(ThyBlackMan.com) The characteristics of jail, prison, and penitentiary differ in size of facility, level of security, and type of prisoner housed. Their similarities rest in the majority of their guest being poor and illiterate. America’s mastery of imprisoning its citizens has resulted in the growth of the multi-billion-dollar prison industry. Though legal, the morality of America’s mass incarceration of its citizens is questionable. America’s civilian population is guarded from the harsh realities of prisoners and ex-convicts, America’s lost sons who, upon return to civilian life, are not greeted with open arms. The media will show you pseudo stories of redemption and rehabilitation of some prison inmates, using this exception as the standard that every inmate can and should aspire to. In reality, Americans ex-convicts face a job market where people with master’s degrees and work experience are now working cash registers at Macy’s.
The truth is that prisons do not aspire to rehabilitate inmates. The prison industry is a business, with a business plan that consists of making sure prison cells are constantly filled. The two biggest private prison companies that are also publicly traded on the stock market are Corrections Corporations of America (CCA) and Geo Group. These are the mission statements for the respective companies:
“CCA founded the private corrections management industry three decades ago, stabling industry standards for future-focused, forward-thinking correctional solutions. A commitment to innovation, efficiency, cost effectiveness and achievement has made the company the partnership corrections provider of choice for federal, state, and local agencies since 1983.”
“The GEO Group is the world’s leading provider of correctional and detention management and community reentry services to federal, state and local government agencies. With operations in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom; GEO offers a diversified array of turnkey services which include design, construction, financing, and operations. Our unique approach allows GEO to provide high-quality and cost-effective services with state of the art designs, innovative programs and groundbreaking treatment approach.”
These mission statements tactically emphasize certain terminology while purposefully and skillfully avoiding others. Both companies use the term “cost-effectiveness” but never mention rehabilitation. The 
companies are not in the business of rehabilitating but imprisoning, cutting cost while increasing profits. Private prison companies use many tactics to heighten the probability of keeping their facilities consistently housed to capacity. CCA and Geo increase their profitability through political donations (or, to be honest, bribes) that influence lawmakers to implement draconian laws that keep a steady stream of clients in their facilities.
Private prisons are not the only profiteers of the prison industry. Numerous corporations benefit from prison labor: McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Fidelity Investment, Starbucks, Verizon, Victoria’s Secret, American Airlines, and Kmart. These corporate-sponsored programs claim to be beneficial to prisoners when in reality it’s mere cheap labor, available at a lower wage than those paid in notorious Chinese sweatshops. Prisons hide this exploitation by presenting it as benefit to the prisoners. Corporations claim their work programs provide vocational skills prisoners can use upon release. Oddly, several companies who benefit from prison labor, are also guilty of discriminating against ex-convicts in their hiring practices.
State after state pays more each year to house a prisoner than to educate a student. Such statistics demonstrate where state officials’ interests lie. In 2011, the State of California spent $ 8,667 to educate a student versus $ 50,000 to house an inmate. Funding is appropriated for penalizing crime instead of crime prevention. A 2014 U.S. National Research Council report found that educated citizens have a much lower risk of unwanted vacations. The majority of America’s prisoners are from low-income areas, with backgrounds of family instability, untreated psychological issues, malnutrition, physical and sexual abuse, and illiteracy.
Politicians’ eloquent speeches of equal opportunity in America fail to mask, the harsh reality of inequality without upward mobility for most Americans. American schools are segregated in a way that means academic instruction and resources are not equally accessible to the all students. A large portion of American society is systematically blocked from participating in mainstream society, left to fend for themselves in their own underground economies that the establishment views as criminal.
Facilities are needed to house anti-social psychopaths who are a physical threat to society. However, the majority of prisoners are incarcerated for nonviolent crimes, mainly drug offenses. The same “illegal” drugs that are still available to them during their incarceration. We must as a society redefine criminal activity and the means of punishing and actually rehabilitating the offender so they clearly understand why their actions are unacceptable. Someone caught with a mind-altering substance that, is for personal use is not a criminal. This person has no business being housed with those charged for murder or other violent crimes.
Funds budgeted for the war on drugs and outright harassment of America’s poor can be redistributed for community development. America’s poor need a mass literacy program for the old and the young. Illiteracy breeds ignorance. Funds can also be used for vocational programs that provide marketable skills, offering graduates a better chance of employment. Communities need programs that clearly explain the disenfranchisement that comes with teenage parenting and means to escape the vicious cycle of hopelessness that plagues America’s lower-income areas. Please share this message, for most are unaware of the business of prison. As a community we can make it our business that fewer of our young people end up there.
Staff Writer; Linton Hinds Jr.
Official website; http://Livity.info/