Privatization of Prisons
Another major root cause for racial disparities is the privatization of prisons. Private companies have begun to make profit of prisoners and incarceration institutions which has led to higher arrest rates in order to feed these private companies thirst for profit. “In the 1980’s, with a burgeoning prison population resulting from the “war on drugs” and increased use of incarceration, prison overcrowding and rising costs became increasingly problematic for local, state, and federal governments. In response to this expanding criminal justice system, private business interests saw an opportunity for expansion, and consequently, private-sector involvement in prisons moved from the simple contracting of services to contracting for the complete management and operation of entire prisons.”( ) So increasing amounts of arrest rates benefit these private companies because the more prisoners they contain the more profits they are receiving which creates a larger trouble for low-income and minority neighborhoods because they are the number one target when incarcerating people. Another major issue with the privatization of prisons is that they lose the very little focus all prisons have of rehabilitating prisoners instead of punishing because they place all their focus on making profits with no care of who and what are the effects or consequences.