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How one influential group is driving Ohio’s political agenda
At least four major
studies released over
the last year have
come to the same conclusion
about private prisons: they
don’t save a dime. One study
after another has offered the
identical bottom line: the selling
or leasing of Ohio prisons
has nothing to do with trying to
fill a budget hole. Rather, such
moves are ideological at best,
and downright politically
motivated at worst.
Policy Matters Ohio authored
two such studies, which found
that no savings would materialize
by their sale and that, in fact,
it is likely taxpayers will pay
more. The Ohio ACLU followed
with a similar study and conclusion,
as did the Sentencing
Project.
More and more, researchers
are pointing to the political
influence that private prison
companies wield involving
Limited Government · Free Markets · Federalism
seedy back door deals, campaign
contributions and a whole
lot of cash--all of which ensures
that private prisons stay full and
private prison companies have
record profits.
The most recent private
prison study by The Sentencing
Project concludes that legislation
authored by The American
Legislative Exchange Council
(ALEC) is largely driving the
pro-prison privatization agenda
by developing model legislation
that serves corporate interests.
For instance, the group, along
with cohorts from Corrections
Corporation of America and the
GEO Group, has spent the last
several years developing a series
of tough-on-crime proposals
meant to increase incarceration
rates and keep private prison
doors open and swinging wide.
Dozens of large corporations
donate millions to ALEC, and, in
turn, ALEC does its job advocating
to cut government services
– and contract with them.
Just as disturbing as the
ALEC-inspired lobbying, is the
huge amount of campaign cash
private prison companies have
been spending on federal and
state political races. According
to the Sentencing Project, from
2004 to 2010, the amount of
state and federal contributions
made by CCA to political campaigns
more than doubled from
less than $600,000 in 2004 to
nearly $1,200,000 in 2010.
It’s no coincidence that as
politicians’ campaign coffers
grew, so did the number of
private prisons across the U.S.
From 1999 to 2010, the number
of inmates incarcerated in private
prisons grew by a whopping
80 percent, while overall
the prison population grew by
only 17 percent.*
In Ohio, several bills, including
the one that privatized a
Conneaut prison and leased
North Central Correctional
Institution came straight from
the ALEC playbook. In fact,
according to research by
Progress Ohio and others, Ohio
anti-worker legislators have let
ALEC write nearly 33 bills just
last year that have found their
way to the Statehouse.
Which begs the question: If
in fact lawmakers aren’t passing
laws based on what their
constituents need, but rather
what right-wing think tanks and
corporate CEOS want, who are
they ultimately representing?
* The Sentencing Project, Jan. 2012
10 Public Employee Quarterly Winter 2012