(MintPress) – When students at Arizona’s Vista Grande High School were put on lockdown for a random drug search this month, their situation wasn’t much different from other students across the country. What was different, however, was the involvement of a for-profit prison in the operation of the drug raid.
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is the nation’s largest for-profit prison program, operating under a system that awards taxpayer funds on a per-prisoner basis. That means, for each prisoner, CCA makes a profit. It is this very company that took part in the drug sweep at Vista Grande High School, calling into question a possible conflict of interest and creating controversy over a possible school to prison pipeline.
In 2011, CCA made $1.76 billion. When locking people up is a main source of revenue, the motives behind arrests, charges and incarcerations are questioned. With many prisons across the nation becoming privatized, their actions are being watched with a close eye, especially when they involve students in public schools.
Vista Grande High School Principal Tim Hamilton told MintPress he was not aware that CCA employees were there at the time. He simply made a phone call to the Casa Grande Police Department.
“I called the police department and told them I would like to have a lockdown,” he said. “They set up whoever came.”
Hamilton said he was not familiar enough with the for-profit prison system to comment on the controversy surrounding the school’s cooperation with CCA guards.
According to the Casa Grande Dispatch, two 15-year-old students and one 17-year-old student were arrested Oct. 31 during a raid. Their charges related to marijuana possession and drug paraphernalia. According to the Dispatch, every vehicle, backpack and classroom was searched by dogs — CCA was on hand for the operation.
Beau Hodai clarifies in his article that one of the females arrested for a 10 ounce possession of marijuana could technically be charged as an adult for possession with intent to sell — a felony that could carry a prison sentence. All students charged could also fall under laws that enhance penalties for drug possession in a school zone.
CCA could not be reached by MintPress for comment at the time this article was published.
School to prison pipeline
The school to prison pipeline has been an issue of concern to the Justice Department, which in August warned the Meridian School District in Mississippi that its cooperation with local law enforcement was infringing on the constitutional rights of students. The school was accused of using the legal system to punish those who violated school rules, including violations as menial as simple acts of defiance and violating the dress code.
In August, Meridian School District Superintendent Dr. Alvin Taylor told MintPress in an interview that the school denied the allegations, claiming that it had not taken place since he held his position, which started in 2011. The DOJ, however, cited specific instances and threatened to use such cases in a lawsuit against the Meridian Police Department and local youth court for complying with the punishment system.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has also taken on the issue of school to prison pipelines, pointing out that schools whose programs have included criminal penalties for school rules largely target children with learning disabilities and those with history of poverty, abuse and neglect — the very students who would stand to gain from education, rather than criminal punitive measures.
“The ACLU believes that children should be educated, not incarcerated,” it says in a post on the ACLU website. “We are working to challenge numerous policies and practices within public school systems and the juvenile justice system that contribute to the school to prison pipeline.”
And while schools throughout the nation have been targeted for developing dangerously close relationships with law enforcement institutions, Vista Grande is unique, as its school to prison pipeline involves a for-profit prison company. While students arrested for marijuana possession are acting outside of the law, allowing a business to profit off a lockdown drug raid skirts the ethical line.
Privatization of prisons
In 2010, private prison facilities housed 128,195 inmates throughout the nation, down just slightly from 129,333 in 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics. This amounted in 2010 to 16 percent of the total federal prison population — and the numbers are growing.
The private prison system didn’t always have the influence it does now. In 2000, the private prison population sat at around 87,370. It’s a growing industry, and CCA is at the forefront of the burgeoning business, with operations in 20 states. Collectively, it has more than 66 facilities, housing 92,000 beds in 2011.
Financially speaking, business is booming, with a 2011 fourth quarter net income of $40.5 million. That’s good news for the prison’s investors, as stock sat at $0.41 per diluted share, according to the company’s quarterly report.
Arizona, specifically, has emerged as a profitable state for the private prison industry, with six for-profit prison facilities, including one located in Eloy, not far from Vista Grande High School where CCA raids take place.
Yet not everyone is thrilled with the model. Rep. Cecil Ash (R-Mesa) told the Arizona Republic that the industry is the wrong route to take for the state.
“Private prisons are the wrong business model,” she said. “They are in the business for profit. The problem is most legislators just don’t pay attention to this issue. Inmates don’t vote, and the public doesn’t see the inmates. They are out of sight, out of mind.”
CCA’s website introduces the company as the first private prison service in the U.S., founded in 1983. “Our approach,” the website states, “to public-private partnership in corrections combines the cost savings and innovation of business with the strict guidelines and consistent oversight of government.”
But according to a report conducted by the American Service Committee, the private prison industry costs taxpayers far more than the public prison system does. The report, “Private Prisons: The Public’s Problem,” was highlighted in the Nation, which cited the study in its report that, between 2008 and 2010, the private prison system cost the state of Arizona more than $10 million in overpayments. The same report showed that state’s auditor general cited 157 serious security failings in five of the for-profit prisons in the state.
While it may seem that cost effectiveness of the prison system would fall into the radar of politicians looking to operate under lean budgets, that doesn’t seem to be the case, at least not in Arizona.
Collectively, CCA alone spent $1.9 million in political contributions throughout the nation between 2003 and 2012, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics. The company’s lobbyists efforts have been robust. Now, tasked with keeping shareholders happy, the business, like any other, is looking to increase profit.