Date of Award
5-2019
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Political Science
First Advisor
Dr. Patrick Donnay
Abstract
There seems to be limited research and understanding as to why for-profit prisons exist in the United States. The initial selling points used to sell private prisons to states and counties were that they would reduce recidivism and cost. Recent peer-reviewed studies have found, however, that neither are the case. This could lead one to ask why for-profit prisons are still used in America. That is what I hope to answer in this research paper. After research and analysis of campaign donations by the two largest for-profit prison corporations (collected from the National Institute on Money in State Politics) and changes in the population of prisoners held in for-profit facilities (collected from the Bureau of Justice Statistics), I found that the states that have seen an increase in the number of prisoners in for-profit facilities have a higher mean number of dollars donated to elected officials. This seems to indicate that decisions regarding incarceration may have more to do with campaign donations than justice.
Recommended Citation
Israel, Jacob F., "For-Profit Prisons: How Lobbying Has Affected the Way America Houses Prisoners" (2019). Political Science Theses and Capstones. 45.
https://pines.bemidjistate.edu/capstone-polisci/45
Included in
American Politics Commons, Criminology Commons, Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons, Other Economics Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons, Social Justice Commons
