Report: “Low-Crime Tax” Keeps For-Profit Prisons Profitable
Report: “Low-Crime Tax” Keeps For-Profit Prisons Profitable
September 20, 2013
by Joshua Holland - http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/20/report-low-crime-tax-keeps-for-profit-prisons-profitable/
Compare these two tales of corruption .........
When you deliver boxes full of cash to judges in exchange for keeping your private prison profitable and your beds full – when there’s a clear quid-pro-quo – then the FBI will investigate and the perpetrators will likely end up in prison. But a new report issued this week by In the Public Interest, a government watchdog group, shows that you can achieve a similar result through less direct means – lobbying and campaign financing – and it’s perfectly legal.
The report found that 2/3 of a sample of state contracts with private prison companies have “occupancy clauses” that guarantee the companies’ facilities will remain full. The minimum occupancy requirements varied from 80 to 100 percent, with 90 percent being the most common threshold.
With crime rates dropping nationwide, taxpayers are forced to pay the companies compensation if their prison populations fall below the minimum. In some cases, state-owned prisons are now under-populated as detainees have been shifted to for-profit facilities in order to meet these quotas.
According to the report:
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