Profiting from Punishment

Ryan Haylett

Private prisons...

Ryan Haylett

these are for-profit companies that run correctional facilities, and they’ve become a pretty big part of the U.S. incarceration landscape over the last few decades.

Ryan Haylett

The idea, at least on paper, was that private companies could run prisons more efficiently than the government. But, as you might guess, when you put profit at the center of incarceration, things get messy.

Ryan Haylett

Private prisons, and all companies for that matter, have what’s called a fiduciary duty. That’s a fancy way of saying their number one job is to make money for their shareholders.

Ryan Haylett

And when your business is locking people up, that means you’re incentivized to keep those cells full. It’s not about rehabilitation, or justice, or even public safety, it’s about occupancy rates.

Ryan Haylett

Some of these contracts literally guarantee a certain percentage of beds will be filled, or the state has to pay a penalty. So, there’s this built-in pressure to keep people incarcerated longer, or to push for harsher sentences.

Ryan Haylett

And how do they maximize those profits? It comes down to cutting costs. That means fewer guards, less training, and corners cut on healthcare, food, and basic safety.

Ryan Haylett

Understaffing is rampant, and the people who do get hired often aren’t given the tools or training they need to handle what’s honestly a really tough job. It’s a recipe for violence, neglect, and—let’s be real—human suffering.

Ryan Haylett

So, when you hear politicians talk about “efficiency” in the prison system, just remember: efficiency for who? Because for the people inside, and for the communities they come from, it’s a whole different story.

Ryan Haylett

Now, if you think this is just a theoretical problem, let’s talk about real-world consequences. There’s the infamous “kids for cash” scandal.

Ryan Haylett

Two judges in Pennsylvania literally took millions in kickbacks from private juvenile detention centers.

Ryan Haylett

In exchange, they sentenced thousands of kids, sometimes for the pettiest stuff, to these facilities. It’s not just a few bad apples; it’s a system that makes this kind of abuse possible, even profitable.

Ryan Haylett

And then there’s the school-to-prison pipeline.

Ryan Haylett

Harsh school discipline, zero-tolerance policies, cops in schools, these all funnel mostly Black and brown kids out of classrooms and into the criminal justice system.

Ryan Haylett

And who benefits?

Ryan Haylett

Private prisons, who get a steady stream of new “clients”, of course.

Ryan Haylett

It’s not the same as the kids-for-cash scandal—one’s a specific criminal conspiracy, the other’s a broader systemic issue—but both show how profit can twist the whole idea of justice.

Ryan Haylett

There’s a real ethical dilemma here.

Ryan Haylett

Should anyone be making money off incarceration? What does it do to public trust when people see that the system is literally profiting from their misery?

Ryan Haylett

Are there even enough safeguards to stop this from happening again? We’d like to think so, but history says otherwise.

Ryan Haylett

Let’s shift gears a bit and talk about technology,because, of course, there’s a tech angle.

Ryan Haylett

Prisons both public and private have gotten creative with how they squeeze money out of people.

Ryan Haylett

You’ve got software like Smart Inmate, and tablets from companies like GTL and Securus. On the surface, it sounds good, give inmates a way to communicate with family, access books, maybe even take classes.

Ryan Haylett

But here’s the catch: every call, every email, every video visit comes with a fee.

Ryan Haylett

And these aren’t normal market prices. We’re talking dollars per minute for a phone call, or subscriptions for basic messaging.

Ryan Haylett

I’ve seen this up close.

Ryan Haylett

A good friend of mine—he got locked up over a civil case, just because he couldn’t pay. I won’t get into the details, but I saw how these fees could lead to only a few messages, with fees on top of fees.

Ryan Haylett

People who are already broke get pushed even further into debt, just to stay in touch with their families. It’s the opposite of rehabilitation. It’s like, “Hey, you’re struggling? Let’s make it worse.”

Ryan Haylett

And it’s not just the inmates—it’s their families, too. Most of them are already low-income, and now they’re paying out the nose just to talk to their loved ones.

Ryan Haylett

These companies get exclusive contracts, so there’s no competition, no price controls. Even sending money to someone inside comes with extra fees.

Ryan Haylett

The official line is that this “reduces the burden on taxpayers,” but what it really does is shift the cost onto the people who can least afford it.

Ryan Haylett

And when you make it harder for families to stay connected, you’re actually making it more likely that people end up back inside. It’s a vicious cycle.

Ryan Haylett

But the problems don’t stop at money.

Ryan Haylett

Private prisons are notorious for lousy healthcare—think outbreaks of disease, untreated chronic conditions, and preventable deaths.

Ryan Haylett

A lot of this comes back to cost-cutting and untrained, temporary staff. Abuse and neglect are way too common, and there’s almost no accountability.

Ryan Haylett

And let’s talk about rehabilitation, or, more accurately, the lack of it.

Ryan Haylett

These places are supposed to help people get back on their feet, but most private prisons skimp on education, job training, and mental health services.

Ryan Haylett

So, people get out, but they’re no better off—and often worse. That’s not just bad for them, it’s bad for public safety and for the communities they return to.

Ryan Haylett

The impact isn’t spread evenly, either. Private prisons hit people of color the hardest, making existing racial inequalities in the justice system even worse.

Ryan Haylett

And when profit is the priority, public safety and community trust take a back seat.

Ryan Haylett

The government, meanwhile, just washes its hands of responsibility, letting private companies call the shots.

Ryan Haylett

Private prisons are a public disgrace!

Ryan Haylett

Riddled with neglect, abuse, unchecked greed, and systemic racism.

Ryan Haylett

They're not just failing to rehabilitate people—they're actively making things worse.

Ryan Haylett

From deadly healthcare failures to the lack of job training or mental health resources, these institutions create conditions that guarantee people cycle back in.

Ryan Haylett

And let’s be blunt: they weren’t designed to fix anything. They were designed to profit. When punishment becomes profitable, justice becomes impossible.

Ryan Haylett

We cannot regulate our way out of this. We can’t slap a Band-Aid on a business model that profits from human misery and expect it to magically turn ethical. The only real solution is abolition.

Ryan Haylett

No more privatization in the prison system. Period.

Ryan Haylett

We need to stop letting corporations run cages. We need to invest in systems that actually rehabilitate, restore, and reintegrate people, not warehouse them for profit. This is a moral crisis, and the longer we tolerate it, the more complicit we become.It’s time to end this experiment in cruelty.

Ryan Haylett

Abolish private prisons...

Ryan Haylett

before they bury more lives for a paycheck.