Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T20:39:02.221Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Turning Over the Keys: Public Prisons, Private Equity, and the Normalization of Markets Behind Bars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2021

Jacob Swanson Open the ORCID record for Jacob Swanson [Opens in a new window]  and
Mary Fainsod Katzenstein
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In recent decades, public prisons and jails have increasingly outsourced operational functions by “turning over the keys” to private business and, more recently and specifically, to private equity. By the early 2000s, private equity-owned corporations had entered the core sectors of prison and jail operations, creating “markets behind bars” in telecommunications, commissary sales, health provision, and a range of other services. Two decades later, they have become a quasi-oligopolistic market force across the carceral economy. Reacting to these developments, scholars and activists have explored how private firms generate profits by extracting resources from families of the incarcerated. Less explored is the fact that it is often and particularly private equity firms that partner with public carceral institutions in these extractive practices. In this reflection, we propose a three-part schematic for understanding how such partnerships, with their attendant predation on the poor and people of color, have become normalized. We focus, first, on the mechanism of bureaucracy through which mutual profit-making by public and private entities becomes regularized; second, we explore the legal mechanisms—the apparently small but potent and politically unexamined legal maneuvers—that enable the redirection of family resources beyond the support of a loved one to the operational needs of jails and prisons; finally, we trace the role of gender as a social mechanism through which private equity and its prison/jail partners rely simultaneously on women’s traditional role as caretaker and non-traditional role as primary breadwinner. We show that all three mechanisms are crucial to the economic functioning of the carceral state.

Type
Reflection
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 19 , Issue 4: Special Issue: Race and Politics in America , December 2021 , pp. 1247 - 1257
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Together they have previously collaborated with another coauthor to write “Alabama Is US: Concealed Fees in Jails and Prisons,” UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review 4(1), 2020.

References

Alvarez, Lizette. 2012. “Florida: Senate Votes No on Privatization of Prisons.” New York Times, February 14. (https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/us/florida-senate-votes-no-on-privatization-of-prisons.html).Google Scholar
Applebaum, Eileen, and Batt, Rosemary. 2014. Private Equity at Work: When Wall Street Manages Main Street. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Aviram, Hadar. 2014. “Are Private Prisons to Blame for Mass Incarceration and Its Evils: Prison Conditions, Neoliberalism, and Public Choice.” Fordham Urban Law Journal 42(2): 411–49.Google Scholar
Baker, Jim. 2019. “HIG Capital’s Prison Food and Commissary Racket.” Private Equity Stakeholder Project, October. (https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/HIG-Capital-Prison-Food-Commissary-PESP-103019.pdf).Google Scholar
Barber, Felix, and Goold, Michael. 2007. “The Strategic Secret of Private Equity.” Harvard Business Review, September. (https://hbr.org/2007/09/the-strategic-secret-of-private-equity).Google Scholar
Baumgartner, Frank R., Daniely, Tamira, Huang, Kalley, Johnson, Sydney, Love, Alexander, May, Lyle, Mcgloin, Patrice, Swagert, Allison, Vattikonda, Niharika, and Washington, Kamryn. "Throwing Away the Key: The Unintended Consequences of ‘Tough-on-Crime’ Laws." Perspectives on Politics, 2021, 1–14. doi:10.1017/S153759272100164X.Google Scholar
Beckmeyer, Jonathon J., and Arditti, Joyce A.. 2014. “Implications of In-Person Visits for Incarcerated Parents’ Family Relationships and Parenting Experience.” Journal of Offender Rehabilitation 53(2): 129–51.Google Scholar
Camarillo, Vicky. 2019. “‘The Penal System Today is Slavery’: Lawmakers Finally Start to Talk About Unpaid Labor in Texas Prisons.” Texas Observer, May 10. (https://www.texasobserver.org/penal-system-slavery-unpaid-labor-texas/).Google Scholar
Chaudhary, Mihir, Weaver, Vesla, and Prowse, Gwen. 2020. “They Make Money Off Chaos: Understanding Racially Extractive Policing Regimes Through a Subjugated Lens.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Comfort, Megan. 2008. Doing Time Together: Love and Family in the Shadow of the Prison. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Davis, Angela. 2003. Are Prisons Obsolete? New York: Seven Stories Press.Google Scholar
De Claire, Karen, and Dixon, Louise. 2017. “The Effects of Prison Visits from Family Members on Prisoners’ Well-Being, Prison Rule Breaking, and Recidivism: A Review of Research Since 1991.” Trauma, Violence & Abuse 18(2): 185–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
deVuono-powell, Saneta, Schweidler, Chris, Walters, Alicia, and Zohrabi, Azadeh. 2015. Who Pays? The True Cost of Incarceration on Families. September. Ella Baker Center, Forward Together, Research Action Design. (https://www.ellabakercenter.org/sites/default/files/media/Who-Pays-FINAL-2.pdf).Google Scholar
