Prison for Profit

As mentioned in Incarceration, the United States uses privately owned and privately operated prisons, which are used by corporations to increase profits. The work prisoners are forced to do these tasks because required as part of their prison sentence. Some states don't even have to pay these prisoners at all for their labor, other states only have to pay around $0.12/hr, but these prisons and companies are making millions off of these inmates. Clothing, shoes, and body armor are some items that prisoners are forced to make for minimal pay. Privately run prisons receive contracts from the government to hold inmates, this isn't a big deal until you find out that these contracts sometimes have a minimum occupancy as high as 100%. That means that even if there isn't a prisoner in a cell, the government is paying as if there were. This also shows how little faith the United States has in its citizens, it is essentially the government placing a bet on whether or not they will be able to convict enough people during the term of the contract to keep the prisons full or close to full. Absolutely ridiculous.