Peter B. Collins Presents Reporter Michael Ames
As crime rates have dropped and opposition to mass incarceration has increased, calls for prison reform and an end to the “war on some drugs” have gotten louder. While Sen. Rand Paul has submitted reform legislation and almost-former Attorney General Eric Holder has initiated some modest changes, crusaders like Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Charles Schumer oppose any reform, including the rollback of minimum mandatory sentences that have filled our prisons with nonviolent offenders. For private prison operators like CCA and Geo, business is great, and getting even better due to tax dodges they began in 2013. Says Ames, “Investors are bullish” on the detention industry.
*Michael Ames is an independent journalist who covers national politics and environmental issues. His article, Captive Market: Why We Won’t Get Prison Reform, is in the February 2015 edition of Harper’s Magazine. Read it here.
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