Privatized Justice: Ankle Monitors Are the New Private Prison

ABSTRACT

"17 The exploding prison population was undeniable-the DOJ reported 240,000 state and federal prisoners nationwide in 1975.18 In 2008, the U.S. prison and jail population peaked at 2.3 million.19 The upward trend has slowed, with just over 2 million at the end of 2019,20 but a March 2020 report estimates 2.3 million people are incarcerated across the United States.21 Unfortunately, even the releases triggered by COVID-19 are already proving to be short-lived-state prison and jail populations are "ticking back up" to prepandemic levels.22 B. Private Prisons Problems of prison overcrowding were widely known in the 1980s, with two-thirds of states under court order to improve conditions that violated the Constitution.23 But as the prison population grew,24 states struggled to balance the need for more facilities and the political pressure to be "tough on crime. The Corporate Duopoly Filling that need in the market, CoreCivic28 and GEO Group29 became the two largest players in the private prison industry. Since its founding in 1983, CoreCivic has become "the nation's largest owner of partnership correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities and one of the largest private prison operators in the United States. "30 CoreCivic reported an annual revenue of $1.9 billion in 2020 and $1.86 billion in 2021,31 operating 113 facilities across 22 states.32 The corporation is also a major contractor in the temporary detention facility business (specifically immigration detention) and holds the longestrunning federal contract in the industry.33 In 2016, CoreCivic was awarded a $1 billion nounparalleled contest bill by the U.S. Administration to build and operate a detention facility for immigrants from Central America.34 In 2019, it was awarded a five-year contract worth $2.1 billion to provide guard services at a private San Diego immigrant detention center.35 GEO Group, considered the second-largest private prison corporation in the United States, was given the first federal government contract for a privately operated prison in 1997.36 Although traditionally showing a smaller profit margin than CoreCivic,37 GEO Group had an annual revenue of $2.35 billion for 2020 and $2.25 billion for 2021-an over $1 billion revenue increase since 2010.38 Worldwide, GEO operates and/or manages "approximately 86,000 beds at 106 secure and community-based facilities . . . and electronic monitoring and supervision services for more than 250,000 individuals. A 2017 study by the Prison Policy Initiative followed the money of mass incarceration-a $182 billion industry.43 While private prisons account for $3.9 billion of that industry, that does not even touch on the number of for-profit interests involved in everything from bail fees to commissary, telephone calls, and video visitation.44 A 2020 report lists over 4,100 corporations that profit from mass incarceration in the United States.45 Central to the success of the private prison industry has been its ability to offer diverse product offerings while maintaining ongoing profit margins.