Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 4030 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: JUNE 2016 More inmates mean more cash T here’s an eco- nomic crisis in Mississippi be- cause of a lack of prison inmates. County officials across the state say they’re looking at massive job losses and budget deficits because “lo- cal jails are being deprived of the state inmates needed to keep them afloat,” says an article from the Huffington Post. So who’s to blame for starving county jails of badly needed inmates? The officials complaining about the lack of bodies say the bad guys are the state legislature and for- profit prison companies like Corrections Corporation of America. It’s a long and extremely complicated story as to why prison inmates are now a fi- nancial imperative for cash- strapped county and state governments. But the fact is that inmates now equal rev- enue. Since the state and the private prison c o m p a n i e s are looking to cash in as well, there is tremendous competition for inmates as the result of sentencing reforms and other “get smart on crime” initiatives. Here’s the history: Back in the late 90’s the overcrowded Mississippi pris- on system couldn’t handle the size of the inmate population and asked local governments to build more prisons to house state prisoners. It seemed like a great idea. The Mississippi Depart- ment of Corrections would pay for the cost of incarcer- ating state prisoners and the counties, in return, would get a lot of jobs for correc- tions officers. The state even guaranteed that the local jails would never be less than 80 per- cent occupied. The deal included a 3 percent boost in pay for the local officials each year go- ing forward. If that sounds too good to be true it’s because it pretty much was. A few years later, the state offered the local officials a new deal. There would be no 3 percent pay bump but they would give the locals enough prisoners to make up for the loss in compensa- tion. Today, the state pays $29.74 per day per prisoner to local jails. That math works as long as the facilities are filled with inmates. But all good things must come to an end. Scott Strickland, president of the Stone County Board of Supervisors, says that reforms at the state and local levels have reduced the inmate population, just as they were intended to. “Federal laws took some part in that — allowing prison- ers to serve only a certain percentage of their term,” he said. “Also, they’ve reduced prison sen- tences for certain drug-re- lated offenses.” That’s a financial disaster for the local jailers and has largely confirmed suspi- cions in some quarters that corrections is increasingly about revenue as opposed to public safety. “Under the administra- tions of Reagan and Clin- ton, incarceration, a social tool used for punishment, also became a major job creator,” Antonio Moore, a producer of the documen- tary “Crack in the System,” wrote recently. “I don’t think it necessarily started out this way, but the inmate population has be- come the backbone of some of these counties that are involved,” said Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Marshall Fisher as the con- troversy heated up. Many people wonder how the inmates generate revenue beyond the state States that made deals with for- profit lockups are already on the losing end government writing checks to local governments and private prisons. But it’s as old as Cool Hand Luke – prison labor. State prisoners do all kinds of jobs that many Americans would be lucky to get. The handle garbage pick- up, landscaping and other manual labor. Critics of the for-profit lock up model say that convict labor has made it easier for local govern- ments to deal with all the budget cuts we’ve seen over the last several decades. In fact, Mississippi actually requires local jails to house state convicts who perform labor for free as part of the new business model. And it was easy pickings for the private prison hus- tlers in terms of setting up shop. Mississippi paid its correc- tions officers so little that it couldn’t even find the staff to organize the convicts’ work assignments. Mississippi contracts with a Utah company called Management and Training Corp. to house some of its prisoners. Some wonder why the state would send inmates to the private prison at more than double the cost of trans- ferring them to a county facility. “According to their re- ports, they have some pri- vate prisons that they are actually paying up to $80 a day. I think it’s political favors going around, the reason they’re doing that, but that’s neither here nor there,” Strickland, the presi- dent of the Board of Supervi- sors, said. Private prison companies like CCA and GEO Group make a profit of about $3.3 billion per year. Private companies house nearly half of the nation’s immigrant detainees, compared to about 25 percent a decade ago. With all those billions it’s easy for companies like GEO to build university sports stadiums like the one here. “According to their reports, they have some private prisons that they are actually paying up to $80 a day. I think it’s political favors going around, the reason they’re doing that, but that’s neither here nor there,” Strickland said.