Drucker, Jesse, and Hakim, Danny. 2021. “Private Inequity: How a Powerful Industry Conquered the Tax System.” New York Times, June 12. (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/12/business/private-equity-taxes.html).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Federici, Silvia. 2020. Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction and Feminist Struggle. Oakland, CA: PM Press.Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha. 2001. “Contract and Care.” Chicago-Kent Law Review 76(3), 1403–1440.Google Scholar
Fineman, Martha. 2004. The Autonomy Myth: A Theory of Dependency. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Fishman, Laura T. 1990. Women at the Wall: A Study of Prisoners’ Wives Doing Time on the Outside. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews & Other Writings, 1972-1977. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Foucault, Michel. 1995. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Fraser, Nancy. 2013. Fortunes of Feminism: From State-Managed Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis. Brooklyn, NY: Verso Books.Google Scholar
Ghandnoosh, Nazgol. 2019. “U.S. Prison Population Trends: Massive Buildup and Modest Decline.” The Sentencing Project, September 17. (https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/u-s-prison-population-trends-massive-buildup-and-modest-decline/).Google Scholar
Gilmore, Ruth Wilson. 2007. Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gilmore, Ruth Wilson. 2020. Geographies of Racial Capitalism with Ruth Wilson Gilmore. From Antipode Foundation. YouTube video, 16:19. (https://antipodeonline.org/geographies-of-racial-capitalism/).Google Scholar
Glenn, Evelyn. 2002. Unequal Freedom: How Race and Gender Shaped American Citizenship and Labor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Goodridge, Julie, Schwartzer, Mari, Jantz, Christine, and Christian, Leslie. 2018. Northstar Asset Management: Prison Labor in the United States, an Investor Perspective, April/May. (https://northstarasset.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/revMay2018_Prison-Labor-in-the-Supply-Chain.pdf).Google Scholar
Gotsch, Kara, and Basti, Vinay. 2018. “Capitalizing on Mass Incarceration: U.S. Growth in Private Prisons.” The Sentencing Project, August 2. (https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/capitalizing-on-mass-incarceration-u-s-growth-in-private-prisons/).Google Scholar
Harris, Alexes. 2016. A Pound of Flesh: Monetary Sanctions as Punishment for the Poor. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Harris, Alexes, Smith, Tyler, and Obara, Emmi. 2019. “Justice ‘Costs Points’: Examination of Privatization within Public Systems of Justice.” Criminology & Public Policy 18(2): 343–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Highsmith, Brian. 2019. Commercialized Injustice: Consumer Abuses in the Bail and Corrections Industry. Boston: National Consumer Law Center.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Arlie. 1983. The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Susan, and Farley, Helen. 2015. “E-learning incarcerated: Prison education and digital inclusion.” International Journal of Humanities Education 13(2): 37–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katzenstein, Mary Fainsod, Bennett, Nolan, and Swanson, Jacob. 2020. “Alabama Is US: Concealed Fees in Jails and Prisons.” UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review (4)1: 259–67. (https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7cg3q309).Google Scholar
Katzenstein, Mary Fainsod, and Waller, Maureen R.. 2015. “Taxing the Poor: Incarceration, Poverty, Governance, and the Seizure of Family Resources.” Perspectives on Politics 13(3): 638– 56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keefe Commissary Network Agreement . 2016. Williamson County (Texas) Sheriff’s Office, September 1. (https://agenda.wilco.org/docs/2016/COM/20160830_1260/15812_Keefe%20Commissary%20Contract.pdf).Google Scholar
Kelley, Robin D.G. 2017. “What Is Racial Capitalism and Why Does It Matter?” University of Washing Center for the Humanities. YouTube video, 1:01:02. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REo_gHIpvJc&t=1720s).Google Scholar
Kennedy, Kevin. 2020. “Correctional Facilities in the US, Let Loose: Falling Crime and Incarceration Rates Will Likely Continue to Drag Down Revenue Growth.” November, US Industry Report 56121. IBISWorld. ( https://my-ibisworld-com.proxy.library.cornell.edu/us/en/industry/56121/about).Google Scholar
Keng, Kuang, Ser, Kuek. 2016. “Australia and the UK Have a Higher Proportion of Inmates in Private Prisons than the US.” The World, September 1. (https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-09-01/australia-uk-have-higher-proportion-inmates-private-prisons-us).Google Scholar
Kubrowski, Drew, Wagner, Peter, and Sakala, Leah. 2013. “Please Deposit All of Your Money: Kickbacks, Rates, and Hidden Fees in the Jail Phone Industry.” Prison Policy Initiative, May 8. (https://www.prisonpolicy.org/phones/pleasedeposit.html).Google Scholar
Lara-Millán, Armando. 2021. “Theorizing Financial Extraction: The Curious Case of Telephone Profits in the Los Angeles County Jails.” Punishment and Society 23(1): 107–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leonard, Sarah, and Fraser, Nancy. 2016. “Capitalism’s Crises of Care.” Dissent, Fall. (https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/nancy-fraser-interview-capitalism-crisis-of-care).Google Scholar
