Miami-Dade County in Prison

Nearly the entire population of Miami-Dade County (or just Dade County to the old schoolers) is in prison.  It is not the actual people of that county that are behind bars, but the latest population of nearly 2.5 million (according to the **2010 Census, with population estimates) equals almost the number of Americans locked away in this nation's prisons.  To break it down, it is approximately 1 out of every 140 citizens as cited in a 2014 report by the  American Psychological Association.

A 2012 Time article pointed out that the U.S. war on drugs has succeeded only in putting millions of Americans behind bars. What stood out to me was a paragraph in the latter part of the column:

Bipartisan forces have created the trend that we see. Conservatives and liberals love to sound tough on crime, and both sides agreed in the 1990s to a wide range of new federal infractions, many of them carrying mandatory sentences for time in state or federal prison. And as always in American politics, there is the money trail. Many state prisons are now run by private companies that have powerful lobbyists in state capitals. These firms can create jobs in places where steady work is rare; in many states, they have also helped create a conveyor belt of cash for prisons from treasuries to outlying counties. [This quote is from the print edition. I was unable to find an adequate version online. Emphasis mine.]

The reason this hits home is, as I have detailed in a previous blog, I know an inmate in a state "correctional facility" that may very well be privately run. [One of the first privately run prisons was in Hamilton County, TN.]  When I went to visit Jeremy we talked briefly on who gets paroled and who doesn't. He and his brother confirmed there are people who are paroled that leave you shaking your head asking, "Why?"  This would seem to increase the recidivism rate.

"What's the point of parolling them," I asked, "if they'll just be back after a short time?" I'll never forget Jeremy's answer: "I don't know, job security I guess."

That didn't make much sense to me at the time, but after reading the quoted paragraph in the Time column, some pieces have come together. Jeremy, who is eligible for parol in six years, said he's hopeful for parole, but he doesn't anticipate getting out without advocates of some kind.

Why would Jeremy have this attitude? Is it because we want to be "tough on crime"? But that means seeing an increase in prisoners and thus a shortfall of government money. To keep up states have turned to privitization.  Private prisons also mean jobs for local communities. This has resulted in a lucrative boom and it may not be too far off to say that the more prisons, the more money.  Could this be what keeps Jeremy, my friend, from a good chance at parole?

Privitization has its critics, which have sought to abolish or stop the construction of private prisons, as the Wikipedia article states. Though I believe the problem goes deeper than private vs. government-run, I think when it comes to prisons we must be cautious when handing the keys over to something that is for-profit.

In my blog from July 13, 2011 I said,

The State is known for paroling people who have no business being out, only to see them return. If our prison system is really meant to reform people who have paid their “debts” to society, then it could be said Jeremy’s debt has been paid. He cannot bring back to life the person he killed, but that Jeremy doesn’t exist anymore. What is there to gain by retaining him beyond his parole eligibility?

May be that question has already been answered. "I don't know, job security I guess."

**For more information on how to get the most out of census.gov, you can check out this link.