Guns and Private Prisons

There are many people in jail and many of them used guns in the commission of their crime. This led me to wonder whether there is a connection between the gun industry and the prison industry.

It is pretty clear that the private prison industry benefits from crime created by poverty, drugs and personal desperation. The more people incarcerated the more money they make. The less private prison companies have to spend per prisoner the more money they make. This leads to substandard conditions in private prisons as the company tries to hold costs down. Prisons that can pack them in stand to profit the most as do prisons which don't spend as much on medical care, rehabilitation, food etc.

In general, private prisons profit off people's misery and pain. And there is plenty of human misery to go around. The rate things are going, there may soon be more of us behind bars than on the outside. Already 1 in approximately 30 people either are in jail/prison, are out on parole or otherwise in the prison/court system (1,2).


 Since exposure to violence increases the risk of violence in teenagers (3) one wonders if the vicious cycle this implies can ever be broken. If not, the private prison industry will continue to thrive. Indeed, I cannot help wondering if there is a connection between the NRA, the gun industry, the promotion of guns and private prison companies. The more guns, the more violence. The more violence, the more crimes prosecuted. The more convictions, the more prison space required.

All these parties seem to benefit from the cycle of guns and violence. On the gun industry's part, the more violence, the more people are frightened. The more frightened people are, the more likely they are to buy a gun for protection. The more guns for protection, the more people get shot. The more people get shot the more people end up in prison. It is such an intriguing correlation that I can't help wondering if someone, somewhere, isn't intentionally seeking to profit from it.

The answer, apparently is, "Yes":

" It sounded like a throwaway line. Toward the end of a four-hour Senate hearing on gun violence last week, Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s executive vice president of over two decades, took a break from extolling the virtues of assault rifles and waded briefly into new territory: criminal justice reform. "We've supported prison building," LaPierre said" (4).

Quite literally, the NRA went on a campaign to push for more prisons: 

"Starting in 1992, as part of a now-defunct program called CrimeStrike, the NRA spent millions of dollars pushing a slate of supposedly anti-crime measures across the country that kept America's prisons full—and built new ones to meet the demand. CrimeStrike's legacy is everywhere these days" (5). 

"LaPierre launched CrimeStrike that spring with $2 million in seed money from the parent organization and a simple platform: mandatory minimums, harsher parole standards, adult sentences for juveniles, and, critically, more prisons. "Our prisons are overcrowded. Our bail laws are atrocious. We'll be the bad guy," he announced." (6).

Wayne LaPierre, NRA

They are not even hiding their connections. The NRA and the Prison Industry are hand and glove and profit is their motive. No matter how they word it, the truth is there for all to see. The NRA and prison corporations both profit from violent crime: Guns create violence which create the demand for more guns. The gun violence results in criminal convictions and thus more people in prison. That means more money for both the gun industry (NRA) and prison corporations. What we have are entire industries profiting from violence, death and dying: The new Merchants of Death. 

For more see:  http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/02/wayne-lapierre-crime-strike-three-strikes

ENDNOTES

1.    Probation and Parole in the United States, 2006. By Lauren E. Glaze and Thomas P. Bonczar. Quoted from Wikipedia, "United States Incarceration Rate."

2.    U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), US Department of Justice. Quoted from Wikipedia "United States Incarceration Rate."

3.   Exposure to Gun Violence Increases Teen Violence by Charles Montaldo, About.com Guide May 26, 

2005.

4.    Tim Murphy, "The Big House That Wayne LaPierre Built" Mother Jones, 2/8/2013, quoted from the Democratic Underground, 2/10/2013).

5.   Ibid.

6.   Ibid.