The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, with approximately 2.2 million inmates behind bars in state, federal and private prisons across the country. That\u2019s over half a million more inmates than in China, whose population is four times the size.<\/p>\n
The Beginning of the Modern Private Prison Industry<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The sharp increase in incarceration levels can be traced back to the 1970s, when the government\u00a0struggled to combat the nationwide issue of drug-use and crime. When President Nixon declared a war on drugs in 1971, it forced an increase in tough policies against crime across the country.<\/p>\n In the two decades following 1980, the incarceration rate more than tripled, which led to major overcrowding in jails across the country. To tackle this issue, many states turned to private companies to build or run their prisons.<\/p>\n The first modern private prison was built\u00a0in Tennessee in 1984 by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). Its opening marked the first time that any state government had contracted out the full operation of a prison to a private corporation.<\/p>\n What began as a quick-fix solution to the overcrowding of public prisons, the for-profit prison sector now accounts for 10% of the corrections market with an annual turnover of $7.4 billion per year.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n As of 2013, the US Department of Justice reported that 19.1% of the federal state prison population is housed in private prisons along with 6.8% of state prisoners. Today, there are over 130 for-profit prisons with 157,000 beds and this number is expected to reach 360,000 by 2026.<\/p>\n For-profit prisons are legal in 29 states across the country with some relying predominantly on private facilities to house their inmates. For example, nearly 44% of all New Mexico prisoners are held in private prisons, followed by 38.7% in Montana.<\/p>\n