Nazgol Ghandnoosh, a research analyst at The Sentencing Project, appeared on the RT news network to discuss a new study finding that prison stays tend to be longer for individuals in for-profit facilities than public prisons in Mississippi.
RT reports:
“Mississippi has the highest incarceration rate in the US, with 40 percent of inmates held in private prisons. Since 1980, states have been contracting with private prison operators to help reduce costs and expand bed capacity, which has led to the US contracting 10 percent of its 2.3 million prison population out to private prisons. The private prison contracting industry is now worth $5 billion. Under Mississippi state law, private prisons have to provide cost savings of 10 percent compared to public prisons.”
Ghandnoosh explained to host Anya Parampil that these cost savings can be misleading:
“One of the big differences is that private prisons appear to cost less per prisoner, but when you look at the contracts they specify they don’t want the most expensive prisoners – old prisoners and those that have high healthcare expenses, they will not accept those prisoners. Generally, people in private prisons are younger and healthier. When you take that into consideration, states are not actually accruing any savings.”
Watch the interview below, or read the full article on RT.
