Abolish Private Prisons

Prison privatization in the United States means that the for-profit companies such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group [formerly Wackenhut] want as many people jailed as possible for as long as possible in order to continue maximizing their income and, thereby, their profits. 

Private prisons should be abolished by law, but their lobby is one of the most powerful on Capitol Hill and in state capitals. In 2011  the private prison lobby spent $45 million on lobbying, while collecting $5.1 billion for immigrant detention alone.

There is, however, some movement against them:three states, Idaho, Texas and Colorado closed CCA prisons in the month of June 2013.

Mass incarceration in privatized prisons is in reality nothing more than a modern versin of  feudalism and slavery because the detainees, the modern equivalent of slaves or serfs, are put to work, manufacturing goods or performing services such as computer programming, for which they are paid far below the legal minimum wage--often just pennies per hour.

The U.S. is not only the country with the most people incarcated, 2,266,800, it's also the country with the most people incarcerated per capita. 

Here's a chart that shows prisoners per 100,000 population, country by country: the U.S. heads the list with 716.people incarcerated for every 100,000 people.

Abolish private prisons now!