Inside Australia's Private Prison Industry - Tales From The Dungeon!

The private prison-for-profit system is corrupt and damages our society - true stories direct from the Dungeons!

During 2016 I spent months living with ex-convicts who had been incarcerated in Australia's prison system. I got to know these remarkable people while living in one of Australia's most notorious houses of ill-repute - the infamous and magical Gatwick Hotel (an upcoming post! ).

The stories they related concerning the differences between the public and private prisons were fascinating.

Their accounts of life inside were heartfelt, sad and sometimes scary!

I want to share the essence of these stories and the insights I received about the private prison-for-profit system with you.

Image Credit Pixabay

Australia - Leading The Race For Private Prisons

Australia has the second highest percentage of prisoners incarcerated in private for-profit-prisons in the world. The UK has recently inched ahead of Australia with 18.46% of its prison population incarcerated in private prisons, just over Australia's 18.28%.

These percentages are much larger than the US which has the largest incarcerated population on the planet but holds only 8.41% of it's prisoners in private facilities.

This chart shows the 2016 percentage of prisoners incarcerated in private prisons for England & Wales, Australia, Scotland, New Zealand and the US.

Chart Source

Image Credit Pixabay

Some Background On The Private Prison Industry

There are three multinational companies which operate private prisons-for-profit in Australia:

• GEO Group - traded on the London Stock Exchange - current share price GBP 326
• Sirco - traded on the London Stock Exchange - current share price GBP 118.40
• G4S - traded on the New York Stock Exchange - current share price USD 29.18

These companies operate numerous prisons-for-profit all over the globe and that number is growing. As publicly listed companies their goal is to increase dividends for their shareholders.

The problem with this scenario is that we have made these international corporations responsible for the welfare and rehabilitation of our prison population, who when released renter larger society.

Image Credit Pixabay

The Differences Between Public & Private Prisons In Australia

During my months of discussion with the community at The Gatwick Hotel I heard many prison stories. There were reoccurring prison themes concerning violence, conditions and drugs. My question was always - which was better the private or public prisons?

In every single case I was told that conditions were categorically worse in the private-for-profit prisons. I was told that:

• Private prisons were more overcrowded than public prisons
• The food was much worse in private prisons
• Medical attention was worse in private prisons
• The opportunities for education were greatly reduced in private prisons
• There was more violence and rape in private prisons
• There was more corruption in the private prison system
• Drugs were more prevalent within the private prison system - primarily heroin and ice (methamphetamine) - with a Hepatitis C epidemic caused by sharing dirty needles running rampant throughout the prison population

One story I heard was from a time when heroin was in short supply in Melbourne. The narrator of the story was then serving 12 years for heroin dealing and received a visit (in the privately run Port Phillip Prison) from a buyer wanting to know if they could purchase heroin from within the prison.

It took just 1 hour for the prisoner to arrange a delivery of 1KG of heroin from within the prison to his customer in the parking lot outside - delivered in the lunch box of a corrupt guard. Unusually there was more heroin inside the prison than on the street!

I want to point out that I have never even visited an Australian prison. These points only reflect the accounts I heard from dozens of ex-convicts. I would be greatly interested to hear the experiences of other Steemit users!

Image Credit Pixabay

Is This Corruption?

This is a very interesting aspect to this discussion. According to the for-profit prison corporations there is definitely no corruption involved in this process.

All the large prison-for-profit corporations have Codes of Conduct and Ethical statements which use similar verbiage about social responsibility, avoiding conflicts of interest and achieving profit targets through continuous growth.

However it seems clear that the opposing forces of "social responsibility" and "continuous growth" equate to a "conflict of interest"!

Needless to say the propaganda for the private prison industry is huge - they can afford it!

Image Credit Pixabay

Glaring Conflits Of Interest =(

• The first glaring conflict of interest is when corporations receive money from the Government to house convicts but still have profit targets to achieve - who pays the price? The prisoners and ultimately the society! Budgets for services have to be cut to achieve profit targets. It is obvious that prisoners will return to society with less skills, increased mental and physical illnesses and a greater potentiality for violence. Society must now bear the costs of these problems until the private prison-for-profit industry snaps up reoffenders!

• The second conflict of interest occurs with the potential for lobbying by the private prison industry to increase criminal penalties and terms of incarceration. It would clearly help their profit targets to do so! Prisoner numbers have been steadily rising in Australia for the last 10 years and now stand at an all time high. This must have been great for their share prices!

Graph Source

It is worth noting that in the 2 decades since the introduction of private prisons into Australia the prison population has increased at almost three times the rate of the national population!

• A third tragic issue at play here is the issue of drug addiction. I saw many people released from the private prison system who had been addicted to drugs in prison and were still addicted upon release. Every newly released prisoner I met had been given approximately AUD$ 500. Coincidently this was exactly the street price for 1g of heroin or ice - just enough to develop a raging habit and push them towards reoffending!

It surely benefits the profit targets of the private prison corporations if the prisoners they release back onto the streets reoffended immediately. I saw this happen many times!

To me this is a tragic roundabout!

Image Credit Pixabay

Where Do We Go From Here?

The situation is only getting worse as the private prison-for-profit industry continues to grow globally. Both prisoners and societies loose.

Prisoners are being treated as sheep.... a means for profit!

Australia's minister for Corrections David Elliott has said that prisons which did not slash reoffending rates would be put to tender. To me this implies leveraging an already broken system towards more public prisons being run by private corporations!

I believe that the way in which a society treats its incarcerated population is a reflection of that society. People break laws and there needs to be consequences.

If we place offenders in prisons which are full of drugs, violence and little opportunity for a healthy diet or education what do we really expect when these people are released back into our societies? If we want them to be successful members of our community with positive contributions, we as a society need to take some responsibility for that process.

Placing that responsibility into the hands of corporations who's stated goals are making profits defies logic!

I know that discussion and debate is the first step to remedying this situation so I look forward to your comments! - jockey

Further Reading?

For further information on the private prison industry in Australia I suggest reading this excellent article.

These were only my personal experiences.