Leung, Katerine E. 2018. “Prison Labor as a Lawful Form of Race Discrimination.” Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 53: 681–708.Google Scholar
Markowitz, Eric. 2016. “Louisiana, ‘Prison Capital’ of the World, Hosts Biggest US Prison Convention.” International Business Times, January 25. (https://www.ibtimes.com/louisiana-prison-capital-world-hosts-biggest-us-prison-convention-2278102).Google Scholar
Marshall Project. 2019. “Prison Costs Survey.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
McDonald, Jeff. 2019. “Money Meant for Inmate Welfare Spent on Education, Staff, and Sheriff’s Department Expenses.” San Diego Union-Tribune, April 22. (https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/watchdog/story/2019-04-21/money-meant-for-inmate-welfare-spent-on-staff-sheriffs-expenses).Google Scholar
McLeod, Marsha. 2019. “The Private Option.” The Atlantic, September 12. (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/09/private-equitys-grip-on-jail-health-care/597871/).Google Scholar
Neate, Rupert. 2016. “Welcome to Jail Inc: How Private Companies Make Money off U.S. Prisons.” The Guardian, June 16. (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/16/us-prisons-jail-private-healthcare-companies-profit).Google Scholar
Newcomer, Mabel. 1953. “The Decline of the General Property Tax.” National Tax Journal0 6(1): 38–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Donoghue, Julia. 2017. “More Private Prisons to Be Considered in Louisiana Legislative Resolution.” The Times-Picayune, May 11. (https://www.nola.com/news/politics/article_a6937c21-476e-5734-894a-d867ec3f136e.html).Google Scholar
Page, Joshua, Piehowski, Victoria, and Soss, Joe. 2019. “A Debt of Care: Commercial Bail and the Gendered Logic of Criminal Justice Predation.” Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 5(1): 150–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Page, Joshua, and Soss, Joe. 2017. “Criminal Justice Predation and Neoliberal Governance.” In: Rethinking Neoliberalism: Resisting the Disciplinary Regime, ed. Schram, S. and Pavlovskaya, M., 139–159. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Raher, Stephen. 2016. “Paging Anti-Trust Lawyers: Prison Commissary Giants Prepare to Merge.” Prison Policy Initiative, July 5. (https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2016/07/05/commissary-merger/).Google Scholar
Raher, Stephen. 2018. “The Company Store: A Deeper Look at Prison Commissaries.’ Prison Policy Initiative, May. (https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/commissary.html).Google Scholar
Raher, Stephen. 2020. “The Company Store and the Literally Captive Market: Consumer Law in Prisons and Jails. Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal 17: 3–86.Google Scholar
Requarth, Tim. 2019. “How Private Equity Is Turning Public Prisons into Big Profits.” The Nation, April 30. (https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/prison-privatization-private-equity-hig/).Google Scholar
Ryerson, Charity, Cindy, Wu and Prue, Brady. 2020. “Prison Labor in the US: Parts I and II.” Corporate Accountability Lab. (https://corpaccountabilitylab.org/calblog/2020/8/5/if-prison-workers-are-essential-we-should-treat-them-like-it-prison-labor-in-the-us-part-i; https://corpaccountabilitylab.org/calblog/2020/8/5/private-companies-producing-with-us-prison-labor-in-2020-prison-labor-in-the-us-part-ii).Google Scholar
Sawyer, Wendy. 2017. “How Much Do Incarcerated People Earn in Each State? Prison Policy Initiative, April 10. (https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2017/04/10/wages/).Google Scholar
Schlosser, Eric. 1998. “The Prison-Industrial Complex.” The Atlantic, December. (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/12/the-prison-industrial-complex/304669/).Google Scholar
Smith, Clint. 2019. “While Prisoners Struggle to Afford Calls to Their Families, States Are Making a Profit. This Must Stop Now.” Time, May 24. (https://time.com/5595475/prison-phone-calls-connecticut-law/).Google Scholar
Smith, Rogers M. 1993. “Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions in America. American Political Science Review 87(3): 549–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stiles, Matt. 2010. “Buyers Behind Bars.” Texas Tribune, April 8. (https://www.texastribune.org/2010/04/08/texas-prisoners-spent-95-million-at-commissaries/).Google Scholar
Stultz, René. 2020. “Public versus Private Equity”. Oxford Review of Economic Policy 36(2): 275–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tronto, Joan. 1993. Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethics of Care. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tronto, Joan. 2013. Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality and Justice. New York: NYU Press.Google Scholar
Ulrich, Dave., and Allen, Justin. 2016. “Private Equity’s New Phase.” Harvard Business Review, August. (https://hbr.org/2016/08/private-equitys-new-phase).Google Scholar
Weaver, Vesla M., and Prowse, Gwen. 2020. “Racial Authoritarianism in U.S. Democracy.” Science 369(6508): 1176–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Western, Bruce. 2018. Homeward: Life in the Year after Prison. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Rises, Worth. 2019. The Prison Industrial Complex: Mapping Private Sector Players. (https://worthrises.org/theprisonindustry2019).Google Scholar
Rises, Worth. 2020. The Prison Industry: How it Started. How it Works. How it Harms. (https://worthrises.org/theprisonindustry2020).Google Scholar