This week’s reading, The criminalization of immigration and the privatization of the immigration detention: implications for justice, explains how the criminalization of immigration and privatization of prisons affects the way immigration is viewed in America. As the shift from state-owned prisons moves toward privately-owned detention centers, the privately-owned prisons stand to profit from the legislation on immigration. The privatization and corporatization of institutions rearranges a situation and puts it in a completely new context where making money is the sole focus. With the rise of privatization of prisons, new state laws are starting to target specific audiences, particularly undocumented immigrants. Some laws are so strict that undocumented immigrants barely have the ability to even function in their everyday lives. For instance, in Alabama, it’s illegal for undocumented immigrants to purchase electricity. People are being stripped of such basic functions, and that is the way some states are dealing with the “immigration problem.” These private prisons spend so much effort focusing on capturing those that are undocumented in the US, resulting in poor management of the facilities and its workers.
Question: How is the privatization of prisons even allowed by the government in the first place?
References
Ackerman, A. R. and Furman, R. (2013). The Criminalization of Immigration and the Privatization of the Immigration Detention: Implications for Justice
Image from The Odyssey Online
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