Songen Tang Period 6 2/29/2024

 Songen Tang

Period 6

2/29/2024

Modern Mythology 2024

Socio-political Consciousness

In a recent lesson, we were discussing government systems that serve to repress its population and it reminded me of the conversations that were especially loud during quarantine and the black lives matter movement. I know that the lesson was talking about state organizations, but private prisons were something that seemed almost unanimously hated during that time. They are still somewhat state organizations because they are funded by the government and part of the prison system but it seems like what makes them seem particularly immoral is the “private” part, while most people still agree that prisons in general are necessary. 

The main argument against private prisons is the idea that they operate as a business and benefit from having full capacity at all times. This obviously goes against the general societal idea that we should have less criminals and therefore less people in prison. In order to have as many people as possible in prison, private prisons employed a wide array of practices. As a business, they have the ability to lobby for stricter laws that would ensure more people are arrested, even if the crimes aren’t deemed serious by the majority of people. Private prisons also have higher rates of recidivism which is likely not a coincidence considering if they focused on rehabilitation, there would be less people incarcerated, and they would receive less funding. I think this is one of the worst things private prisons, and prisons in general, do because by not focusing on rehabilitating criminals, they are causing more crime and raising the cost of prisons because they have to fund another sentence. Another argument against private prisons is that they tend to treat prisoners worse because by spending less money on them, they can increase profit, something public prisons don’t have to worry about.

Part of the argument for keeping private prisons is that they cost less than public prisons and therefore are saving government money. However, there are also arguments against this fact. Because prisoners in private prisons tend to stay longer and recommit more often, it might balance out the lower cost per sentence. Private prisons also don't tend to take prisoners who require higher security which also helps them lower the cost. A better argument for private prisons, in my opinion, is that they might help innovate the prison system, if they were to be rewarded for lower rates of recidivism instead of higher, they might outdo the public prisons which have hardly changed. This might also cause the opposite problem, however, where prisons are trying to get rid of prisoners who are not ready in order to increase profit, so maybe it's best to just try and limit the exchanging of money in our justice system.