoner today, and you are over 50 years old, there is a greater likelihood that you are white,” Christopher Petrella, a doctoral candidate at UC Berkeley and the study’s author, told BillMoyers.com. “If you are under 50 years old — particularly if you’re closer to 30 years old — you’re more likely to be a person of color.”

The American Civil Liberties Union issued a report two years ago that revealed it costs $34,135 annually to house a non-geriatric prisoner, compared with $68,270 for a prisoner age 50 or older.

http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/non-white-prisoners-are-more-profitable-for-private-prisons-140211?news=852404