A Market for Holding Humans: The Correctional and Detention Bed Trade

Date:  08-11-2022 Excessive incarceration and immigration detention has resulted in a perverse system where people in custody are shuttled among facilities around the country for money

From Brennan Center for Justice: Economic incent­ives in the crim­inal justice system can create perverse outcomes that focus govern­ment actions on revenue gener­a­tion instead of what’s best for soci­ety. Almost nowhere is this more appar­ent than the market for beds in local jails and other deten­tion facil­it­ies, a thriv­ing system where human beings are often commod­i­fied. For decades, sher­iffs, correc­tions agen­cies, and for-profit firms have sought to alle­vi­ate prison and jail over­crowding by offer­ing avail­able beds to other juris­dic­tions in need of space. And the need is great. Despite the over­all decline in impris­on­ment rates since 2009, many places still have too many people to safely house. The same goes for deten­tions by U.S. Immig­ra­tion and Customs Enforce­ment. This market can be a much-needed source of revenue for local­it­ies. In Louisi­ana, for example, ICE pays $74 per day — nearly three times what the state prison system reim­burses local sher­iffs. Midland County, Michigan, where the local budget depends on jail bed rent­als, charges $45 per bed per day to other counties and $35 to the state. Continue reading >>>