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While this EO is silly, and I think the emphasis on private prisons is misplaced, there's bad argument against privates and a better one that deserves attention from serious scholars: private prisons have grown fast, and they provide crucial flexibility for new carceral projects.
We saw that with immigrant detention centers—and it’s noticeable they’re not covered by the EO. So privates provide “flex” or marginal beds in ways that can really expand overall carceral power and capacity. And they are continuing to invest and grow.
One thing we are all relearning from COVID is that growth rates matter more than levels and private prisons experienced really fast growth over the last twenty years. They didn't matter much, but someday soon they will.
What's more, private prison construction has taken over just as the public's attention has turned to the growth of mass incarceration more generally. So while it's been easier to oppose the construction of new public prisons near cities, private prisons have taken up the slack.
“Induced demand” can go too far: it's based on a really bad analogy from Foucault that when leprosy was eliminated in Europe they filled the Leprosaria with prisoners and patients. It's a little bit magical thinking: empty beds will be filled, so if we don't build the beds...
...lawmakers will be forced to change the laws and judges will eventually recognize overcrowding and let people out.
I think the induced demand theory is basically wrong, but it's not TOTALLY CRAZY given the strong correlation in the 90s. But limited beds hasn’t reduced numbers.
I think the induced demand theory is basically wrong, but it's not TOTALLY CRAZY given the strong correlation in the 90s. But limited beds hasn’t reduced numbers.
And it's also just wrong to argue that we need to make prisons so cruel and inhumane that people will start caring about the people inside of them. COVID overcrowding issues have not forced prisons to release people in large numbers, at least not yet.
Nor is the profit motive really different for publics than it is for privates--there's still lots of profit to be made in a publicly owned prison, as well as lots of salaries and wages and pensions.
So: weak & pandering EO, but don’t forget that there are still some important concerns about private prisons. Yet the real problem is in courts, legislation, and policing: supply, not demand.
