African-Americans and Latinos Make Up 30% of Population But 60% of Prisoners

http://breakingbrown.com/2014/02/african-americans-and-latinos-make-up-30-of-population-but-60-of-prisoners/

An article published in Mother Jones on Monday pointed out some stark statistics about both the racial makeup of America’s overall prison population and private vs. public prisons. The article notes that African-Americans and Latinos make up 30 percent of the U.S. population but a whopping 60 percent of the country’s inmates. As it turns out, it gets even worse from there.

A study from the University of California at Berkeley shows that minorities are more likely than whites to serve out their sentences in private prisons, which has its own set of consequences, including more violence and an increased rate of recidivism.

The study, which looked at minority inmates in nine states, found more people of color in private prisons, which is important when one considers that private prisons are focused on profit as opposed to rehabilitation. One reason for the disparity has to do with the fact that fewer prisoners over 50 are housed in private prisons since health care for those prisoners can lead to higher costs. But there is also a higher likelihood that prisoners over 50 are white.

So private prisons make money from housing young minority inmates, while passing on the older inmates to government prisons, so that the taxpayer can foot the bill. This leads to the conclusion that private prisons aren't lowering costs by being more efficient, but by choosing inmates who are more likely to be healthy:

Private prisons claim to have more efficient practices, and thus lower operating costs, than public facilities. But the data suggest that private prisons don't save money through efficiency, but by cherry-picking healthy inmates. According to a 2012 ACLU report, it costs $34,135 to house an “average” inmate and $68,270 to house an individual 50 or older. In Oklahoma, for example, the percentage of individuals over 50 in minimum and medium security public prisons is 3.3 times that of equivalent private facilities.

In that sense, private prisons are being set up to make a profit off the backs of minority youth, whereas government prisons, and taxpayers, are being set up to pay more. It’s quite the con game.