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74 national lawyers guild reviewAccording to National Magazine Award-winning author Eric Schlosser,“Since 1980 spending on corrections at the local, state, and federal levelshas increased about fivefold.” 61Statistics show a disproportionate effect upon black and Latino malepopulations. 62 According to projections “[i]f current trends continue, it meansthat a black male in the United States would have about a 1-in-3 chance ofgoing to prison during his lifetime. For a Hispanic male, it’s 1-in-6; for awhite male, 1-in-17.” 63 Though some commentators argue that this racialdisparity is the result of completely legitimate factors, 64 the number of minorityprisoners is increasing. 65 Moreover, the total prison population withinthe United States is escalating with some state incarceration rates growingat an average of 1.9 percent per year from 2000 to 2005, and 2.8 percentbetween 2005 and 2006. 66These increases have caused state and federal agencies to turn to theprivate sector for long-term and stopgap solutions. 67Conflicting interests have created a logjam of sorts, whereby lawmakershave willfully funded the front end of tough on crime bills without consideringthe budgetary concerns caused by new prisoners and the new prisonsneeded to house them. 68 Due in large part to financial costs, from 2000 to2006 “the number of Federal prisoners housed in private facilities increased79 percent; State prisoners, by 15 percent.” 69 Some commentators have alsoargued that the shift has been precipitated by desires to improve innovation,quality, accountability, access to expertise, efficiency, and flexibility. 70These motivations, accurate or not, are clearly subordinate to budgets andbottom lines. 71The private prison industry is still booming. According to a report by theReason Public Policy Institute “[c]orrections is one of the fastest-growingstate budget items. In the last 15 years, state spending on corrections grewmore than 350 percent—compared to 250 percent growth for spending onpublic welfare and 140 percent growth for spending on education.” 72 Withinthis environment, an oligopoly has risen, dominated by CCA and WackenhutCorrections Corporation, now known as the GEO Group. 73 Accordingto a 1997 Bureau of Justice Statistics survey, within the United States, tenprivate companies were in charge of at least one state facility. 74 However,of the sixty-five private state facilities identified in the survey, CCA orWackenhut managed forty-nine. 75 And in total, the same two companieswere under government contracts to manage more than 100 prison facilities, 76accounting for seventy-five percent of all private prison beds. 77 To put thisin perspective, in 2001 there were only twenty-six total private facilitiesoutside of the United States. 78 The current environment is so promising, in