Private prisons in the U.S. make big profits

Americas Now

Mass incarceration has given the United States a reputation as a prison nation. With over 2 million inmates, many government-run prisons contract their operations outside. Correspondent Mike Kirsch reports on how private prisons are profiting from the overflow of inmates at government-run jails.

The United States has more people in prison than anywhere else in the world. Almost two and a half million prisoners are currently behind bars here – the equivalent to jailing the population of Chicago, America’s third largest city. 

Human rights groups report that a majority of them are Latinos and African-Americans from poor communities, locked away for non-violent crimes such as buying illegal narcotics, to illegally crossing into the United States.

So many prisoners are in overcrowded jails that the federal government and dozens of US states are paying huge sums of money to private prison companies or “for-profit” prisons to house them.  Critics say these private prisons get richer for every new person locked up and show questionable concern for inmates in their care.

Check out Correspondent Mike Kirsch’s package which reveals some hidden truths behind the bars of private prison.

Private prisons in the U.S. make big profits

Mass incarceration has given the United States a reputation as a prison nation. With over 2 million inmates, many government-run prisons contract their operations outside. Correspondent Mike Kirsch reports on how private prisons are profiting from the overflow of inmates at government-run jails.