Marcus Brazil
Eliminating Private Prisons -
Coronavirus has disruptive effects on the United States in various ways. The coronavirus has caused an economy crisis, resulting in layoffs and shutdowns, unemployment rates increased, and small business revenue decreasing. However, as factories and other businesses remain shuttered across America, people in prisons continue to work. Private prisons have been a major problem in America for a long time, and their issues are only exacerbated because of the pandemic. Private prisons should be banned due to their health and safety issues, focus on money and punishments instead of rehabilitation, and costly for inmates and their families. Private prisons show little interest in the health and protection of their inmates. According to Apnews.com, more than 20,000 prisoners have been infected with coronavirus and 295 have died nationwide. Secondly, private prisons tend to focus on monetary gains and punishing inmates rather than the rehabilitation process. Prisons have four main purposes: retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, and rehabilitation. Private prisons tend to focus on retribution more than rehabilitation. Lastly, the cost of private prisons through the pandemic is outrageous. State prisons cost about $44.56 per inmate per day, compared to $49.07 for similar inmates in private prisons.