Who profits from American prisons

Whew, this one is seriously f*cked up, so buckle up. The US prison system is a $182 billion, for-profit industry. And the average cost of keeping someone in prison has gone up from $150,000 in 2011 to over $500,000 in 2021. How is that even possible?

It's because every single service inside of prisons has been capitalized for profit. TKC Holdings operates the food and phone call services. Wellpath and Corizon do the healthcare. Layton Construction does the construction. And these companies and the private equity firms behind them fund politicians who keep prisoners in jail for longer.

They also profit heavily off of prison labor, which paid wages from $0.30 to $1.30 per hour in 2021. Your license plate probably came from a prisoner, because 80% of them do, netting $30 million in revenue per year.

The ACLU once wrote that "modern day prison labor descends from the enslavement of Black people." And it's not far from the truth. 39% of inmates are black, far overrepresenting their 13% of the population.

To sum up, you have to understand how closely tied profit is to the prison system. And who benefits from keeping it this way. Is America really the land of the free? Or is it just slavery with extra steps?